ORANGES AND LEMONS

My little mandarin tree which is only 1.5 metres tall has had a fantastic crop, as has the meyer lemon tree. I made some marmalade with some and with the rest decided on making some cordial. Found a few different cordial recipes and so far have made two batches using different recipes.

Guitar Dude, Zippy and Super Boy have voted the cordial recipe below the best.

Homemade Cordial

3 cups sugar

1 litre water

1 litre orange/lemon/mandarin juice

2 teaspoons citric acid

In a saucepan mix together sugar and water. Heat until sugar dissolves and mixture is gently boiling. Turn off heat and add juice and citric acid and mix together.

Pour into sterilised screw top glass bottles. Store in the refrigerator.

Dilute 1:10 with chilled water or to taste.

Adding the citric acid is optional.

The cordial will keep for 1 week without the citric acid or 1 month with it.

It is so delicious and refreshing and the best thing is that the boys love it! I added some rind and pulp to my mixture too which gave it a bit more body. I was a bit concerned about using citric acid, thinking it was some nasty additive but it is natural and is just the natural acid from lemons. You can get it from supermarkets in the baking section.

Will be making more of this for sure.

M xx