At the beginning of the year, we harvested these gorgeous red lilly pillies from our backyard tree.
All up we collected about five kilos of fruit, harvesting only what we could safely reach with a low ladder, and leaving the higher branches to the Australian Koels and Red Wattlebirds.
We turned some of the berries into lilly pilly jelly…
Last weekend, we dug the remaining one and a half kilos of fruit out of the deep freeze, and Pete made lilly pilly cordial.
He boiled up the berries in a large pot of water with a small handful of raspberries and boysenberries, added for colour. Once the fruit had cooked down to a pulp, the liquid was poured through a cloth-lined colander.
The strained liquid was returned to the pot with about a kilo of sugar, and heated gently until the sugar dissolved. This is a tricky process – if the temperature gets too high, the juice could set into jelly rather than cordial. Water can be added if needed to ensure the liquid doesn’t set. We ended up with just under two litres of cordial.
The lilly pilly cordial is sweet and reminiscent of both ginger beer and creaming soda. The berries have a mild clove and spice flavour, and the high pectin content creates a foaming head when mixed with soda water!
Fig Jam and Lime Cordial 
When and at what time should I stop by to try one of them there soda water drinks Celia? :) Looks very invigorating! What a gorgeous tree to have in your backyard. Do you bake with the lily pillys at all? I’ve never heard of lily pilly’s before. I assume they don’t grow them here in the US.
Melanie, I’ve never baked with the lilly pilly berries, as they have teeny tiny seeds. You might know them in the US as riberries? I’ve often wondered if that’s where Ribenna cordial started from…
Sounds so delicious and…wish we lived near each other.
It would be great fun, Norma! :)
Thanks for introducing us to Lilly Pilly’s. I have never heard of them before and after your photos my taste buds want to learn more!
Same here!!! I didn’t know either – but now I want to know more.
Cindy, thank you! We have some very interesting flora and fauna here in Australia, and a long history of bush tucker!
This sounds so interesting – I’ve never heard of these before, but now I so want to try them. Any chance on sending me a beverage over to Bordeaux? :P
Dakota, you don’t have lilly pillys in NZ? I thought it might be a regional plant…if I could ship to you in Bordeaux, you know I would.. ;-)
I have never heard of lilly pilly, can you beam one over to London please darling?
I love the name though!
Here it’s all elderflower cordial at the moment, lots of people making it, not me as my larder is full full full!
Kavey love, your larder is full? Surely not… ;-)
It’s a very interesting flavour, lilly pilly, a little clovey and a little gingery – not everyone likes it, but we love it!
Oooo, I just bought some small sized ones on the weekend with edible berries so look forward to making some of this in the next few years. Thanks!
Jen, we planted our tree years ago purely as an ornamental, so it’s such a treat to be able to get fruit off it!! The tree also brings some gorgeous native birds into our yard!
the colour is amazing!
We’ve just planted some in our garden – wonder how long I’ll have to wait until I can make jelly or cordial?
Laura, I think they start fruiting pretty quickly from memory, so hopefully it won’t be too long! :)
How very pretty Celia, and great job Pete!
When I was little I wedged a small plank into lillypilly tree in our yard and would sit on it and hide and read for hours, nibbling on the fruits I could reach. This reminds me of those more innocent days!
I also didn’t know it was the pectin that made the pretty foamy head, interesting.
Becca, we think it’s the pectin that causes the foam head, but I’m not sure. It’s very interesting though – and even the foam tastes good! :)
I had heard that you could do stuff with Lilly Pilly, but have never tried. Thanks for the suggestions.
Deb, I’m sure they must grow like crazy up north!
That’s a very pretty colour, Celia. I wonder how a slug of Bombay Sapphire would go with that …?
Amanda, I went looking for vodka, but it was all stuffed with vanilla pods! :)
I have a bottle of sparkling white in the fridge to try and Kir-style cocktail with the cordial!
The book I am reading at the moment is set in the 1800s and in the part I read last night they were making Lilly Pilly cordial! What a coincidence! It looks like a wonderful summer refreshment.
