I’m putting in a marquette and king of the north grapes.
Ok, thanks. I meant do you have elderberries that work for your climate?
i have a wild one that i found growing alongside a old logging road. gave me a few cymes that actually ripened. taste was good but doesn’t have the huge cymes i had on the other 2. it still young though. only 2 years so it may do better as it gets older. its too bad the other 2 didn’t work out . they grew huge with nothing but wood chips around them. wylewood i bet was 12ft tall with 12in. cymes. they were beautiful bushes in bloom.
Ok, so hear me out. I actually prefer the flowers to the fruit for a cordial that goes amazing with sparking water (sodastream).
15 full heads makes 3.5-4 cups worth of flowers
6 cups of sugar
4 cups of water
30 ml of granulated citric acic (can find in health food stores)
1 lemon (unwaxed - can remove by pouring boiling water over them). Zest the skin then sliced into rounds.
Makes about 1.9L - can adjust water at the end prior to canning to make even 2L.
Pluck the flowers from the stems (I just gently pull with my fingers) and put aside. (some say to wash but I did not, simply picking out any visible bugs. Best to do soon after cutting as if you wait a couple hours and they start to wilt the flowers are harder to remove.
The flavor is in the pollen and I did not want to wash any away. The sterilization process will kill anything nasty.
Boil 4 cups of water and dissolve 6 cups of sugar. Allow to cool.
In a non-reactive bowl add the sugar water, 30 ml of granulated citric acid and the lemon zest and slices then the flowers.
Cover the bowl with a dishtowel and place in a cool place. Allow to sit for 2-3 days stirring once per day.
Strain through cheesecloth into sterilized jars and then water-bath can as you would any other liquid.
Does not matter if the fruit do not ripen if you harvest all the flowers.
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I’ve heard of this but never tried it. how do you process them? i just cut my big ones to the ground 2 weeks ago. i haven’t killed the roots yet so i could let one grow back just for this if its worth it. sparkling water isn’t seltzer is it? I’ve never seen it in the stores here.
Sorry, edited my post as I forgot to add the process. Sparkling water is just pure carbonated water, I use a Sodastream which is just CO2 injected freshly into water to carbonate it. Made fresh is way better than bottled water.
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ill give it a try. thanks!
Elderflower syrup is very worth it. Fantastic for colds and sniffles.
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The store here sells elderflower lemonade and it is to die for
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