Back in June I went full steam ahead into mass elderflower cordial production. This year's harvest was to be turned into 300 litres of cordial. I ordered 100kg of sugar, 5kg of citric acid, had an order for hundreds of organic lemons and oranges in the pipeline and was waiting for 600 half litre clear glass bottles to arrive. Bean, a friend from Gloucestershire who makes apple juice, (www.bensonsapplejuice.co.uk), had these 600 fine bottles in his barn and didn't need them as he uses green bottles. Perfect solution for me. So, there I was waiting in anticipation for these bottles to arrive by courier to finally discover that they had all smashed in transit…. Oh, lord, I panicked and tried to find the same bottles online and found that it's significantly cheaper to buy 1,300 bottles (i.e a whole pallet load) than to buy smaller amounts. I couldn't actually find the right kind of bottles in hundreds rather than thousands and I didn't feel quite ready for 1,300 bottles so the whole sorry affair was quashed. I made my usual 30 litres in my recycled bottles and left it at that.
So, I was left with 100 kg of sugar. I've been trying my hardest to make a dent in it with sloe gin, sloe vodka, blackberry whisky, blackberry and apple jam, coulis, syrup, berry cordial, berry vinegar, fruit leather, crab apple and elderberry jelly but I still have 75kg left…
Denise, our lovely helpx volunteer from New Zealand, used a thimble full in her sloe gin; just a drop in the sucrose ocean.
I've got two more 25kg bags like that one on the table waiting in the workshop… Hope the damp doesn't upset it too much. Come and share my sugar mountain. I wonder if it will keep until next year's elderflowers…. xx