{"id":1329,"date":"2013-07-26T23:16:25","date_gmt":"2013-07-26T22:16:25","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.mycrosspatch.com\/blog\/?p=1329"},"modified":"2013-07-26T23:21:59","modified_gmt":"2013-07-26T22:21:59","slug":"elderflower-wine","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.mycrosspatch.com\/blog\/2013\/07\/26\/elderflower-wine\/","title":{"rendered":"Elderflower wine"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<!-- Quick Adsense WordPress Plugin: http:\/\/quickadsense.com\/ -->\n<div class=\"48e5397a39c6ea4ae31e40d674b2fea7\" data-index=\"1\" style=\"float: none; margin:10px 0 10px 0; text-align:center;\">\n<script async src=\"https:\/\/pagead2.googlesyndication.com\/pagead\/js\/adsbygoogle.js\"><\/script>\r\n<!-- july 2019 -->\r\n<ins class=\"adsbygoogle\"\r\n     style=\"display:block\"\r\n     data-ad-client=\"ca-pub-9380921822254336\"\r\n     data-ad-slot=\"9798147637\"\r\n     data-ad-format=\"auto\"\r\n     data-full-width-responsive=\"true\"><\/ins>\r\n<script>\r\n     (adsbygoogle = window.adsbygoogle || []).push({});\r\n<\/script>\n<\/div>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>My Dearest has recently become a wine maker, needs must when the money runs out. I thought I\u2019d join him, so we have set up a micro brewery in the kitchen. My first effort was to use a kit for Elderflower Wine, but I could not help feeling I was cheating; a can of Sancerre grape concentrate and a packet of dried Elder flowers doesn\u2019t really leave me feeling the joy of the hunter gatherer filling her store cupboards with God\u2019s Bounty plucked from the hedgerow.<\/p>\n<figure id=\"attachment_1330\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-1330\" style=\"width: 640px\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\"><a href=\"http:\/\/www.mycrosspatch.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/07\/1-IMG_4657.jpg\"><img decoding=\"async\" loading=\"lazy\" class=\"size-full wp-image-1330\" alt=\"Wild Elderflowers hand picked \" src=\"http:\/\/www.mycrosspatch.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/07\/1-IMG_4657.jpg\" width=\"640\" height=\"427\" srcset=\"http:\/\/www.mycrosspatch.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/07\/1-IMG_4657.jpg 640w, http:\/\/www.mycrosspatch.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/07\/1-IMG_4657-300x200.jpg 300w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 709px) 85vw, (max-width: 909px) 67vw, (max-width: 984px) 61vw, (max-width: 1362px) 45vw, 600px\" \/><\/a><figcaption id=\"caption-attachment-1330\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Wild Elderflowers hand picked<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>I dug out an old book I had on country wine making, and found a recipe for elderflower wine that called for the gathering of real Elderflowers in the byways and field margins. We walked along a local cycle path well away from any road, and cut only two heads from each Elder tree (Sambucus Nigra) leaving plenty of flowers to produce berries for the birds (or maybe elderberry wine). There were so many Elder trees we only had to walk a few hundred yards to collect enough.<\/p>\n<figure id=\"attachment_1332\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-1332\" style=\"width: 258px\" class=\"wp-caption alignright\"><a href=\"http:\/\/www.mycrosspatch.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/07\/1-IMG_4812.jpg\"><img decoding=\"async\" loading=\"lazy\" class=\"size-medium wp-image-1332\" alt=\"to a pint of elderflowers, add the juice and rind of two lemons\" src=\"http:\/\/www.mycrosspatch.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/07\/1-IMG_4812-258x300.jpg\" width=\"258\" height=\"300\" srcset=\"http:\/\/www.mycrosspatch.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/07\/1-IMG_4812-258x300.jpg 258w, http:\/\/www.mycrosspatch.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/07\/1-IMG_4812.jpg 551w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 258px) 85vw, 258px\" \/><\/a><figcaption id=\"caption-attachment-1332\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">to a pint of elderflowers, add the juice and rind of two lemons<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>Back at the ranch, a pint of fresh Elderflowers, sugar, water, vinegar, lemons and yeast were put in a bucket to macerate for a few days before I strained the flowers off and putting the liquid in a demijohn.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>Normally wine will take 10-14 days to brew depending on the ambient temperature and then stop. My wine has been has been bubbling away for more than 4 weeks and still going. I suspect it will be rocket fuel and will need to be served in thimbles.<\/p>\n<figure id=\"attachment_1331\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-1331\" style=\"width: 200px\" class=\"wp-caption alignleft\"><a href=\"http:\/\/www.mycrosspatch.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/07\/1-IMG_4678.jpg\"><img decoding=\"async\" loading=\"lazy\" class=\"size-medium wp-image-1331\" alt=\"still bubbling away\" src=\"http:\/\/www.mycrosspatch.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/07\/1-IMG_4678-200x300.jpg\" width=\"200\" height=\"300\" srcset=\"http:\/\/www.mycrosspatch.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/07\/1-IMG_4678-200x300.jpg 200w, http:\/\/www.mycrosspatch.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/07\/1-IMG_4678.jpg 427w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 200px) 85vw, 200px\" \/><\/a><figcaption id=\"caption-attachment-1331\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">still bubbling away<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>I\u2019ve been offered the flowers from an ornamental Elder, but I\u2019m not sure it\u2019s a good idea, flavour wise, we\u2019ll see how this batch turns out. I\u2019ve dried the excess flowers, in case I want to make some more before next summer.<\/p>\n<figure id=\"attachment_1333\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-1333\" style=\"width: 640px\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\"><a href=\"http:\/\/www.mycrosspatch.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/07\/1-IMG_4845.jpg\"><img decoding=\"async\" loading=\"lazy\" class=\"size-full wp-image-1333\" alt=\"ornamental Elder smells lemony,\" src=\"http:\/\/www.mycrosspatch.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/07\/1-IMG_4845.jpg\" width=\"640\" height=\"427\" srcset=\"http:\/\/www.mycrosspatch.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/07\/1-IMG_4845.jpg 640w, http:\/\/www.mycrosspatch.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/07\/1-IMG_4845-300x200.jpg 300w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 709px) 85vw, (max-width: 909px) 67vw, (max-width: 984px) 61vw, (max-width: 1362px) 45vw, 600px\" \/><\/a><figcaption id=\"caption-attachment-1333\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">ornamental Elder smells lemony<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>In the meantime we have a very satisfactory \u201ccellar\u201d developing which hopefully will be ready to drink by Christmas, Happy Days!<\/p>\n\n<div style=\"font-size: 0px; height: 0px; line-height: 0px; margin: 0; padding: 0; clear: both;\"><\/div>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>a can of Sancerre grape concentrate and a packet of dried Elder flowers doesn\u2019t really leave me feeling the joy of the hunter gatherer filling her store cupboards with God\u2019s Bounty plucked from the hedgerow.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[11,323,5,1],"tags":[440,438,441,439,443,437,446,444,445,436,442],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.mycrosspatch.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1329"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.mycrosspatch.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.mycrosspatch.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.mycrosspatch.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.mycrosspatch.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1329"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"http:\/\/www.mycrosspatch.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1329\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1338,"href":"http:\/\/www.mycrosspatch.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1329\/revisions\/1338"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.mycrosspatch.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1329"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.mycrosspatch.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1329"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.mycrosspatch.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1329"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}