Recently I was told about the health benefits of Elderberry. From what I'm finding it's very popular in Europe as a cold treatment and has been used for centuries. I checked out different brands at the health food store and found great info online, especially
here. Click where it says "the Sambucol story" and check out the video at the bottom- great info. Several friends told me it has helped shorten the length of croup and colds in their family and I'm all for shortening both of those! But, I wasn't thrilled with it's price. Then, my friend Tina told me how to make it myself! I figured it was worth a try since even at Rite-Aid it's running a good $12.00 a bottle. Well, we gave it a go this week. It was easy and it seemed to work. I suddenly felt hit by a truck Tuesday afternoon with an out of the blue runny nose, scratchy throat and exhaustion. I started taking it along with vitamin C and was feeling much better by Wednesday. Elijah woke with croup on Tuesday and never had the long barky night or morning that usually follows. Here's how it looks in the bag from the store and our batch we made...
It was super simple and super cheap! I found dehydrated Elderberries at the health food store for $3.50 for the bag you see and that's after making a batch.
Homemade Elderberry Syrup
Put a 1/2 cup dehydrated or 1 cup fresh elderberries in a pot and cover with 3 cups of water. Bring to a boil and simmer for 30 minutes. Pour through a strainer and smash the berries (I just used the bottom of a coffee cup). Add 1 cup of honey to the liquid and store in your refrigerator. DONE! It says it keeps for a few months. You can take it as a maintenance or prevenative of 2tsp a day for kids 4-adult, 1tsp 1-3 year olds. When sick you can take that dose every 2-3 hours. Some places it recommended adding it to hot water for the younger children to kill anything in the honey.
It's not bad tasting, some people even use it on their pancakes instead of maple syrup. I can say it's the first time I've had a croupy kid in the morning that didn't end up having a long night to follow in and out of a steamy bathroom.
We may see if we can grow it next year and then freeze or dehydrate the berries. Sounds like a good homeschool project!
Whether you buy it or make it, definitely worth a try this cold and flu season.
4 comments:
Cool! And I wanted to tell you that I started coming down with a cold when I was taking care of Sarah at the hospital! I bought that Sambucol, and it really worked!
Holly, that's awesome! I'm so glad it helped you! God is good :0)
Nin Jiom Pei Pa Koa (ninjiom-hk.cwahi.net) may be another choice. i know alot of people use it, its also non alcoholic, though it's effectiveness is not as good as alcohol based cough medicine, but it's still good to use on not so serious scratchy throat.
Tami, have you still been using your elderberry syrup? I have a coupon for the Sambucol and I'll probably buy it right now but would like to make my own too. My boys have been fighting a super nasty virus for about a week and a half and now I'm starting to feel it coming on.
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