Lockdown really shrinks your universe, which is hard to deal with in many ways. For me, the one saving grace is that it's making me appreciate more of the things that would normally go unnoticed. For example, the very large and extremely fragrant bird cherry tree on the green just around the corner from my house.
I've been passing this tree on my morning run, my cycle to the allotment, my shopping errands for years now and have never so much as given it a cursory glance. And then the other day, I suddenly found myself underneath it, completely mesmerized by its swaying canopy and the sweet smell of its blossoms.
Bird Cherry
I couldn't resist and picked a handful of flowers to make a small batch of the cherry blossom syrup featured in John Rensten's The Edible City.
The procedure is really simple and goes like this:
- Remove as many stalks, leaves and bits of debris as you can from your batch of flowers
- Work out how much water you need in order to just cover the flowers. Bring this to the boil and then leave to cool to about 80°C (or wait about 10 minutes if, like me, you don't have a food thermometer)
- Pour the hot water over the blossom
- Leave to infuse for 24 hours
- Strain off the flowers with a fine sieve or jelly bag (as always, squeezing out every last drop of goodness...)
- Bring the infused liquid to the boil, reducing it down a little bit to increase the flavour
- Measure the liquid and dissolve an equal amount of sugar in it. For example, 200g of sugar for 200ml of water.
In perhaps a bit of a rogue move, I then brought the sugary liquid to a short, careful boil and left it to cool. I also used slightly less sugar and it is still plenty sweet!
The result is a delicious almondy syrup that will give you a hit of spring every time you open the bottle. YUMMM!
And if you'd prefer to direct your cherry blossom foraging efforts towards something more boozy, I've got a gin liqueur recipe for you.
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