File this under “things I didn’t think I’d do in early retirement” …
No one I know would ever mistake me for a gardener. I do a good job keeping the lawn cut, watered, and fertilized, but cultivating flowers or a vegetable garden is definitely not a hobby for me.
That’s why this chapter of our early retirement is a bit of a surprise. Working with neighbors this summer, we harvested blossoms from this giant elderberry bush and made our own elderflower liqueur. It took a little bit of planning and execution, but it was fun to make something from our own “backyard garden”.
My wife loves the elderflower liqueur from France branded St. Germain. She chased it down in Europe with her friend, but we had no idea we had our own bush growing in our own backyard in Minnesota. It was the classic definition of irony!
The bush is on city land – just beyond the walking/bike path behind our house. Hundreds of people walk by it everyday on the way to our nearby park & lake. It’s big … probably 25 feet wide and 10 feet tall.
The city had been doing some work nearby and I asked them about it. The horticulturist said it was elderberry that was native to the area “and very valuable”.
Talking with two of our neighbor couples, we read up on elderflower and made a pact to bottle the blossoms into booze. We waited until mid-June for the bush to flower, picked a hundred of the blossom clusters, and then steeped them in 5 bottles of Minnesota-made vodka for 3 weeks.
We then got together and strained, sweetened, and bottled the liqueur. All three couples played a role. We think it came out to the perfect color & flavor. You can mix it with sparkling wines, fruit juices, and citrus sodas.
We each took a couple bottles home and have some extra. We plan to feature some elderflower liqueur cocktails at our neighborhood ‘Jingle Mingle’ Christmas Party this December. It’s a fun, quirky project that we all enjoyed.
Do you do any backyard gardening, beer brewing, or hobby distilling? What fun projects do you do with your neighbors?
Images: (c) MrFireStation.com
MrFireStation 
I started with backyard beer brewing, as soon as I retired. Over the past year, I have branched out into fermenting my own probiotics including Dr. William Davis SIBO Yogurt, kefir, kombucha, HistaminX yogurt and sauerkraut. I just had some really good pickled jalapeños and carrots from a Mexican food truck, and plan to make some fermented ones.
I make kombucha with a secondary fermentation by adding pomegranate juice and ginger root into wire closure liter beer bottles. It makes a great Moscow Mule.
They are many health benefits to reintroducing probiotics into your diet. Dr. William Davis wrote a book about this called Super Gut. He was a traditional cardiologist for 25 years, who got sick of not seeing his patients really get better. Losing his own Mother three months after she got stents, was his wake up call. His Small Intestinal Bacterial Overgrow Yogurt reduces your body’s overall inflation and rolls your clock back ten years.
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Wow – that’s quite a variety of fermentation activities! No wine on the list – I might have expected that from a Californian!
I have a buddy that does backyard brewing. Every month he holds a “tap release party” and invites all the guys over. It’s usually 15-20 people. Some bring BBQ ribs, some bring music. It’s a great hobby made social.
I am very familiar with the benefits of probiotics as I ran a yogurt business for MegaCorp. We switch brands and types, but it’s always in our refrigerator … along with Kefir drinks.
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Check out Dr. William Davis and CulturedFoodLife.com. You will find that their probiotics feature specific probiotics that are home fermented to very high concentrations of friendly probiotics. Going the home grown route enables me to make probiotics that you cannot buy. Wine is cheap and readily available in California.
I gave some Kefir starter grains to a friend. He started making it and serving it to his wife and himself. After about a month, his wife started feeling tired. She took her blood pressure and it was too low, and was able to stop taking blood pressure meds. Kefir is very easy and cheap to make. Strain out some grains (curds), add milk and 24 hours later at room temperature you have three more cups of Kefir. Cost is around $5 per half gallon.
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A new project! 👍🏻😎⭐️
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Here’s what it looks like in 20 years: Several times a month (at least three each month) you dine and toast with your neighbors. The remainder of time is planning for those events, spending time with your children and grands,and napping. Never forget napping.
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Wait 20 years? No – I think we are already at that point!
No grandkids yet, but definitely afternoon naps. The ‘perfect nap’ is the one where you don’t have to set an alarm. You just fall asleep and wake up naturally. No rush lifestyle!
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