Cider vinegar

I use a lot of cider vinegar, for salad dressing, cooking and this year in making Shrub (cider vinegar and honey). Instead of buying, I will convert last year’s excess cider (from home grown apple and wild black berry) to vinegar. 
It is pretty easy, buy a vinegar mother, let it float in the jar of cider, as it is an aerobic conversion, cover the jar with a muslin cloth. Keep in a cool dark place and  wait for 3 months.

Wild rose shrub

I have been pickling wild Rugosa rose petal in cider vinegar, lovely colour and perfume. I take some out to mix with raw honey to make shrub, as a handy gift to see a friend. To be mixed with water to make a beautiful pink fragrance drink.

Victoria plum

The 2 Victoria plum trees are, as usual, producing loads of dark purple skin, juicy sweet sour plums. We have been eating them instead of drinking water but still a lot needs to be processed. 

I made plum liquor, simply adding halved plums in Gin/Vodka, sweeten with honey, spiced with star anise  ginger and black pepper. 

Also lacto-fermented some, by mixing in 2% its weight of salt, pack in a jar and hold down with a weight. In the second day, the plums will ooze out enough juice to cover itself. After 7 days of fermentation, the plum are savoury and sour, like a mildly salted plum with a firmer crunchier texture. Nice to go with meat dishes. 

Another way is to make a shrub, infusing halved plum with 1:1 raw honey cider vinegar mixture. After a week, there will be be crunchy pickled plum to eat and a nice syrup to use in drinks or in vinaigrette dressing. 

Finally have also been baking them as dessert, half them and place in baking dish, sprinkle freshly grinned cardamon powder and drizzle honey on top. Bake at 200˚C for 20 minutes and rest in the oven until cold, seriously delicious with yogurt. 

Basil shrub

Shrub is a new infusion I learn to do this year, the base is a mixture of equal parts of raw honey and cider vinegar. 

Made a basil shrub as the Sabertooth basil is very vigorous and there are a lot to harvest. After 5 days infusing as much basil leaves as I could push in, in the honey vinegar mixture, it is ready to bottle. 

Shrub can be used in making vinaigrette dressing or diluted with water to make a refreshing drink, tasty and subtle basil fragrance. 

Rugosa rose petals

From end of spring until now I have been collecting Rugosa rose petals, the wild variety of rose with lovely fragrance and colour. They are air dried next to the window for 3 days and now have collected 2 big jars. These can be used to make hot drink, in dessert and stews. 

Some petals are infused in diluted vodka and in cider vinegar. Will see later on how they taste like. 

Rose liqueur

In rainy days, wild rose petals are wet and take a long time to dry out. So I thought of another way to preserve them, macerating in vodka. 

Instead of using 37% vodka, I diluted with water to bring alcohol level down to around 20%. Still well enough for preservation, but with more water, the colour of petals come off easily. I am going to have a rosy red liqueur in 3 months time. 

I will flavour with some honey and may be with ginger juice too, will see when it is ready. 

Flower and herb fermentation

elderflower vinegar

elderflower

elderflower

chive flower

chive flower

elderflower lemon

chive flower vinegar

honey fermented elderflower lemon ginger

chive flower vinegar

honey fermented rosemary lemon ginger

2026年5月30日 賞花惜花

細香葱花色彩紋理都精巧，似朶朶絲花，最方便用來裝飾餸菜、pizza，好看且有蒜香味。花期短，用不完今回學習浸醋，把味道色彩留下。

Elderflower 飲品是多年前英國朋友的介紹，那幽幽青香十分配合夏日天氣。自己試做才知道，一定要下足夠檸檬汁，那香氣才能散發出來，喝時不酸，好奇妙。

花多，又剪下好些浸在醋中，反正夏季常做沙律、漬物，將會有不同花香的醋可用。

自四月中野玫瑰不停開花，香氣撲鼻，花朶只盛開兩天，一向在黃昏，蜜蜂採蜜後收成花瓣，剪走花托不令其長果子，就會繼續長出花蕾，直至夏末。花瓣泡滾水，顏色和香氣都脫落，喝下有益身心。有多的風乾收藏，將來泡茶和送禮都好用。

Elderflower is blooming well, time to do my yearly honey fermented elderflower tonic, this time I added sliced non bitter lemon and ginger in the fermentation, all in one. 

Also learned to marinate elderflower in raw vinegar, well, while there is a lot of flowers around, and I use vinegar in salad and pickling, no harm in having more flavours. 

