Heads of pretty pink elderflower, Sambucus nigra ‘Black Lace’

There is a fantastic pair of elderflower ‘Black Lace’ bushes, albeit ~ 12 foot tall, growing on either side of the entrance to the Soame greenhouse in the walled garden at Wimpole. I pass them all of the time, but for the past 4 weeks they have smelt absolutely delicious. They have been loaded with flowers and have been stopping visitors in their tracks, quite literally, with their wonderful fragrance and pretty pink umbels.

Since I had just made a batch of normal elderflower fizz using a recipe from my trusty, old ‘Making the most of it’ book by Theodora Fitzgibbons from a hedgerow harvest, I got to wondering whether the exotic ‘Black Lace’ would make the same kind of fizzy drink, but taste different. So I asked permission to take a dozen heads of the flowers home to try and…