
We have a lot of gorse bushes. A LOT.
While it is lovely to see little bursts of yellow when everything else is looking dull and drab they are nasty things to deal with. They prickle and stick to you and spread like anything. They are hard to get rid of and easy to get more of.
This last spring I decided to try making Gorse Wine. The theory was that if we made something yummy out of them it wouldn’t be so bad having all these prickly little monsters all over our land.
I collected buckets of the flowers, added raisins, yeast, sugar and water and left it to do its thing. It was strained, racked and re-racked, checked and re-checked.
It’s disgusting.
Maybe I need a better recipe, maybe I did something wrong, maybe other people have wonderful success with this. Not me. Eurgh. It has a flavour that gets stuck inside your nose and reminds you of unpleasant tastes that you can’t quite put your finger on.
Anyone had a good experience with this stuff?
I don’t think we’ll be trying this again next year. Meanwhile, I’m off to cut down some gorse…