Medicinal Treat

I'd made elderberry syrups from dried berries before, but never had the fresh ones. They do grow around here, I just don't know where. When my friend Jenny wrote up a blog post about her kids picking elderberries and making syrup, I was inspired and determined to find some elderberry bushes near me. I had also just finished up with all of my tomato canning and was itching to find something more to preserve. Finding elderberries around here was a little more difficult than I had hoped. By great luck, I finally got my hands on some. Someone I don't really even know, yet got word that I was looking for some, picked them from her neighbors property and then drove all across the County (literally) from Woodland/La Center to my house in Camas to bring them to me! I gave her a dozen of my chicken eggs but wish I'd had more to thank her with. There really are amazing people out there who help people with no expectations in return. I'm forever grateful! 

As soon as I had them in my hands, and after I put the kids to bed, I went to work. It's been a few weeks since I did this, but knew I needed to write up my recipe and process for future reference before I forget.

 Picking the tiny berries off of their little twigs was a therapeutic and rhythmic break from my usual evening routine (especially since I did this while the kids were sleeping).

 I started with 2 cups of berries for my first batch of syrup

 Simmered them in 6 cups water (clean and purified) for about 45 minutes. The liquid cooked down to about half.

I strained the berries and squished all the juice from the berries threw the mesh (cheesecloth would probably work better). This keeps the skins and seeds from being in the final smooth liquid. The seeds (in addition to the leaves, twigs, root and branches) are pretty toxic so this is an important step. And while I'm thinking about it, I guess I should mention (in case you don't already know) eating the berries raw and whole is not a wonderful idea unless you spit out the seeds. I'm not here to give a full report on why, just don't...or at least do some research if you decide to anyways. The berry pulp, juice, skin and the flowers? Perfectly fine and wonderful to consume in huge amounts, in fact magical.

 I added a bunch of raw local delicious honey after it cooled off a bit. About 2 cups. Honey (when raw) provides it's own additional health benefits as well. 

I poured it into glass bottles and it will keep in the fridge for several months, if the kids don't drink it all sooner. The honey acts as a preservative, so the more you add, the longer it lasts...and the sweeter it is. The small bottle in the picture below is organic elderberry syrup I bought from the store last year for something like $12, maybe more.The quart size jar cost me about $3 to make (thanks to that super good deal I got on honey this summer, and the free elderberries of course).

I made a couple more batches, one of which I added a cup of organic apple cider vinegar to give it an even bigger and better healthy boost. I haven't even attempted to give the kids the one with the vinegar, but it's actually really good in my opinion. I've found myself more than once drinking a little to curb a sweets craving, and it works. Esperanza asks for the medicine several times a day and Ezra just does whatever she does and wants whatever she wants. That quart jar above is already half gone. We've got plenty more

I kind of had an abundance of berries, so I froze some...

 And dehydrated some...

Dried berries

While there are many, many medicinal benefits of elderberries, we use it as an immune booster during the winter months to stay healthy and to help get better quicker when we are sick. Typically, because of the store price of the syrup, we would only use it sparingly when we would feel a cold or illness coming on. Now, we can use it as much and as often as we want. Did I mention how grateful I am to that woman? So grateful!!! Thank you, thank you, thank you! And to my super duper close family/friends...I might be willing to share, you'd just have to come visit me to get it.