Elderflower Champagne

One of the great bonuses of my new life in the countryside is that I'm becoming much more in tune with the seasons and their produce. When I lived in London I liked the idea of trying to eat seasonally, but I didn't know when most fruit and vegetables were best to buy. My local supermarkets didn't help their customers to live seasonally: like indulgent parents they provided us with what we wanted, whenever we wanted it. For instance: "Shellfish all year round? No problem!" Little did I realise that you're only supposed to eat shellfish in months that contain the letter R.

But since I've been living at Newhouse Farm I'm lucky enough to have nature on my doorstep. I've been eating seasonally because it's hard not to: wherever possible we harvest and consume vegetables, fruits, meat and eggs that we've produced ourselves. As Dick Strawbridge says, this is a place where we can measure the food miles in a matter of yards! It's common sense really: local produce eaten at the time of year it's in season tastes great.

Which brings me to the reason why I set my alarm for 6am one morning in early June. Now that the days are longer I've been trying to wake earlier to take advantage of the beautiful weather and longer days, but old London habits die hard and I still find it difficult to wake up at 'Sparrow o'clock' (ie: very early!). However on this particular morning I had no problem in springing out of bed as soon as the alarm rang. Why? Because I was about to make some alcohol! And not just any alcohol. Champagne!

In the previous few days the elder trees dotted around the farm had covered themselves in white elderflowers. These otherwise insignificant looking trees were now weighed down with clusters of blossom, each cluster containing thousands of tiny flowers that produced a beautiful fragrance. James told me that if we got up early enough in the morning we could harvest some of the elderflowers when they were at their most fragrant, capturing their smell at it's prime in order to create elderflower champagne.

By 6.10am James and I were heading towards the elderflower tree carrying a tall ladder, 2 large colanders and a pair of scissors. The lowest branches of the elder were barely within my reach, but with a bit of a stretch I cleared them of their flowers. We had still collected nowhere near enough, so it was time for one of us to venture up the ladder to reach the higher flowers. It doesn't take much to make James sneeze as he's allergic to many types of dust and fur, so the cascade of elderflowers and their pollen had resulted in him being consumed by a sneezing frenzy. He was clearly unfit for balancing on top of the ladder, which meant that the only person who could do it was... gulp... me.

I didn't used to be scared of heights, but climbing to the top of a wobbly ladder with nothing to hold on to except for fragile elderflowers is actually a bit scary! Whatsmore, although James was holding the base of the ladder for security he kept letting rip ginormous pollen induced sneezes that made it teeter even more perilously from side to side. Admittedly the ladder in the photo above doesn't look very big, although we did swap it for a much larger one later on. Honest! It was quite a slow process collecting the elderflowers, as unfortunately the tree was home to an investation of black flies. I'd set my sights on a particularly beautiful blossom, reach out to grasp it, only to discover that a hundred odd black flies were happily sucking the juice out of its base already.

Eventually we managed to fill 4 colanders worth of blackfly-free elderflowers. We headed to the kitchen, brushing the tiny confetti-like elderflower blossoms out of our hair. Now it was time to turn flowers into booze! I'd never made my own alcohol before and was amazed that this mountain of flowers could actually turn into a drink that would not only taste nice but could also get me drunk. We took a large fermenting barrel and put all the elderflowers inside, mixing in 3 gallons of water, some white wine vinegar, sugar, lemon zest and lemon juice. I shoved my arm into the barrel and mixed the concoction thoroughly, took a good deep sniff of the delicious fragrance, and then popped the lid on. That was it! All we had to do was leave it for 24 hours before sieving the liquid into bottles.

The following day some of my friends from London came to visit the farm for the first time, and we got them to help pour the pale yellow liquid through a sieve and into large reused plastic bottles. Apparently the elderflower champagne naturally carbonates - a process I find absolutely extraordinary - and in a couple of weeks it will be ready for drinking. But as I'm not actually drinking alcohol at the moment, the elderflower champagne will have to wait a week longer until I return to the world of alcohol on my birthday. I have no way of knowing quite how potent this champagne will be, but to be on the safe side I think I'd better prepare a hangover remedy from the medicinal garden just in case!

Elderflower Champagne Recipe
The recipe we used for making elderflower champagne is as follows, but remember you'll need to pick the elderflowers soon before their season has passed.

• 1 or 2 large heaped colanders of freshly gathered elderflowers (gathered early in the morning when they're at their most fragrant)
• A gallon of cold water
• 500g sugar
• 2 tablespoons white wine vinegar
• Juice and rind of a lemon
• Large fermenting barrel or other sealable container

Mix all the ingredients thoroughly together, leave in a cool place for 24 hours, sieve and pour the liquid into sealable bottles. The champagne will be ready to drink in 2 weeks. Be carefuly not to leave the bottles for too long after that as apparently they can explode! We tripled this recipe and now have 7 large plastic bottles of elderflower champagne starting to carbonate in the kitchen. I'll let you know what it tastes like. Hic!