Summer’s wares have been growing around and about in the last 6 weeks. The elderflowers came and went, and now the fresh green buds of the berries hint of summer’s end. But not yet, please, not yet!
The summer days have been subtly closing in since midsummer, but still feel deliriously long. Stepping out of the city streets after a day in the office and onto the expanse of Port Meadow, to the west, the daylight stretches out across the sky, turning from blue to orange to pink, purple and then deep dark blue again, over a series of hours. All the while, beneath this celestial transition, I float on my back in the cool, silvery waters.
June was a time for elderflower pancakes, fritters, cordial and champagne. It was also a time for rhubarb chutney making. Then came the first cherries, dangling across the back pathways between the houses, ripe for a nibble en route; the little fruits fill your mouth with a sweet, sour tang.
July has brought the fluffy white heads of meadowsweet (Filipendia ulmaria) across the marshy areas of Oxford (as it thrives in damp areas, a city built largely on a floodplain is a haven for this plant). Meadowsweet is traditionally known as a headache healer, and some perceive its smell to be a bit like anti-sepctic. I, however, enjoy the scent and find it calming, like lavender. I follow the same recipe for elderflower champagne for meadowsweet (just using about twice as many flower heads) and the results are fantastic; heady and sweet.
The advantage of making champagne from meadowsweet over elderflower is the meadowsweet season is longer; there are no berries to hold out for. So you can pick (widely, not all from the same place, and responsibly) for the rest of the summer and make rolling batches of homebrew. Marvelous!
The Roots and Shoots 