Elderflower fizz take 2!

It's that time of year again, we have been looking forward to making our Elderflower wine as it was so lovely last year, we are making a bit more this year to hand out to friends & family as gifts.

We use the 'River Cottage' recipe as it is so simple to do & tasty.

We did go down to the lane behind the allotment last week on a lovely sunny day but the flowers were not quite out.

So we left it a week & went back on a not so sunny (rainy) day to gather the flowers.

As you can see we did Ok this time! There are still lots out there for you to give it a go, 

Enjoy it with some home grown strawberries, heaven!

Here is the  recipe...

• 4 litres hot water

• 700g sugar

• Juice and zest of four lemons

• 2 tablespoons white wine vinegar

• About 15 elderflower heads, in full bloom

• A pinch of dried yeast (you may not need this)

METHOD

How to make elderflower champagne

1. Put the hot water and sugar into a large container (a spotlessly clean bucket is good) and stir until the sugar dissolves, then top up with cold water so you have 6 litres of liquid in total.

2. Add the lemon juice and zest, the vinegar and the flower heads and stir gently.

3. Cover with clean muslin and leave to ferment in a cool, airy place for a couple of days. Take a look at the brew at this point, and if it's not becoming a little foamy and obviously beginning to ferment, add a pinch of yeast.

4. Leave the mixture to ferment, again covered with muslin, for a further four days. Strain the liquid through a sieve lined with muslin and decant into sterilised strong glass bottles with champagne stoppers (available from home-brewing suppliers) or Grolsch-style stoppers, or sterilized screw-top plastic bottles (a good deal of pressure can build up inside as the fermenting brew produces carbon dioxide, so strong bottles and seals are essential).

5. Seal and leave to ferment in the bottles for at least a week before serving, chilled. The champagne should keep in the bottles for several months. Store in a cool, dry place.

The Independent....The end of the good Life?

Have just been reading all about the proposed plans for allotments, below is a snippet from the independent newspaper........

Government paves way for sale of country's 300,000 allotments as plot-holders revolt over plan to scrap historic right to council land.

The century-old right of people to demand an allotment from their council may be abolished by the Government under plans to scale back red tape, it emerged yesterday.

Eric Pickles, the Communities Secretary, is examining plans to free local authorities from a 103-year-old obligation to provide plots of public land for cultivation by gardeners. The proposals could see local authorities, many of them strapped for cash under government-imposed cuts, selling off allotment land for social housing or even for profit to major companies.

The move has triggered a wave of protest from allotment society members and gardeners, who have lobbied Mr Pickles to rethink the plans.

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