Green Witchery: Elderberries

Last year I ordered dried Elderberries from Mountain Rose Herbs and tried Elderberry syrup for the first time. Elderberry syrup is supposed to be a cold/flu preventative and remedy.

Let me just say, IT WORKED for us. It worked really well. I am exposed to kids for my part time job and I went through the whole school year without catching a cold or flu, and so did my son and hubby and even my mother-in-law. I think each of us had the sniffles once, but it never developed into anything worse.

We make our own syrup:  a half cup dried or 1 cup fresh elderberries to 3 cups water in a pan and brought to boiling. Simmer at least 30 minutes (I sometimes leave it a little longer) and near the end of cooking, mash the berries with a potato masher. Then I strain the berries out with cheesecloth, squeezing out as much of the juice as possible (be careful, it was boiling so it's hot! I wear gloves).  Then I add a cup of local raw honey, make sure it's the real stuff, from an apiary that does not feed their bees sugar water. The local honey adds the benefit of treating local allergies. I mix that really good and pour it into a jar and store in the fridge. 

We all take at least 1 spoonful a day. If we've been exposed, 1 spoon in the morning, 1 at night. If we feel like we're getting sick, a spoonful every few hours has always nipped it in the bud.

In September I realized Fall was upon us, and we were out of dried Elderberries. I mentioned to my mother-in-law we would need to make an order and she told me a friend of hers had just told her they had elderberry bushes on their property and to come pick all we wanted!  We arrived to find that this friend had picked for us! Bags and bags of them! What a sweet thing for her to do!

It took all day but by the time we picked all the berries off the branches and I cleaned, dried and measured them into freezer bags, we had 25 cups of Elderberries to put into the freezer. Wow.

I considered coming up with other useful ideas for the elderberries but I'm not sure I'm willing to part with any... the syrup is too precious! :)