• Place elderflowers and rose petals in a 2 quart, heat proof bowl.  Pour 4 cups of boiling water over them and cover.  Let steep for 1 hour, covered.  Strain the tea.  Stir the honey into the warm tea.  Set aside.
• Meanwhile, remove the skin and pits from peaches and chop them into 1/2 inch pieces.  Crush them lightly with a potato masher until the juices flow.
• Sanitize a 1 gallon glass fermenting jug, along with its tin cap.  Pour the herb and honey mixture into the fermenting jug.  Add the peaches and all the peach juice.
• Pour the orange juice or grape juice into a 2 cup measuring cup.  Stir in 1 cup of water.  Allow it to come to room temperature.  Sprinkle the yeast over top of the juice.  Wait 30 minutes.  Stir the yeast into the grape juice and wait till it becomes frothy or bubbly.
• Pour the juice – yeast mixture into the fermentation jug.  Add the cooled honey-herb tea to the fermentation jug. Cap the jug tightly and shake it for a few minutes to finish dissolving both the yeast and the honey.  Top up the jug to the shoulders with boiled and cooled filtered water.
• Sanitize a wine fermentation lock.  Fill the fermentation lock with boiled and cooled water.  Replace the cap on the fermentation jug with the fermentation lock.
• Place the jug on a plate to catch any overflow.  Place the jug in a spot out of direct sunlight and away from any source of heat, for several days.  The fermentation will become active with bubbling and frothing evident. After 5 days to a week, strain the mixture into a clean and sanitized fermentation jug.  Discard the herbs and fruit.  Cap the new jug with a clean and sanitized fermentation lock filled with cooled, boiled water. Set it aside to continue the fermentation.

Racking off

• After 4 to 6 weeks you’ll notice that the fermentation has slowed down and sediment is forming in the bottom of the jug. The mead is still not clear though.  When the bubbling and frothing stop, transfer the liquid to a fresh, sanitized fermentation jug, using a sanitized siphon hose.  Sanitize the fermentation lock again and place it on the new fermentation jug.  The fermentation process will resume.

Clear the mead

• This last fermentation can take anywhere from 2 to 6 weeks.  When the fermentation stops, the wine will clear.  This phase needs patience.  If it doesn’t clear naturally in 6 weeks add ¼ teaspoon of pectinase to the jug.  Replace the fermentation lock and wait.

Bottle the mead

• When the wine clears and fermentation stops, siphon the mead into sanitized wine bottles using a sanitized siphon hose. Be careful not to stir up any sediment that remains on the bottom of the jug.  Cap with a wine corker or a twist cap according to your bottles.  Label and date the bottles.

Aging the mead

• This mead recipe will be more mellow and better tasting after aging for 6 months to a year.  The flavors will mature and the coarse taste of young wine will be replaced with a smooth flavor.  It’s worth the wait.  I like to wait till at least December to taste my first bottles of summer mead.   It is a nice way to remember the joy of summer, sipping summer mead by the fire with the snow falling outside.