Claire, isn’t it nice that it’s been in use for so long! Thanks for telling me that.. :)
We have a huge wild lilly pilly tree down at our creek, and the kids loved to climb the tree and spend a whole summer afternoon eating fruit. Super high vitamin C off set my fears that they would fall out of the tree (best I didn’t watch). I’ve never tried doing anything else with them, but next year I’m so going to make both the jelly and the cordial. They look delicious, and so pretty I can just see them in celophane with a gift card.
Linda, I think the fruit has quite a lot of pectin, so it should be easy to make into jelly.
I got a little creative and tried to make a lilly pilly shrub (alcoholic liqueur), but instead of staying a liquid, it turned straight into a super-potent jelly the minute the fruit liquid and alcohol combined! Live and learn, I guess… ;-)
Oooh that’s so AWESOME!!! ps, absolutely loving the pretty glasses too :D
Hey darling, how’ve you been? The glasses are nice, I bought them ages ago at our Lebanese wholesaler in Auburn!
Really good, thanks – just finished my exam/assessment period yesterday, so keen to party it up ;) …or just spend a good time these holidays baking and savouring the warmth of the kitchen as the rain pelts down outside and confuses everyone.
How’s the fam?
Well, good bye from there!
Wow that looks gorgeous! I have never heard of lilly pilly before but it does look similar to rose apple in my place :) I really wann try it :)
Tes, rose apple sounds intriguing! Is it a berry or a type of apple?
Always interested in Pectin, Maybe a slug of bicarb soda or something else alkali would hydrolise it and make it a good remedy for radiation.
Our lilly pillys certainly had a lot of pectin – I think we could make lilly pilly stock for setting jam, but Pete thought the flavour might be overpowering…
That cordial looks lovely. A dash of vodka and a sprig of mint?
(Now back when I was knee high to a grasshopper and liked to stare longingly at aeroplane jelly brands, there was the lillypilly. I’m sure it was blue though? Hmm, not sure will have to look again.)
Brydie, I think you’re right! I think lillypilly was blue! Hmmm. Creative marketing? :)
That colour is just stunning! I don’t think I’ve had lilly pilly that often although I did try it recently in a jam and it’s delicious :)
Lorraine, was it pippy? We’ve only ever made it into a strained jelly – I wasn’t sure how it would be as a jam.
Hi Celia!
The jelly and cordial has such a pretty color. Would make a pretty tasty stocking stuffer!
I have 16 jars of dandelion syrup cooling in the kitchen. We like to eat it on pancakes, waffles, etc. Next we’ll make spruce syrup. Both are also good for coughs.
Manuela, thank you! Dandelion syrup sounds amazing, but is it bitter at all? Our chickens looove dandelions, so they rarely make it out of the garden.. ;-)
I just love the name lilly pillies and I had to WIKI it to see if we grow them here in South Africa, but we don’t. The colour is amazing and I can imagine the taste of the cordial :)
Tandy, isn’t it a great name? I have a friend who named her daughter Lilly because she loved the trees so much! And of course, they’ve planted lots of lilly pillies in their yard! :)
I like the color- AND the name.
Lilly pilly is musical and whimsical to my ear.
I’d love to taste it- but am happy just knowing it exists! :)
Heidi, I feel the same way about cloudberries! :)
I’m chuffed that after years of just ignoring this gorgeous tree, we suddenly find out that we can make so many things from its fruit!
I’d never even heard of these until reading your blog. Love love learning about new things. They are so stunning up on the tree. I’d love to find one- the flavor sounds so interesting! I see you mention they have seeds. Does this mean you don’t typically eat them raw as you would an apple or strawberry?
Preppy, lots of people eat them raw, but I never have – I’ve only ever had them as a jelly or cordial! Lilly pillies are an Australian natives, but there’s lots of different varieties of them, and the fruit colour can vary enormously!
Loving the gorgeous glass with the gold design that the cordial’s served in. So many reasons I need to move on over to Oz. I mean doesn’t Lilly Pilly sound fun.
Oz, the glasses were a find at 80c each from Harkola in Auburn – cute but not dishwasher-proof (as we found out when the design rubbed off some of them!). :)
How fascinating, Celia! It sounds delicious and would be calling to become spritzes in summer!
Chris, it’s sooo good – I’m going to try it with champagne next and see if I can come up with some sort of clever cocktail!