Making Sirup

It is summer and the flowers are blooming, we noticed one here in particular: the hollunder tree.

i think the hollunder is called elderberry in english, though i myself either never saw or never noticed these trees before moving here, so i am not absolutely sure about the name translation.

in germanic europe, mabye over all of europe, i am not sure, it is quite common to make sirup. it is also a common item for sale here. there are several different varieties available in the shops and markets to sample. here is a photo of two we had on hand, a local maker's sirup and something just mass made for the big chain stores. these are sold mainly, i believe, to put into your water and give it a nice flavor, but probably it is also used for other cooking options as well.

anyway, sirup making for personal use is a very common thing to do here; students make it in their tiny shared apartments, farmers make it in their huge farmhouses, middle aged people make it in their modest flats. i would guess that sirup making is the reason why there is no kool aid  and the like sold here, these people are making their own! most grocery stores sell sirup making bottles, so we bought a couple and decided to try brewing our own up.

kevin found a recipe online (in german) and we just followed it, though i am sure with practice, you could be more creative. we collected 30 odd blooms from the hollunder trees around us in the woods. then kevin spent a sticky morning de-bugging them (because who wants the flavor of that in their sirup?) we dissolved and cooked sugar into the water first then put the blooms into this mix, with a lemon.

this then sits in the sun for a couple of days and cooks itself, kind of like a sun tea.

 noodle supervises the procedure, and deems it sticky.

after that some acid was added to mix and we strained it and bottled it. it ended up being 2 liters of sirup.

the flavor is a little hard to describe, sort of like drinking perfume in a way. we think we like it, but aren't sure. with 2 liters to test ourselves over it, i am sure we will come to a conclusion at some point. the juice is supposed to protect you from flu and fever and also witches, so we are at least working up a nice resistance to those while we figure it out.