Raspberry Vodka

This is the first in my experiments to stock our pantry with homemade produce. By Christmas I will be able to enjoy the odd tipple so I decided to prepare something nice.

I took 1.5 litres of vodka, 300g raspberries (a mix of garden grown and bought), 300g sugar. This was mixed together in a sealed mason jar and stirred daily until the sugar is absorbed.

The mixture was then filtered into a jar and we kept the raspberries seperate. Looking forward to enjoying them!

Recipe: Elderberry Cordial

While I was on a residential in Ristedt two weeks ago, the pupils went crazy picking elderberries.  I didn't allow them to eat them at the time - I wanted to make sure that they were definitely elderberries for one thing - the last thing we needed on that trip was a bad case of food poisoning!

Anyway, I brought the elderberries home with me and Nico made them into a lovely juice which I shared with the class this week.  He was so inspired he went collecting himself and wee now have two more bottles sat in our kitchen!

Here's how to do it:

Ingredients:

• Elderberries
• Water

Instructions:

1.  Place the berries in a pan in 1cm of water.  
2. Simmer the pan on low for roughly three hours.
3. Strain the mixture through a sieve (or a cloth if you don't like 'bits').
4. Funnel into a bottle. 

We like to enjoy ours warm - perfect for the new autumn season.  Enjoy!