Phew!

As forecast Friday was a gorgeous summer’s day. It was the warmest day of the year with a high of 24.4°C making it the warmest day we've had since 09 September 2012 when the thermometer touched 26.2°C.

Our garden mint bought on 06 June and planted in a large pot at home has grown really well. It seemed a shame to let all that mint go to waste so I decided to try this recipe to preserve some for use through the winter.

I harvested 50g of mint leaves from just our Apple mint so I might produce another jar using another variety of mint. That amount of mint does take some chopping so I might consider using a food processor for the next batch instead of chopping by hand.

We'd also been thinking about having an attempt to make some elderflower cordial. As the flowers are just about at their best now I popped down to the plot to pick some flower heads. The recipe says 30 flower heads but once you start picking them and realise how the sizes of the heads vary so much this becomes a tricky amount to judge. If you fancy having a go the recipe I used is here. 

You may notice that I sneaked in one or two sprigs of pink from the sambucus nigra just to add a tinge of pink to the cordial.

If the taste is anything like as good as the aroma that is filling the kitchen this should be excellent once the steeping is finished. Updates on the results will follow.

Original post from A Gardener's Weather Diary http://ossettweather.blogspot.co.uk/ author M Garrett