30 May 2017
Elderflower Cordial
Elderflowers bobbing in the early summer breeze, wafting that distinctive aroma across the fields - its so good you wish you could bottle it.
Well you can, in the shape of Elderflower Cordial. This year the Elderflowers came on stream as we arrived in Thrupp in late May. And so, one hot windless day, we went in search of these fragrant flowers and returned with a good sized carrier bag which were promptly steeped in hot water and sugar and left to soak overnight.
The next day the resulting cordial was boiled abd bottled in sterilised jars but then came the snag. Cordials have a very short shelf life unless they are pasturised, and that means immersing the bottles in a vat of near boiling water (but not boiling) and then maintain that temperature for 30 minutes. To achieve this feat we have a fancy version of a tea urn you find in church halls, but one which carfully regulates temperature and time so all you have to do is plug it in, flick the switch and wait.
Oh that it was so easy when travelling. Generating lots of electricity, enough to power a big heating element is no mean feat. We do have a 2kw generator which we use to power the printer, and I figured it would be good for the boiler too. Wrong! I set it all up on the towpath and it was immediately clear it was going to struggle. The overload light went into a state of permanent flickering and it emitted a plasticky smell as the engine roared at full throttle.
Apart from shattering the peace of Thrupp on a windless sunday afternoon, it was unclear if the genny would last stay the course. Then Gary and Della from Muleless came to the rescue and offered to let us tap into their huge battery bank and power generation capacity which would probably give Sizewell B a run for its money! In no time the cordial was pasturised and the first bottles sold.
The lesson from this is not to make cordials unless we have a proper 240 volt power supply on tap.