Wonderful Waitangi Weekend - part 2

After the heat of Sunday, it was definitely time to get making my cordial! The recipe I used belongs to my ex-manager's mother. He would make up bottles of it and bring it to share with us at the office on hot days. I tweaked the recipe though, increasing the quantity of lemon juice and decreasing the water, in a desperate attempt to use up the bottles of lemon juice I collected a few weeks back. Even by doubling the recipe I still used up only one 1 litre bottle of juice. I ended up having to make the mixture in two saucepans – time to get a bigger saucepan – as even my biggest saucepan wasn't big enough!

And I seriously underestimated how many bottles I would need! Still, it was an easy recipe to follow and came out fabulously for a first batch. Next time I'll use a stock pot and order bigger bottles for bottling.

While I was boiling the water and sugar mixture I gently heated the lemon juice in a separate saucepan. My rationale was that because the syrup is not heated much after the juice is added, preheating the juice would essentially pasteurise it. I sterilised my bottles in a water bath in the oven at just over 100℃.

Lemon Cordial

• 500ml lemon juice and zest
• 1 kg sugar
• 1.5 litres of water
• 2 tbsp citric acid
• 1 tbsp tartaric acid

Boil the water, then add the sugar, bring back to just boiling. Add juice, stir well, and take off the heat.

Add the acid, stirring with a wooden spoon until dissolved.
You can strain it or leave the zest in.

When serving dilute around 30ml of cordial syrup to 170ml, according to taste. Use soda water for a sparkling lemonade.

* * * 

My second project of the day was to bottle my lemon vinegar, which had been steeping for the last few weeks.

I emptied all the jars and strained out the lemon pieces leaving behind only the liquid. I also added some apple cider vinegar to the mixture to boost the 'vinegarness' of it. Then I bottled it. Ready to use in salads or worst case: eco-friendly cleaner :-).

Wonderful Waitangi Weekend - part 1

I had a wonderful Waitangi Weekend.

I started with my usual run to the farmers' market on Saturday to get my weekly provisions and then spent the rest of the day in my studio working on preparing stock for my new die business, Dieorama. Trixie kept me company and had particularly extreme case of the bouncies, dashing back and forth and binkying.

On Sunday, it was time to sort out the things I had drying in my hot water cupboard.

Dried lemon zest

The lemon zest dried perfectly, having turned a lovely golden brown and still smelled gorgeously lemony. I put the dried rind in a plastic jar with a small desiccant packet to keep it dry, for later use.

My lavender too, turned out beautifully and still retained its amazing fragrance. I cut the stems shorter so that I could get them into a large ziploc bag. I'll the pieces I cut off as lavender-scented toothpicks/mini skewers. Again I added a desiccant to the bag. Storing them like this means I can either use the flower stalks whole or use just the flowers that collect at the bottom of the bag.

I also packed up more dried rose petals that I am collecting from the two profusely-flowering yellow rose bushes by my front door. Not sure what I'll do with them, but it seemed sad to let them go to waste.

With all the latest dried items packed away, I set about making some bath bombs and experimented with a lemon lavender fragrance combination. I used lemon and lavender essential oils along with about 2 tbsps each of my dried lavender flowers and lemon zest. For molds, I used an ice tray and plastic ice sphere molds I found at Kmart some time ago – useless for making ice as they're not watertight and the water just runs straight out along the seam as soon as you fill them, but not too bad as molds for bath bombs.

Lemon and lavender bath bombs

By the time I was done, I was sweltering. Summer, it seemed, had arrived at last. I regretted that I still hadn't made any lemon cordial as a lemonade would've been perfect as I headed outside for an afternoon break on my lounger in the shade of the walnut tree as the heat of the day started to cool. A perfect way to finish off before heading back inside for a relaxing bath fragranced with my new delicious bath bombs followed by some favourite Saturday TV and dinner.