I googled around for some pictures of elder but since there is poisonous elder species, I wanted to be absolutely sure before I went out and picked some. My boyfriend was pretty sure it had grown elder at his old daycare and so we went there and took home a leaf to compare it with pictures online. Once we decided that the leaf was common elder, we discovered that elder were everywhere! I had thought that you had to look some to find the elder, but it turned out that we have a large elder tree just outside the door, and another 3-4 trees within a radius of 20 meters.
Elderflower lemonade
40 pcs elderflower
4 lemons
3 l of water
75 g citric acid
2 kg powdered sugar
1. Rinse the flowers well in cold water. Wash the lemons and cut them into slices. Boil water, lemon slices, citric acid and sugar
2. Pour the hot mixture over the elder flowers
3. Cover the container and let chill for about 4 days
4. Strain the juice and pour it into clean bottles. Keep the juice in the refrigerator or freezer.
Elderflower Champagne
15 pc elderflower
1 cup granulated sugar
1 tablespoon white wine vinegar
2.25 l of water
half a lemon
To do this:
1. Clear the elderflowers from insects that may exist among them, but do not rinse them. Mix sugar, vinegar and water in a large mixing bowl.
2. Wash the lemon and peel of the outermost of the lemon zest, squeeze out the juice and add lemon zest and lemon juice in the bowl along with Elder flowers
3. Stir and let stand covered in a Day
4. Strain the juice and pour it into clean bottles with screw caps. Do not fill the bottles up to the brim
5. Let stand at cool room temperature 3 to 4 days. Check one of the bottles to see if the beverage have become carbonated. If they have become carbonated, then put the bottles in the fridge, otherwise let them be left at room temperature for another few days. Then check again.
6. Served chilled. The champagne should be drunk up within 3 weeks from date of manufacture.