Today, I probably spent upwards of four and a half hours working with elderflowers: harvesting, shucking, and starting a batch of elderflower wine.
When I say "shucking," I mean the process of removing the tiny elderflower blossoms from their stems. The stems are quite bitter and, according to Wikipedia, contain cyanide... so we try to avoid them. Shucking is an activity best done with several people and AC/DC playing on the radio.
Or, as the case was this evening, while listening to Dean give a wine tasting to some tipsy people who were conducting a winery tour in the region. One guy was making meowing noises to the cat while the inebriated lady on the end said things like, "Which one is this? I hate this one! I need to remember this one, I like it so much! I'll be quiet now! Ooh, a puppy! Come here, puppy! She has grey whiskers, is she old?" as Brian, Autumn and I silently guffawed into our elderflower blossoms.
The elderflower isn't really worth a whole lot by itself, but Susan and Dean have managed to whip up an entire array of value-added elderflower products: wines, cordial, tea, and jelly among them. Speaking of which, I made some elderflower jelly the other day, with some blossoms sprinkled in.
Look how pretty!
The best part, of course, is that I took that picture and uploaded it to Picasa from my phone. Ain't technology a wonderful thing?
When I say "shucking," I mean the process of removing the tiny elderflower blossoms from their stems. The stems are quite bitter and, according to Wikipedia, contain cyanide... so we try to avoid them. Shucking is an activity best done with several people and AC/DC playing on the radio.
Or, as the case was this evening, while listening to Dean give a wine tasting to some tipsy people who were conducting a winery tour in the region. One guy was making meowing noises to the cat while the inebriated lady on the end said things like, "Which one is this? I hate this one! I need to remember this one, I like it so much! I'll be quiet now! Ooh, a puppy! Come here, puppy! She has grey whiskers, is she old?" as Brian, Autumn and I silently guffawed into our elderflower blossoms.
The elderflower isn't really worth a whole lot by itself, but Susan and Dean have managed to whip up an entire array of value-added elderflower products: wines, cordial, tea, and jelly among them. Speaking of which, I made some elderflower jelly the other day, with some blossoms sprinkled in.
Look how pretty!
The best part, of course, is that I took that picture and uploaded it to Picasa from my phone. Ain't technology a wonderful thing?
Beautimous! I have to say kudos for the delicious jelly! Mako and I both give it a hearty thumbs up! : D
ReplyDelete- Katie