Elderflowers: What's Not to Love?

In every field of Farm Dover, elder bushes are in full bloom boasting their snowy white sprays atop green leaves.

Even with my eyes closed, I can tell when I'm getting near an elder bush. The flowers smell like summer – all floral and creamy.

Like strawberries, their season is short. I've been cutting the blossoms every day this week and finding ways to showcase them. Earlier in the week, I cut sixty of the blossoms and added them to a stone crock, along with sliced lemons and a simple syrup.

Every morning, I'd give my elderflower cordial concoction a quick stir and today, I deemed it ready, straining the mixture into clean glass jars.

What I can't use in the next month or so, I can take down to the basement freezer and then anytime I need a taste of summer, I can just defrost a jar and add a swig to sparkling water or champagne.

Tonight, in honor of the Belmont Stakes, we made a rosé spritzer, loosely based on this recipe from Bon Appétit. (Thank you, Claire.) The elderberry cordial added a nice zip to the spritzer.

I was so pleased with my bottled cordial that I decided to try to make a elderflower liquor, which is as easy as adding vodka to a jar full of elderflowers, capped with twists of lemon and lime peel. It will be a few days before it is ready, but I'm hoping it will the perfect base for a vodka tonic.

And for dessert tonight, I sprinkled some elderflowers atop a strawberry pavlova. Meringue, cream and strawberries with tiny white flowers. What's not to love?