Chive flower is so pretty, delicate purple with that fine line in the middle of the petal, looks like a silk flower. I like to use them to decorate a dish and also on pizza, for the presentation and a mild onion flavour. As there are more than I can use, I infuse some in vinegar to use later. 

Rosemary is growing so well and there is more than I can cook. Already using a lot every time there is a bbq, but still can’t catch up with it’s growth. Saw this recipe of healthy tonic of rosemary, ginger and lemon syrup, instead of using sugar syrup to infuse, I use raw honey, that I have a lot too, to make a fermented version. 

In raw vinegar and in raw honey, all bottles bubbling away, satisfying my plan to have more fermented food/drink available for daily use. 

Hawthorn flower and berry tincture

Now that hawthorn flower is blooming beautifully, it is time to filter out the bottle from last year, of hawthorn flower and berry tincture, and make a new batch. We have a small glass most nights, good for the heart in traditional medicine.

We have planted many hawthorn as hedge since moving here. It is great to see that they are mature enough to flower, meaning I can harvest from home this year on. 

Place hawthorn flower in a preserving jar, top with 40% alcohol, vodka/gin etc. Rest in a cool dry place until berry season. 

Wild Rose Rugosa

This is the rose variety I like most, the wild type, not the Tea rose type which is a hybrid of wild rose with camellia. For rose Rugosa, the plant grows in all direction into a natural rounded shape over the years, no pruning needed. Dense bright green leaves, flowers comes throughout the season as long as you de-head regularly. 

I have been keeping the petals for various uses, rose jam, rose syrup, rose tincture, dried rose buds etc. This year I will collect the petal every evening (after bees have their nectar), and add boiling water to make a tisane to drink, for the medicinal benefits. 

The pink colour of the water only comes after adding a few drops of lemon juice.

Cleaver drink

A very wild and invasive herb in the field, with tender squarish stem that stick to your clothes. Just learn that it is also a traditional medicinal herb that supports the lymphatic system, reduces swelling, and flushes toxins via the kidneys. 
Sounded good and since there is a lot around, no trouble to pick some fresh every day to make a drink by steeping in cold water. 

Wild blackberry cider

With a good apple harvest this year, after giving a lot away, eating a lot, there is still a lot that needs to be processed. 
So decided to  made cider, first use the juicer to press apple juice, then add neutral wine yeast to kick start fermentation. 
This time decided to play with adding a big bowl of wild blackberries to cider to make it more complex. 
After 2 months, the juice at the top is clear and we tasted the drink. Beautiful colour and a lovely cherry aroma, the taste is a bit more complex than normal cider but still quite sour. Could taste much better drinking it cold during summer. 

Apple, pear, wild black berry cider

Too many apple and pear, even after eating, cooking and giving away! Last resort is to juice and make cider. This time having a twist, adding a good kg of wild black berry for extra colour and flavour. 

I use a neural wine yeast to kick start fermentation. To do this, warm a small amount of juice to around 35˚C, add a tsp of wine yeast (I store it in the freezer), stir and wait. In around 15 minutes, the yeast is activated and blooms. 

Pour into juice and shake well. Keep at room temperature and give it a stir/shake every day for the first week. Traditionally people start to drink this in December, but should be ready to consume when bubbling stopped. 

Sloe gin

When we moved into this house 5 years ago, we planted a few hundred trees and shrubs along the land boundary. The shrubs were mostly 5ft twigs when we planted them, and now they blossom into bushy plants all by themselves. 
A lot of the shrubs are fruit baring plants, like hawthorn and black thorn, a type of wild plum called sloe. The blackthorns are having some big fat sloes, they are very sour and astringent to eat, but traditionally used to be infused in gin. Which of course I can’t help myself to collect a good handful and add to the bottle of gin. Will check the flavour at the end of the year. 

Green Victoria plum pickle and liqueur

Victoria plum trees are bearing a few huge fruits each on their branches, one branch is too heavy and broken. The plums are hard green and very sour. In order not to waste them, I cut some into slices and pickle in dark miso, the others cut into halves and made Japanese plum wine. Basically put into big preserving jar, add sugar to taste and cover with alcohol (I used Gin).

After a day the miso pickled plum is a nice condiment as the sourness is removed. 

For plum wine after a week, the plums shrink a lot and I start enjoying it with an ice cube and soda water to make a cooling cocktail, mildly sweet and sour, very refreshing. 

 

Elderflower cordial gin tonic

Mini heat wave now, 25 ˚C plus, time to enjoy ice cold sundowner. I used elderflower cordial ice cubes to make gin tonic, nice.