Elderflower champagne

Spring has really started now, and in a month or so it will be  elderberry blossoms  time! You can find   Elder-flower in a lot of places along the side of the road, they are very fast growers and give lots of flowers that produce a fresh smell that you can bottle as a syrup and even turn into Elder-flower champagne with a very little bit of alcohol.

Elderflower champagne

Pick enough elder-flowers to fill a 5 liter pan or bucket, and add 5 liter water and 500 gr. sugar, a handful of raisins and a whole lemon in pieces. Do not rinse the flowers beforehand, this will leave less flavor. The more pollen the flowers have the better the taste. 

Cover bucket with cloth and set aside for a few days, stirring occasionally.

After a few days the fermentation process will have started. Pour the mixture through a sieve into bottles, that you first cleaned and rinsed with soda in hot water. (the caps or corks as well)

After a few days open a bottle to check if the fermentation process already made the champagne bubble. You want just a little fizz, set it aside again. If it's a lot, open all your bottles. Release some pressure to keep it safe...  

elderflower sirup

Spring has really started now, and in a month or so it will be  elderberry blossoms  time! You can find   Elder-flower in a lot of places along the side of the road, they are very fast growers and give lots of flowers that produce a fresh smell that you can bottle as a syrup and even turn into Elder-flower champagne with a very little bit of alcohol.

To make syrup pick about 20 (or more!) elderberry blossoms when they are open and full of pollen and put in a bucket with enough water to keep them fully submerged. I usually put a plate on top to keep them under water. 

Add a sliced lemon to the water and leave for a night and a day. 

Then pour through a sieve into a pan and add a generous amount of sugar, at least about 500 gr. per liter. The sugar will make the syrup sweet but also conserve it, so don't try to be healthy and use too little. You will need less syrup when you use enough sugar to make it.

Cook the mixture to allow the sugar to dissolve fully. 

In the meantime sterilize enough empty and rinsed (wine)bottles by submerging them in a sink filled with very hot water with soda. Always do this, even when you are using new bottles, to make sure your syrup will keep and not become moldy...   

Pour the hot syrup in the bottles, using a funnel (also sterilized in the hot soda-water) 

Close bottles and set aside for later use. After opening a bottle keep refrigerated.

Pour some cold water in the pan that you used for cooking and drink your first syrup immediately, it has a very delicate and good taste! 

portrethokje photo's

portrethokje photo's, a set on Flickr.

photo's made at portrethokje, Museum Rotterdam, museumnacht 10-03-2012

Portrethokje @ Museum Rotterdam

English:

Museum night in Rotterdam: My portrethokje was located at Museum Rotterdam, at the entry of the exhibition Family Portrait, I drew 46 visitors from 20 until 2 o'clock in the morning.

All photos will be shown here after a quick photoshop session later today :-)

Did I draw you and do you want to receive your photo print-sized? send me an email at odrada(at)box.nl

Nederlands:

Tijdens de museumnacht stond mijn portrethokje bij Museum Rotterdam, bij de tentoonstelling Familieportret. Ik heb tussen 8 en 2 uur 46 mensen geportretteerd. Alle foto's worden zsm op deze blog geplaatst, bent u zelf geportretteerd en wilt u de foto op printformaat hebben? stuur een mailtje naar odrada(at)box.nl. 

bedankt allemaal, het was een super avond!