These flower wines clear very readily without the use of isinglass; they are usually high in proof spirit, and their flavors are delicately aromatic.

Clover Wine (mauve)

3 quarts clover heads • 1 grapefruit

3½ lb. sugar • 1 oz. yeast • 1 gallon water

When the flowers have been gathered, pull off the petals

- they will all come easily if you hold the petals in one
hand and the base of the flower head in the other.

Bring the water to boiling-point and pour in the flow­ers. Cut off the heat at once and allow to soak for four days. Strain and warm the juice enough to help the sugar dissolve. Stir in the sugar and when all is dissolved add the yeast. Cut the grapefruit into slices and float them on the surface of the brew. Cover as directed and ferment for fourteen days; then strain or take off the floating fruit and proceed with bottling.

Coltsfoot Wine

i gallon coltsfoot flowers • 3½ lb. sugar

1 oz. yeast • 1 gallon water

When the flowers have been gathered pull off the petals

- these, like clover, will come quite easily if the petals
are held in one hand and the base of the flower head in
the other. Pour the boiling water over the petals and
allow to soak for three days. Strain, bring the liquid just to boiling-point and add the sugar at once. Stir until the sugar is dissolved. Allow the brew to cool and then sprinkle the yeast on top and stir in. Cover as directed and ferment for fourteen days; after which proceed with bottling.

Dandelion Wine

Dandelion wine lays claim to many tonic properties, one being that it tones up the liver. It is also said to be partly responsible for the longevity of gipsies. Gather the flowers on a sunny day when they are fully open: closed, they teem with insects which would emerge during soaking and one might get dandelion-cum-insect-juice wine.

1 gallon flower heads

with not the tiniest piece of stalk

3 lb. sugar • 1 oz. yeast • 9 pints water

Petals only should be used, but you can use the whole heads if you wish. Pour the boiling water over the flow­er heads (or petals) and leave to soak for five days, stir­ring well each day. If mould begins to form on the sur­face scoop it off. Keep well covered up. After five days' soaking, strain and warm the juice to help the sugar dis­solve. Pour the liquid over the sugar and stir until all the sugar is dissolved. When the brew is cool enough, sprinkle the yeast on top and stir in. Cover as directed and ferment for fourteen days; after which proceed with bottling.

Sugar Wine

3 lb. sugar • 1 oz. yeast • 1 gallon water

Bring the water to boiling-point and pour in the sugar; keep stirring until all the sugar is dissolved and then let the water reach boiling-point again. Cut off the heat at once. Allow the brew to cool and then sprinkle the yeast on top and stir in. Cover as directed.

When fermentation has been going on for forty-eight hours, add the flowers of your choice to flavor the brew. You can use:

Hawthorn blossom 2 pints

Elder-flowers 2 pints

Primroses 3 pints

Rose petals  2-3 pints as available

Cowslips 3 pints

Marigolds (not the African

variety: petals only) 3 pints

Wallflowers (petals only) 3 pints

Having added your choice of flowers, stir well in and allow fermentation to proceed for the full fourteen days’ period. Then strain, and proceed with bottling.

Multi-Flavored Sugar Wine

This recipe will prove useful if, for lack of space or other reasons, you can only make small quantities. The recipe is designed for one gallon of wine, but there is nothing to prevent anyone making half that amount merely by using half the amounts of ingredients listed. An old friend of mine makes a quart at a time - using a tiny cupboard beside the fire as the warm place for ferment­ing the brew. She has a weakness for gin, which is beyond her pension, but by using a quarter-bottle of gin and diluting it with sugar wine, she does very nicely.

3 lb. sugar • 1 oz. yeast • 9 pints water

Bring the water to boiling-point and pour in the sugar. Cut off the heat and stir until the sugar is dissolved. Allow the liquid to cool and then sprinkle the yeast on top and stir in. Cover as directed and ferment for four­teen days; after which, bottle as usual and treat as any other wine.

When the wine is perfectly clear, siphon the clear wine off any lees that may happen to be there, and put into sterilized bottles. Before sealing them, the flavor­ing medium of your choice may be added. Try mint, peppermint, ginger, coffee - the variety of flavorings that may be added is limited only by your own imagina­tion and taste. I cannot imagine anything more surpris­ing than alcoholic coffee - try it on your friends. You can, of course, flavor it by diluting (as my old friend does) with gin - or whisky or brandy. In any case, different flavorings may be used for each glass of wine taken from the bottle. In this event no flavoring at all should be added until one wishes to use the wine.

Elder-Flower Champagne

(non-alcoholic)

This is a refreshing summer drink.

1 quart elder-flowers stripped from the stalks

when in full bloom

2 oranges • 2 lemons

3 dessertspoonfuls of white or wine vinegar

1 lb sugar • 1 gallon water

Cut the fruit into slices, put them in the water and bring just to boiling-point. Cut off the heat, allow the mixture to cool and then add the elder-flowers, stirring them in. Leave to soak for forty-eight hours and then strain through very fine muslin. Pour the strained liquid over the sugar and stir until all is dissolved. Then add the vinegar. Bottle, and cork well.

This should keep for a month or so. It is delicious served with ice.

Hawthorn blossom may be used in place of elder-flowers.

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