Cowslip wine

[cheshire-cheese]

After reading a book that mentions cowslip wine. I have a mind to try making some. I think I'll have to wait until next year because I think they flower in spring (around April?)
I have two concerns with collecting plants for wine making:
1: Picking the right thing. I'm not sure if anything poisonous looks like cowslip. I gather that oxslip looks similar, but I assume that they are so closely related that there is nothing to worry about.
2: Breaking the law. I think I am right, that as long as the plant is not rare, I do not up-root it and it is on common land, then I am OK?

[scullion]

Isn't the cowslip a protected species in the wild?
if you plant it in your garden and use it from there you'd be ok.

[cheshire-cheese]

[suffolk]

I feel very torn about this one ... for years I'd read about cowslip wine (and cowslip balls) and yet, growing up in the countryside I wondered how enough cowslips could be picked to make either of these ... we didn't often see enough to pick more than a few for a bunch for Ma ..... and then the local authority stopped spraying the roadside verges and now, in some places around here, there are so many it almost makes my heart stop!

I've always wanted to taste cowslip wine - the 'nose' must be amazing ... and yet I don't think I could bring myself to pick enough cowslips to provide 2 - 4 qts of cowslip 'pips'.

http://www.plant-lore.com/1071/cowslip/

[cheshire-cheese]

[suffolk]

.... and it's not the whole 'flowers' but just the coloured yellow 'pips' that you pull out from the green tube-like calyx - they're not very big at all.

cowslip -primula-veris2.jpg (19.84 KiB) Viewed 13591 times

[cheshire-cheese]

I know. I think I've have to turn-over the lawns

[suffolk]

Hope you've got plenty of acreage

[suffolk]

If you do make some, I wouldn't mind a sip ... it's been a dream of mine since i was a child ...

[cheshire-cheese]

Sadly a modest garden, but I will endeavour to to grow / pick some in a responsible way and if it works out I'm sure we can arrange something

Note to self: must check the pH of my soil.

http://www.thompson-morgan.com/flowers/ ... ris/3094TM
http://www.suttons.co.uk/Gardening/Flow ... htm#140155

[Seatallan]

[WWordsworth]

As a child I could not understand why those lovely flowers were called cows lips.