How To Make Elderberry Syrup

When my family is sick or we're trying to amp up our immune systems I like to go the natural way. No sense in taking antibiotics that are going to strip us of all of our bacteria, good and bad. It's been a long time since any of us have taken prescriptive antibiotics. We take colloidal silver and/or herbal remedies when we're sick. I've found that this way is just as effective, if not better, and we've never had any negative side effects. I feel good knowing exactly what I'm putting in my kids bodies and that it works! Ok, hopping off of my soap box now :)

Recently I was looking for something to help a cough Sam had. We had given him Tylenol once (for a fever) and it freaked us out because it dropped his temp so low and he got really clammy and pale. We've also given him Benedryl a few times for a cough, but I hate doing that because of the preservatives and alcohol; not what I want to be putting in my baby when I'm trying to get him well. Plus it doesn't help get rid of the cough, it just suppresses it. As much as I hate hearing the poor guy hacking his little head off, I'd rather him do that because his body is trying to expel the funk. Cough syrup keeps a cough at bay for a while, but doesn't get rid of the cough completely.

I'm big on Echinacea, so I had already been giving him that, but I needed something for the cough. I discovered Elderberry Syrup. It helps build the immune system and aids respiratory support. So I bought some from the health food store and paid a lovely $12 for a 4 oz bottle. It hurt, but I figured a prescription could be about the same, plus I didn't have to expose my kids to a germ-infested doctors office. (Please note: I am not a doctor/medicine hater) I treated his cold/cough with the syrup along with breast milk (don't hate) and colloidal silver. That bad boy was knocked out in 3 days. No joke! Snotty nose and funky cough gone!

Now you know when there are multiple kids in a single location they're going to pass germs around. In actuality they're passing the same cold back and forth to each other. Your kids do know how to share!! (That's a joke, I don't really know if it's the same cold).

So Sam has had a few colds the past couple of months and my tiny bottle of ES is running out! I don't want to keep paying $12 a pop for this stuff as much as I love it. Dilemma. Miraculously, just in time for another cold one of the blogs I follow comes out with a how-to on making Elderberry Syrup! And it's cheap and easy to do!!

So all of that to say, here's a step-by-step tutorial on how to make your own. I could've just given you the link to her site, but I took my own pics and I'm excited about posting my own fun.

Benefits of Elderberry Syrup:

• Contains 3 different flavonoids. Flavonoids are effective against at least 8 different strains of the flu virus!
• Helps boost the immune system.
• It stops the production of hormone-like cytokines that cause inflammation.
• Studies have also shown that elderberry reduces excessive sinus mucus secretion, and some even suggest that elderberry can help lessen swelling of mucous membranes, improve sinus drainage, and decrease nasal congestion.

*Giving credit where credit is due: all instructions and the "Benefits of Elderberry Syrup" came from her site. Pictures and sarcasm are my own*

Things You Will Need:

• 2 cups of water
• 1/2 cup of dried elderberries
• 1 cup of raw honey, preferably local
• optional: cinnamon stick, ground ginger, cloves (these have warming properties)
• Wire mesh strainer
• Glass jar with a lid
  

I bought my elderberries from mountainroseherbs.com. There is a tab on her site that you can click on and it will send you to their site. They cost $10 for a pound, not bad. However, shipping was $8.99, yuck. You still get your money's worth though, so I just closed my eyes during the shipping part of checkout.

I bought my honey from Whole Foods in Little Rock. They have a big container full of honey with a spigot so you can get as much as you need. I took my own jar and bought a cup of it. It ended up being about $3.50.

The brown stuff in the baggie are cinnamon chunks. I had originally bought a small bit of these to simmer on the stove which I have done and it smelled so good...until I forgot that it was simmering and the water ran out leaving black burnt cinnamon goo in my pan. Back on track, cinnamon has warming properties which can be helpful when you're already sick. Plus I like the smell and taste so why not toss that in the batch as well.

Step 1: Pour 1/2 cup of elderberries, 2 cups of water, and 1 tablespoon of cinnamon chunks into a pot. Bring to a boil, then let it simmer uncovered for about 20 minutes or until half of your liquid has boiled down. You can eyeball this, it doesn't have to be perfect

Step 2: Strain the juice into a bowl. Mash the berries with a spoon, so you can get as much juice as possible.

Step 3: Add the honey. Whisk until well blended. I waited for the juice to cool down a bit. I didn't want the high heat to damage any properties of the honey. However, don't let the juice get cold because the honey won't melt.

Voila! Homemade Elderberry Syrup!

Store in the fridge, it'll stay good for a few weeks. I ended up with about 14 oz of syrup costing roughly $6-7 bucks.

We've started by taking a tablespoon a day for me and Stephen and a teaspoon a day for Sam for prevention. Since Sam has a cold right now I've been giving him 3-4 teaspoons throughout the day. And if we happen to get colds we'll take a couple tablespoons a day. There's really no need to worry about overdosing with this which is something that I love about this remedy.

And just for kicks, here's what my boys were doing while I was busy making this. I gave Sam an old cell phone to play with the other day. He "calls" his Daddy often and will say "Bye" and hang up. He loves to share everything with Liam. He also likes to leave things on Liam's face. Lol, he cracks me up :)