The ingredients for Elderberry Cold & Flu Tonic
Last winter I had a terrible cough, and
I made my own cough drops with thyme from the garden, and aniseed.
(Find the recipe at Seasonal Sweets - Thyme and Aniseed Cough Drops.) I also made a cough relief tea by
steeping fresh horehound leaves in hot water for ten minutes, then
sweetening the liquid with honey to make it drinkable. Both remedies were very effective at
calming my cough.
Last week I caught a cold and
immediately started on 'from the garden' treatments. I ate the
blackcurrants I bottled in December with muesli and kiwifruit for
breakfast, and I crushed garlic to spread on bread. (It is best to
leave the crushed garlic for 10 minutes to develop its therapeutic
properties before eating it. I steep it in extra virgin olive oil for
that time. It makes it easier to spread, and it tastes much nicer.) I
didn't have enough onions for onion soup, but there were enough
assorted veges to make minestrone (and it goes well with garlicky
bread).
My main treatment this time, though,
was copious amounts of Elderberry Cold and Flu Tonic.I found the recipe in James Wong's
excellent book Grow your Own Drugs A Year with James Wong. Last year in elderberry season
(November – January) I froze enough elderberries to make several
batches of tonic. I put them small plastic bags, with one batch lot
of 12 tablespoons of berries per bag.
The recipe is very easy – just boil
all the ingredients together for 30 minutes. Wong's recipe also
includes meadowsweet flowers, which act like aspirin to relieve head
and body aches. This was a pre-organisational step too far for me
last year, but next year I may get round to planting the plants and
drying the flowers for later use. Even without them, I found the
tonic a pleasant and effective drink. Although there is nothing that
will cure a cold immediately, drinking a mug of tonic every 2-3 hours as soon as I felt the cold
coming on certainly alleviated the symptoms a lot. Here's the recipe.
ELDERBERRY COLD & FLU TONIC
Ingredients
12 tablespoons fresh or frozen
elderberries
4 tablespoons cinnamon stick, broken up
30g fresh root ginger, roughly chopped
1.7 litres water
Method
Put all the ingredients into a
stainless steel pot, bring them to the boil, and simmer for 30
minutes.
Strain into a jug, and store in a
thermos to drink as required.
Sweeten each cup with a little honey.
(Lemon juice or brandy can also be added to enliven it.)
It's similar to a recipe that I have for elderberry cordial:
ReplyDelete300g elderberries
350ml water
400g sugar
12 cloves
3cm fresh ginger
1 cinnamon stick
Zest and juice from 1 lemon
Place berries in pan, add water and bring to the boil.
Add cloves, ginger, cinnamon and lemon zest.
Simmer for about 30 minutes.
Mash the berries and strain everything through a sieve.
Return all juices to the pan, add sugar and lemon juice.
Bring to the boil for 5 minutes.
Bottle.
Karyn
Sounds good with honey, my husband probably would like the brandy too :-). I don't have elderberries, and I am not quite sure if I could grow them here in the bush (too many birds and opossums, plus it may not be a permitted plant in case it spread) but I wonder if I can buy the berries somewhere!
ReplyDeleteI usually have fresh ginger and lemon tea with manuka or bush honey if I get a cold, but I feel the flue coming on I mostly overdose with vitamin C until it is all gone, it takes about one day.
Lovely to discover your blog, I look forward to meeting you at the NZFBA conference!!
Ciao
Alessandra