The Astill Elderflower Champagne (special brew).

Today was a day that my family do every year. My grandad used to make elderflower champagne and it occured to ma famille that the creation of this elixir of life should carry on down the line in later generations. So it came to pass, that four years ago my family began making elderflower champagne, gathering the elderflower from bushes all around the place, taking advantage of the great bounty of nature and making the special (*wink*) elderflower champagne.

We set out to Syston (my Nan lives in this village) at about 10am to go to Meadow Lane, a long stretch of road where there was an abundant supply of elderflower. We got our scissors and our baskets and began gathering the main ingredient.
The picture below shows us cutting off the elderflower stems after coming back home because if you leave them on then your champagne will be a bit bitter.

Pollen was everywhere... it's a good thing that none of us suffer from any allergies or hay fever or we would be lying on the floor after a few minutes.

Elderflower champagne is an absolute treat. It tastes of wilderness and nature and smells of summer fetes and sounds like.... brilliance.
I'm not going to write down the accurate recipe that we use to make our taste masterpiece but here are the basic ingredients that you are meant to add to the mix,

• Elderflowers (Meeeehhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh).
• Vinegar.
• Sugar.
• Loads of lemon juice with some zest added in.
• Lots and lots of water, with hot water added to cold to help with the fermentation and the dissolving sugar.

After we had added all the ingredients my brother stirred everything with a spatula while I stood with his camera and took pictures of him. He is wasting his talents... he should have become a famous hand model. Look how skillfully he is posing his hand at the top of this shot.

We then we closed the lids of the fermentation thingy- ma- bobs and signed in contentment and sat down with a caffeine beverage and wrote down a diary entry on a piece of paper of the details of this years batch of awesomeness.

It will take three weeks until we can drink it. Elderflower is said to keep only for three months but over the last few years the elderflower batch that we make lasts us a year. 

My Mum, brother and I were also debating what we should call our elderflower champagne. Here are three of the things that we came up with,

• Momma Astill's Elderflower Champagne.
• Elly May's Elderflower Champagne. 
• Astill's Elderflower Champagne.

It's amazing the stuff you can get from nature. Thank you nature, much appreciated.

My new favourite smell... lemons.

Over and Out.

ED.