The lilac wine smelled so incredible that I wondered if I couldn’t make something similar with the white clover (Trifolium repens) covering my lawn. 

While picking the flowers I came across a quantity of pineapple weed, or wild chamomile (Matricaria discoidea), happily growing in the worst soil on our property, and once I was in the thick of it on the front lawn there were wild strawberries (Fragaria virginiana) aplenty. 

So two quart jars later I had enough for a gallon of wine. To the kitchen.

Ingredients:

2 quart jars full of white clover flowers, the aerial parts of pineapple weed, and wild strawberries - plus some of their leaves 

Handful of raisins

Tsp puerh leaves

4 cups sugar

½ cup lemon juice

⅓ packet or yeast

My first ripe calamondin (× Citrofortunella microcarpa) off the tree

Method:

1. As with all wine making, and fermentation of most sorts, along with canning, sterilize everything and use non-reactive cookware, utensils etc. 

2. Bring 3 quarts of water to a boil in a large pot. Put the kettle on. 

3. Rinse flowers and berries, remove stems and stray bugs etc.

4. Add sugar, raisins and puerh tea leaves to the water, along with the calamonid cut in half. 

5. Stir to dissolve the sugar and then allow to cool completely. 

6. In a 2 cup measuring jar place ⅓ packet of yeast. Add ½ cup of room temperature water and then ladle in some of the sugar mix to just warm the water to activate the yeast. Allow mixture to proof. 

7. While the yeast is proofing, add the clean flowers, berries and leaves to a gallon jar. Once the sugar water is completely cool pour over top of the clover and strawberries. Add ½ cup lemon juice.

8. Now add the proofed yeast water to the gallon jug full of the flowers, fruit, and sugar water. Give it a good stir to distribute the yeast throughout the mixture. 

9. Place the lid on loosely and put in a cool, dark spot to ferment. 

10. Check in an hour or soo to see that it is bubbling. You may have to give it another good stir round over the next couple days because all of the flowers and leaves and fruit will rise to the top of the gallon jar. 

11.  Allow the mixture to ferment for 7- 10 days and then sciphon into a clean gallon jar leaving the fruit and flowers and leaves in the bottom of the original jar. 

12. Ferment for another 2-3 months, up to 6 months, before racking to clear and bottling. 

13.  After bottling wait 2-6 months before drinking for optimal flavour. 

If you would like to make it a sparkling wine: 

After you rack it for the last time into a clean fermentation jug, dissolve 2 heaping tablespoons of sugar in a small amount of warm water. 

Add this to the fermentation jug and swirl round to distribute the dissolved sugar throughout. 

Bottle immediately.  

This one smells so delicious I just can’t wait to try it. When I was a teenager I had bees and the honey they made was so sweet, pale gold and spicy with floral notes. I took some to a beekeeper friend and he said my bees must have found mostly white clover to get that particular taste and color. I’ve loved white clover from then on. 

Sidenote: Pine Boutique in Collingwood carries ‘The Beekeeper’, a solid perfume from Field Kit Studio in Calgary that smells like honey and clover. 

I also had a bunch of lemon balm (Melissa officinalis), but not enough honey, so this year I made Lemon Balm wine instead of mead. 

Lemon Balm Wine

Ingredients:

8 quart jars lemon balm leaves, removed from stem and cleaned

Handful raisins

Tsp puerh leaves

8 cups sugar

1 cup lemon juice

1 lemon sliced. 

I followed the same method as above, boiling a gallon of water this time instead of 3 quarts and steeping the lemon balm in that. 

Then I poured the rest of the room temperature water in until it was cool enough to add the yeast. 

After I topped it up with the remaining water in my bucket fermenter. 

The Tarragon Rhubarb wine stopped fermenting and so we racked it one more time to clear it. When we tested it we got the 10% alcohol that bread yeast will give. We’ll see what the difference is with the wines that we made with the proper wine yeast. 

We tried it and it's not too bad fresh. Nice and dry with a tanniny finish. There’s a wonky taste that I can’t quite place which may or not go away with aging. We’ll just have to give it a couple months and see how it tastes then. Today we bottle.