Elderflower Syrup

The recipes I found for this call it a cordial or cough syrup. So I am just going to call it syrup.

I've made elderflower jelly in the past, and this is similar to that recipe (see that post here). According to what I have read online, elderflowers are credited with many medicinal properties. I can't speak to that, but my bush, which is literally right outside my bedroom window, had so many blooms this year I thought I'd try making something different with them.

Blooms in the bucket

I picked a good many flower heads, probably 40-45 of various sizes. I shook them gently to get rid of any little bugs, then brought the bucketful inside to cut off the small florets.

After removing the larger stems

Online recipes vary on how to prepare the blossoms--some say to just leave the flowerheads whole, others say to remove the smaller florets. I chose the latter because sometimes the stems of flowers and berries can be bitter, and even toxic.

Then I sliced 4 large lemons and added to the flowers in the bowl. I covered the mixture with warm (not hot) water, covered it and let it sit  at room temperature for a day.

When I got home from storytelling yesterday evening I strained the liquid through cheesecloth twice to be sure all the tiny bits were removed. Then I added 12 ounces of sugar per cup of juice, and 3 tablespoons of lemon juice. I brought this mixture to a boil, stirring at first until the sugar was dissolved.

While that was heating, I sterilized my jars and lids. As soon as my concoction was hot, I ladled it into the hot jars, put the caps on, and popped them into a boiling water bath for 20 minutes.

And done!

How does it taste? Well, sweet and lemony with a light floral scent and flavor.

With ice and a little white wine--experimenting!

It's very sweet, which I suppose a syrup should be, right? As a cordial I would expect this to have an alcoholic content, but it did not ferment so...however, the recipe I followed called it a cordial. Interesting. I think I might want to make it with honey next time, instead of all that sugar. And maybe add horehound, mint or some other herb to it. What would you add?

I mixed it with a little white wine to see how that would taste, and it's not bad, but still too sweet for my taste. I will let you know later on how well it works when we use it for coughs and colds this coming winter.



Copyright Susanna Holstein. All rights reserved. No Republication or Redistribution Allowed without attribution to Susanna Holstein.

Grapes and Elderberries and Jelly, Oh My!

Daughter-in-law Jaime and her two children came to visit this weekend with a goal: learn to make jelly. The grapes were picked and in the cellar, waiting for her. The elderberries hung on the bushes, waiting for her. The kitchen was ready. She brought jars, sugar, pectin and a determination to conquer the mysteries of jelly making. We had a wonderful, sticky, hard-work time.

The photos below are of the elderberry jelly-making process.

Berries in the basket, ready to be washed and stripped from the clusters for cooking.

In the kettle, the berries are brought to a boil and simmered for 10 minutes.

Then strained through the jelly bag. This set-up was my mother's and I wonder how I did without it for so many years. It's very handy little tool and the legs unscrew for easy storage.

Someone's little fingers were in the sugar! It takes a lot of sugar for jelly--3 cups of juice (and a quarter cup of lemon juice) needs 4 1/2 cups of sugar.

The juice goes back into the pot, and the sugar is added after the juice reaches a full rolling boil. Then it's cooked and stirred until it returns to a full boil, and stirred for one more minute at a full boil. Jelly and jams like to boil over at this stage so the cook better be standing there stirring unless she wants to clean up a sticky stove.

After removing from the heat after the one-minute hard boil, the jelly is stirred and skimmed and allowed to cool for 5 minutes before jarring up. We sterilized the jars and lids in boiling water. My mother always said that skimming removes any impurities from the jelly. I'm not sure if that's true; some batches will have a lot of foam on them to be skimmed, other batches will have hardly any. It's a mystery to me how and why this happens--anyone know?

We use a canning funnel and ladle to jar up the jelly. Then we wiped around the rims of each jar to remove and little drips that might cause the jars not to seal, put the lids on, tighten them ,and flip the jars over for about 10 minutes to help them seal. After 10 minutes, we flip them upright, and voila! Jelly!

This is part of what we made this weekend. (That's sugar all over the table--we did make a nice mess in the kitchen!)

We ended up with 20 pints of grape jam, 3 of elderberry. After Jaime left I made some mixed batches of white grape and elderberry, and one of white grape, elderberry and a little orange juice because I didn't have quite enough of the other two for a full batch. This last one is very good-a nice tang to it. I made 8 or 9 pints of the mixed jellies.

Today it is recommended by food experts that jams and jellies be processed in the canner. Refer to a canning guide for recommended times and methods for different types of preserves.

Blackberries, Raspberries, Daylilies and Elderbloom

Random thoughts tonight:

According to my neighbors, the blackberries should be a good harvest this year. It did not rain on June 1 or June 2. Opinions differ as to which date is the one that determines whether the berries will be plentiful, but since it didn't rain on either day, I think we're safe.


Assuming, of course, that we get some rain in the next two months. This is the driest spring I can remember since the early 1980's when we grew tobacco.


I found the first ripe wild raspberry yesterday on the canes along our driveway. Just one, but there are several red ones. They're very small this year because of the lack of rain.



The elderberries are in full bloom, and I'm noting the location of accessible bushes. Last year the birds beat me to them but this year I am determined to get some for jelly. Local folks say that cows' milk production drops when the elderberries bloom and I know that it was true when we owned cows. Probably it was something else that they ate that made their milk drop, and the flowers just happened to bloom at that time.

I remember making elderberry bloom fritters. We had more elderberry plants around here then and didn't mind using the flowers instead of the berries. We made elderberry flower wine too and it was one of my favorites. The recipe was in an old paperback book that used simple ingredients and equipment. We liked it best mixed with the tart blackberry wine. The combination created a jewel-like red that was a hit with anyone who tried it. That was 25 years ago, but I can still recall the zing of that wine.

Daylily are blooming now and their flowers are good for fritters too, but my favorite way to fix them is to batter dip and fry individual petals, then dip in salsa.

I'm hoping for good berries this year. I need to make more jam because when our sons come home, they usually take a few jars home with them. Maybe I'll be able to mail some to Iraq, if I use plenty of bubble wrap. But I'll be sure to keep a few jars here for the welcome home breakfast.