#traditional remedies

                                Elderberries!

I was out riding my bike when I came across these elderberry shrubs. I noticed that most of the berries were very ripe. Only a few clusters were immature. I didn’t have my foraging gear with me at the time so I had to go back for them and I knew I couldn’t put it off. I had to act right away.

When I went back I managed to get a good amount. I picked the whole clusters not the individual berries. So when I got home I had to process them to get the berries off the stems. To make it easy some people freeze them first. I have never tried it that way. I used the fork method. That’s when you use a fork to comb through the clusters knocking off the berries from the stems. That worked very well!

There are many recipes to choose from and I’m sure they all have their place. I made a very basic elderberry syrup which consists of 2 parts elderberry tea (decoction) and one part honey (raw is best) I mixed that with 1 part 100 proof vodka. You can use any type of alcoholic drink, brandy, bourbon, etc.. You just have to make sure that the final product has at least 20% alcohol if you want a super long shelf life. Without the alcohol the syrup will have a relatively short shelf life. With the alcohol the shelf life becomes almost infinite. 

I went one step further with the vodka. I used the 100 proof vodka to tincture the echinacea then mixed the tincture with the syrup. It’s a very popular combination. Both elderberry and echinacea boost the immune system, but echinacea is an antibacterial, and elderberry is antiviral so you have all of the bases covered. The echinacea doesn’t seem to affect the taste too much at all.

Flu Busting Echinacea and Elderberry Syrup

Echinacea

Echinacea fights inflammation, bacterial and viral infections.  It is good for the immune and the lymphatic systems.  It is helpful for allergies, colds, flu and other infections.  You can read more about echinacea for colds here. 

Elderberry 

According to Nutritional Healing, elderberry fights inflammation and relieves coughs and congestion . It enhances immune system function, lowers fevers and soothes the respiratory tract.  It is very effective against flu viruses.

All Photographs by Gary Cremese