Clover wine today is made with the flowers or red rather than white clover. Over a hundred years ago when my paternal grandmother, Helen S. Wright, wrote her book Old Time Recipes for Home Made Wines, either the kind of clover was not important or dear Grandmother did not realize the difference. In addition, today’s recipes call for a significant amount of fruit such as orange juice, white grape juice, or banana, but Grandmother’s recipe call for the peel of just one lemon.

Here is the recipe for clover wine in the words of my grandmother:

Three quarts blossoms, four quarts boiling water; let stand three days. Drain, and to the flower heads add three more quarts of water and the peel of one lemon. Boil fifteen minutes, drain, and add to other juice. To every quart, add one pound of sugar; ferment with one cup of yeast. Keep in warm room three weeks, then bottle.

To buy Old Time Recipes for Home Made Wines by Helen S. Wright Click Here.

By Karen