Recently I decided to make some elder flower cordial. For anyone who doesn't know it here's the recipe. Personally I don't like the stuff, but two of my nephews think it's wonderful.

Elderflower Cordial
Elderflower Cordial
2 kilo bags (4½lb) Sugar
2 pints Boiling Water
2 dozen Elderflower Heads
2 oz Citric Acid
2 Lemons, grated rinds, sliced

Shake elderflower heads to ensure they are free of insects.
Dissolve the sugar in boiling water stirring well.
Add the grated rind and sliced lemon, plus the citric acid.
Add the elderflower heads to the bowl of hot syrup.
Leave for at least 12 hours covered with cling film.
Sieve the liquid, to remove the solids.
Strain the liquid through a jelly bag or coffee filter to clarify.
To serve dilute with sparkling water.
I am told it is good with gin and soda and can also be used to flavour Gooseberry dishes.

You will notice that the recipe includes citric acid. I bought mine at a supermarket in-house pharmacy with no difficulty whatsoever, but a friend tells me that she has been refused in several shops as apparently citric acid is used in the preparation of illegal drugs. Before anyone suggests that the different responses were a matter of location or of my being known in the shop, we were both in Scunthorpe and neither of us spends much time or money in pharmacies. Nor is it a matter of age since M is just two years my senior. Can it really be that M looks like a superannuated hippy who has in the past been known to have the odd canabis plant in her greenhouse, while I look totally the respectable churchwarden and parish councillor who has never made whoopi on anything stronger than a couple of glasses of dry white wine?