the green gal

How to make elderflower cordial

I'm becoming quite fond of making edible treats from my local hedgerows. In the autumn I make blackberry jam and blackberry vodka and I'm summoning up the courage to snip some nettles to make tea. This week I thought I'd give elderflower cordial a go. I used the recipe from July's Country Homes and Interiors magazine and although it stated that 850ml of cordial would be produced, I somehow ended up with more than a litre…

In my haste to make, I forgot to take any pics of the elderflower, you can find this image on flickr here

It's really very simple. All you need to do is boil 600ml water in a pan and add 900g caster sugar, stirring until it dissolves. Take it off the heat and leave it to cool for about ten minutes. In the meantime, grate the zest of one lemon and juice it. You will need to have cut ten elderflower heads, give them a thorough look over to pick out any little bugs who have come along for the ride. Add the elderflower heads, the lemon zest and juice and 45g of citric acid (bought from a chemist). Give it a good stir, cover and leave overnight.

Then, simply sieve and pour into sterilised bottles. It should keep for about a month, I'm storing mine in the fridge. It's pretty strong stuff so you only need a little added to water, soda or anything else you fancy flavouring.

This has instantly become my favourite soft summer drink and I think Pimm's is hard to beat as a sunshiney grown-up tipple. What's your favourite beverage on a hot summer's day?

PS I've just added a few new items to my etsy shop, check out the bunting bags when you get a mo…

A-bunting we will go

As you know, I like bunting. I don't know why. I don't have childhood memories of village fetes adorned with bunting to reminisce about but for some reason I can't get enough of it!

Last autumn I collected fallen leaves, pegged them to a length of string and hey presto, leaf bunting! This was part of an article for Daisy Green Magazine on bringing autumn inside.

For Hallowe'en I made this little length of felt bunting for the The Copy and Paste Project's Trick or Treat blog party.

At Christmas, I made this paper bunting inspired by Kirsty's fabulous tutorial as part of her and Julie's 12 Days of Christmas workshop.

And today I have made more! Yesterday I found swatch books in the remnant pile at my local fabric shop and snapped them up, each swatch is big enough to make one 'bunt'. (I do believe in a previous blog conversation it was decided 'bunt' is the singular for one flag of bunting. I refuse to use the word flag or pennant, they don't do justice to the loveliness of bunting.)

Excuse the ropey photos, it has rained heavily all day so I couldn't shoot them outside.

Do you like my attempt at arty photography? Also known as shooting at an angle to try to do justice to the bunting.

And just to finish off my bunting bonanza, here is a mosaic devoted to the lovely stuff.

1. Dream in progress... part 10, 2. Boo Bunting Banner for Halloween, 3. Handmade Bunting 11.5 feet/ 3.5 meters long Red summer, 4. bunting, 5. bunting, 6. Christmas Tree Bunting, 7. delicate newspaper bunting, 8. Matryoshka cushions & colourful bunting, 9. yeah! bunting-keh!, 10. Bunting.And.Lavender, 11. Christmas bunting, 12. Some bunting made from vintage hand embroidered fabric, 13. there once was..., 14. lichen - Stained Glass Bunting or Garland, 15. Bunting for Risa of ParTea Planner, 16. Utmost Garland

There will be more to come, watch this space!

Don't forget your pinny

Technically a pinny is more of a sleeveless dress than an apron but it sounds so such more of a homely word than apron, doesn't it? And my mum calls her apron a pinny so it must be right.

So, I've made a pinny! I took a break from making Christmas presents for my nearest and dearest and decided to try making something new. I looked at how the apron I already own was made and copied it. Joining the straps to the main body was a bit tricky as I had seams on top of seams which gets a bit bulky. But otherwise, not as difficult to make as I thought it would be. I recommend you have a go!

The fabric was an remnant from a local shop. Fabric remnant bin diving is rapidly become my favourite pastime. You can find some gorgeous pieces at bargain prices, that's another recommendation from me!

Back to Christmas, I made my first stocking too. Didn't go exactly to plan but you can't tell so I won't point it out. Still, you live and learn and with sewing I'm on a steep learning curve! For the stocking I used fat quarters (fabric measuring a quarter of a metre by a quarter of a metre). There's a fantastic quilting shop near me which sells copious amounts of beautiful fabric, and by buying quarters rather than metres of fabric, it keeps the costs down and means I can have more variety of pattern and weight.

So there, you go, two recommendations and a top tip from me. Not bad for a chilly Sunday afternoon! I'm off to watch It's a Wonderful Life and feel a warm glow inside.

Handmade is heartmade…

…is my new mantra, so, fittingly, this…

… was given to me today by my dear friend Kirsty and sums up a lovely afternoon spent learning how to crochet this…

 

…small and imperfectly formed, but crochet none the less, and followed by…

 
…multi-coloured eggs from local chickens for my dinner!

Hope you all had an equally satisfying day.

Foreign holidays – guilty or pleasure?

