Ingredients:
For the Heather Infusion:
250g heather flowers
1l boiling water
For the Syrup:
2 handfuls of heather flowers
500g sugar
2 lemon slices
Method:
Begin with the heather infusion (effectively heather tea). Place the heather flowers in a non-reactive (glass, porcelain or ceramic) bowl and pour over the 1 litre of boiling water. Cover the bowl with a clean cloth and set aside to infuse over night (at least 12 hours). The following day pour the mixture through a fine-meshed sieve, pressing down on the flowers to extract as much of the flavourful liquid as possible (reserve the flowers for later).
For the syrup: Put the reserved flowers in a bowl and add 2 handfuls of fresh flowers.
Pour the heather tea into a saucepan, add the sugar and bring the mixture to a boil, stirring to dissolve the sugar. Pour this syrup over the flowers in the bowl. Add the lemon slices, stir well then cover with a cloth and set aside to infuse for 24 hours.
The following day, strain the mixture through a fine-meshed sieve then pour the liquid into bottles. If prepared properly the resultant heather syrup will last between 3 and 6 months.
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