Hiding from the rain outside, I turned our first berry harvest, mint and lavender we grew, and edible flower blossoms from the garden into syrups (or non-alcoholic cordial if you prefer). I don’t want to buy juice anymore and needed an alternative to elderflower syrup, as those are out of season.

The garden was weeks behind, so I spent every free minute catching up. Every gap in the weather was spent in and around my beds. Everything was a rescue mission against clocks set by weather and wind. When it rained, I turned the tops of the onion I’d harvested into green onion pesto and planted the greenhouse.

So much has happened since I returned from the hiking trip with my husband’s family. Let’s make some elderflower syrup while I catch up up a bit. We’d only been gone a few days but grass had taken over everywhere. Sunflowers urgently needed to go into the ground, so I prepared beds for them. I also made a whole lot of elderflower syrup.

When I got a chance to harvest a lot of free rhubarb, I ignored both my injury and the vacation preparations to make a rhubarb BBQ sauce, some rhubarb syrup, and a sweet treat. While I share it all, I ramble on about the myth of the Tragedy of the Commons.

I set out to make kombucha. And then I got distracted. A few people have wondered just how much work kombucha brewing actually is. So, this time, I show the entire process with you–well, and a lot of the distractions.