Making Elderberry Immunity Syrup is easy to make, inexpensive & delicious.
Everytime I make this stuff I realize I forgot how cool it is. It's DELISH! I'ts effective natrual medicine for flu and cold. AND Kids absolutely love it! You can make it with either fresh or dry elderberries. You can pick them up right now at a farmers market near you! (in the midwest anyway) All the rest of the ingredients can be purchased at a health food store. Here we go!
Elderberry Immunity Syrup
Here's what you need!
- 1 cup fresh elderberries OR 1/2 cup of dried elderberries
- 3 cups of filtered water
- 1 cup of raw local honey
- 1 stick of organic cinnamon
- 5 organic cloves
- 1 inch of organic ginger grated
1.) Place the berries cinnamon stick, cloves, and ginger in a saucepan and cover them with the 3 cups of water. Bring it to a boil. Then reduce the heat, and simmer for a half hour.
2.) Remove from heat and SMASH the berries with a potato masher of fork. Then, strain the mixture through a fine mesh strainer.
3.) Add the raw honey after the juice has cooled below 110º to preserve raw honey benefits.
4.) Bottle and store in the fridge, where it will last about 3 months.
How Much?
- Adults: 1-3 tsp per day to avoid getting colds and flu. If your already sick take 2 tbsp per hour at the first sign of illness.
- Children 2 to 10 years old: Give 1 tsp each day to avoid cold and flu. If the child is already sick give 1-2 tsp every hour at first sign of illness.
- For kids under 2: Add the syrup to 'just boiled' water to kill any microbes in the honey that might make them sick. Or use the tincture making recipe below instead!
Tincture Making:
To make an easy homemade tincture, fill a wide mouth canning jar half full with berries- fresh or dry. If they are fresh see that there is as few stems as possible as they are technically poisonous. A small amount is no problem, but NO big stems at all.
Cover with vodka. If the berries are fresh cover the jar with a paper towel and rubber band to allow water to evaporate out. If they are dry you can cover with a hard lid. Stir or shake a couple times a week and add more vodka when the berries begin to soak it up. Berries must be covered at all times with vodka. Allow to steep for 4 weeks. Strain it and bottle it! Perfect every time! ;)
Time to de-stem- By far the most difficult step!
Berries de-stemmed. As good as it's going to get!
Add the purified water! 3 cups per cup of fresh berries.
I like to do cinnamon, clove and ginger- ginger isn't shown here.
Get to Mashin'! Bring to a boil, then remove from heat. Place a lid on the pan and allow to sit with no heat for 30 minutes.
Use a spoon to mash juice through strainer.
Then the straining begins, have a few glass or stainless container handy. 
Use a muslin sack filled with remaining berries and spices to squeeze every last drop out! Then- Let it cool! I make it cool faster by pouring from one saucepan to another (back & forth). This lets it cool in half the time or less. 
Before adding honey, make sure berry mixture is between 105 and 110º. Any hotter than that and the honey will no longer be raw.
Get some good, raw, local honey from a nice pristine area:)
Elderberry Immunity Syrup in Canning Jars. Keeps in the fridge up to 3 months. Out of the fridge for less than 3 weeks. A triple batch makes you just over 6 pints of Elderberry Syrup- Enough to last all winter drinking it like crazy! Making Elderberry Immunity Syrup takes about an hour and a half with cleanup. Be prepared to break out the baking soda as it can stain your counters pretty good!
I like to make a big batch like this (triple batch) as it will last me almost all winter. We drink it at the first sign of cold pretty aggressively.
Approximately 2 tbsp per hour at first sign of cold. Continue this for that first day and you can go every 3-4 hours the next day. For children cut the dose in half.
Kids absolutely love this stuff and you'll likely need to hide it from them. Remember raw honey for children under 2 is not recommended. For them I would suggest just a straight elderberry tincture, which means the elderberries just soak in vodka for 3-4 weeks. This is very effective, easier and it lasts for years. AND it's still very tasty!
Take less of the alcohol tincture. I would to 3 tsp every hour at the first sign of cold with the tincture. For children cut this in half, for infants quarter it.
Please reach out to me at desiree@modern hippie.org for natural health questions or questions about this recipe!