When life gives you elderflower…. make champagne!

The sun is shining again and what better way to test our your new Elephant Bike than by taking a gentle saunter down a country lane to collect some of the elderflowers that are out right now?

We’ve just arrived home with our bikes, from a quick 2 miles along a disused Staffordshire railway track that runs from Leek to Rudyard Lake, it’s perfect as it’s flat, well gravelled and away from main roads. It’s fairly empty at the moment although all the dog walkers we passed were more than happy to chat from a safe distance; us admiring their dogs and them admiring our elephants! The bike is perfect for picking and foraging; it’s not just that the front tray can easily hold all your finds, it’s the stand that makes all the difference, being able to hop off your bike at every tree in bloom and leave it steadily on its own two feet makes life so easy.  We’ve collected enough elderflower for a first bottling, we use the River Cottage recipe which you can find here: https://www.rivercottage.net/recipes/sparkling-elderflower-wine

It’ll just be a few weeks until we’re supping our own free fizz which will be lovely, almost as lovely as it was to just spend an hour, away from the mad world, gently picking flowers by bike. Most regular cyclists will tell you of the benefits cycling has to positive mental health, we’re learning that it doesn’t have to mean lycra and 60 miles, just a couple of miles in the sunshine paying attention to our local surrounding did us the power of good!