I am the green gal and I have flown on an airplane.

Sounds wrong, I know, so let me explain myself. Although, first of all, does being green mean never flying? Ever? How about offsetting flights? What about only flying short-haul? Or only long-haul?

My husband and I decided after our honeymoon in Italy that we would only fly every other year. It was actually four years until we flew again, last week, to Italy as it happens. After holidaying in a tipi, a fancy tent on a farm and in various cottages in the UK, mostly in disappointing weather, we decided it was time we took ourselves off to sunnier climes and felt a bit of warmth on our skins.

Our Italian week saw us give money to The Man (BA flights, Europcar rental, Esselunga supermarket) but also support independent and local businesses. BTW, yes we did rent a car to compound our CO2 evil – we were in rural Tuscany, wheels are essential!

We rented our apartment from a couple who renovate ruined old villas, we ate in restaurants owned and run by the same family for who knows how many generations, and (after the initial panic stock-up in a supermarket) bought local produce in independent stores. Much hilarious bad Italian pronunciation on my behalf and confused gesticulation on the locals’ behalf ensued.

Originally we thought we’d spend several days visiting different towns seeing the historical sights but then decided to only take two day trips. I would say this was to save on emissions but actually it was because we were just too darned tired and wanted to lie around absorbing Vitamin D! But pumping fewer pollutants into the atmosphere was a happy bonus.

I read three books, all borrowed so no trees were freshly hurt for my reading pleasure. And I knitted. A lot. A scarf I’m hoping the recipient in a few weeks will like.

So, as foreign holidays go, I’d say that’s low impact-ish. Si or non? I’ve thought about offsetting our emissions but that’s such a fuzzy area I find it quite confusing. One school of thought is that it’s better than doing nothing, you plant trees or support eco projects in developing countries. Others disagree saying it’s a sticking plaster for people to feel better about their indulgences, that the planted trees could be chopped down long before they’ve had time to offset your emissions.

Having got the need for a foreign holiday out of systems for the time being, I don’t think either of us have a huge urge to sit on a plane again any time soon. Yes the weather is unreliable but the UK has so many beautiful and interesting places to visit that we’ll be happy staying in the Isles for the next few years.

And if we do get twitchy tongues for foreign lingo, there’s always the Eurostar!

I’m planted!

So, I've launched myself fully into the world of vegetable growing. You've already read, in great detail, about the potatoes growing in tyres and since then I have planted a hanging basket, two veg beds and some pots! 

Deciding what to grow wasn't too tricky, we just went for what we like to eat that would work in our limited space. That means, as well as tatties, we have strawberries (in the basket), onions, salad leaves, purple-sprouting broccoli, sweet peppers, courgettes and a few herbs. Will be adding tomatoes to the collection once we have a window box in place.

However, the responsibility of planting – is the soil okay, are they they right depth/distance apart, are they in the best spot etc – took me by surprise. But now I've planted most of what I want to grow, the pressure to nurture and cultivate them into

edible crops is weighing even heavier on my shoulders! I think I expected to plonk the seeds/sets/plants in the earth, water them occasionally and then, in a while, eat their produce. Just like that. I didn't actually stop to think what else I need to do! So, any idea on how to do the best by my plants would be thankfully received!

Forget food miles, what about wine miles?!

There's been much publicity about food miles and how it's better for the food, CO2 emissions and British businesses for us all to buy food, where possible, that's been grown or produced in the UK rather than flown from a faraway country. (As bananas don't grow too well in the UK you can feel good about buying Fairtrade bananas.)

But what about the glass of vino you wash down your delicious locally-sourced meal with? A bottle of Australian sauvignon blanc seems a little incongruous now, doesn't it?

Well, without suggesting the UK abandon all New World wines, how about replacing the odd bottle in your shopping basket with one produced a little closer to home? Europe has been making fine wines for many a year before the trend for Antipodean plonk really took off. Or how about wine made from grapes grown on this very isle? The horror stories of English table wine are a distant memory, I'm pleased to tell you. Vineyards in England and Wales are producing some top wines that are really worth you tasting. 

According to English-wine.com, there are 400 commercial vineyards in England and Wales. Only a few miles from me is Denbies Wine Estate in Surrey, the largest vineyard in England. Among the wines they produce is a delicious fruity white – Surrey Gold – as well as three sparkling wines and three red. The Estate offers a tour of the vineyards, tasting sessions and 

a guide to how the wine is produced, plus a well stocked shop of course. Just a walk around the vines themselves is free and a pretty lovely way to spend an hour or two. 

Although the local supermarkets, farm shops and off licences sell Denbies wine, I don't know if their distribution reaches the far corners of the country. But with so many producers in the country there is bound to be a bottle or two on your local shop's booze shelves. Try it for a change, you might be pleasantly surprised!

For more info on Denbies Wine Estate go to www.denbiesvineyard.co.uk. For a list of English and Welsh wineyards go to www.english-wine.com