Elderflower wine

This is the flower used to make elderflower wine.

My dear old grandmother used to take us out into the subshine to pick 8 elderflower heads. We then had a washed out ice cream tub which she told us held a gallon of water! Now at 8 and 9 years old we believed this tub held a gallon of water there was no reason then to disbelieve. We also needed some sugar about 2lb and a squirt of lemon juice. What we did was put the washed elderflower heads, our 'gallon' of cold water, the 2lb of sugar and the lemon juice in the ice cream tub. We stirred until the sugar dissolved which took ages in cold water, then we put the lid on and put the mixture away for four weeks, longer if we could wait. At the end of the four weeks or more we ended up with fizxy elderflower champaigne. Was very tasty too.

It is only now that I doubt the quantity given we only ever seemed to have enough for a glass each. There were only 3 of us!

At the time this was a great activity in the summer with granny. I have since used this recipe with my own little addition of YEAST! My grandmother didn't tell us about that. I have made one or two gallons of wine and they were pretty nice too.