I first made lemon barley cordial when we moved to the farm fifteen years ago and inherited the most productive lemon tree in the world. The tree is almost as old as I am, and most years produces massive amounts of juicy fruit. Every house needs a lemon tree – put one in a pot if you have no space and move it with you until you can put it in the ground. Lemons stay ripe on the tree for ages, so it’s not like you have to harvest the whole lot in one go. You’ll be picking lemons to accompany fish, or to make a slice, or clean your barbecue, or to make someone with a sore throat hot lemon and honey. When you find yourself with leftover lemons, make a batch of this and stash it in the pantry. Made up cold with ice on a hot day, it’s delightful.
Makes 1.25 litres (5 cups)
Ingredients
250 g pearled barley
zest and juice of 4 lemons (approx. 200 ml)
495 g (2+1/4 cups) white sugar
2 teaspoons citric acid
Method
Put the barley into a large saucepan with 1.5 litres (6 cups) water. Add the lemon zest thinly peeled with a potato peeler.
Bring to the boil and simmer with the lid on for 40 minutes.
Pour the barley water through a sieve, keeping both the water and the barley (use the barley in a salad, or in bread-baking, or you can toast it in the oven and eat it for breakfast with berries.) Discard the zest.
Put the barley water back into the saucepan and add the rest of the ingredients. Heat and stir until the sugar dissolves.
Ladle the cordial into hot sterilised bottles and close the lids tightly.
Serve to taste with water, still or sparkling to approximately 1-part cordial to 4-parts water. Once opened, keep in the fridge.
