Kid-Approved Cold Remedy | Homemade Elderberry Syrup and Tea

If it looks like happy hour at the Aiduk Casa, you're kind of right! We are experimenting with a new recipe for homemade elderberry syrup and the girls love their new "berry medicine." I've purchased it before from amazon but it wasn't cheap and I wasn't too happy that it had so much sugar in it. So I had it on the back burner to research a DIY version... well it came to the forefront of my mind pretty quick this fall. (Thanks for the crappy weather Germany)

Basically, my immune system decided to celebrate the start of cold/flu season by being a piece of crap and letting me get sick twice. 

So I decided that I just don't have time for that and I also don't have time (or patience) for a sick kid every other week. School has started back up and with the yuckier weather we're looking at lots of time inside sharing germs with the whole KMC.

Enter this amazing Elderberry Syrup Recipe from Katie of Wellness Mama.

I've only made two batches so I can't speak from personal experience yet about it's potency... but it SEEMS pretty dang awesome!

First, it's easy. Busy mom points.

Second, it makes the house smell super good (cinnamon and cloves!) for the whole afternoon. 

Third, I don't have to bribe or brainwash my kids to take it. Like I do for my ginger lemon tea or my shots of raw apple cider vinegar.

Cheers to our good health this season and bottoms up!

Seriously you can't get much more kid-friendly (or husband-friendly for that matter!) than a super sweet mix of immune-boosting, vitamin-rich berries with cinnamon, cloves, ginger, and honey!

Bonus round - at the end of my first batch of syrup, Jesse had the great idea to see if the "leftovers" had enough juice left to steep as a tea! And sure enough... I just store them in the fridge in a glass jar and fill up the tea ball as needed.

So that's how I'm using the pound of elderberries that I got from Mountain Rose Herbs this fall! I was pretty sick with a nasty cold this week and I pretty much had a shot of elderberry syrup every few hours, either a cup of elderberry tea or a cup of ginger lemon tea in my hands at all times, and early bedtimes. After two days I was feeling much better! (Which could totally be all in my head, but hey, beginner's luck with all this hippie voodoo is fine by me if it made me feel better faster!)

If you want some more detailed info about the benefits of elderberries you can check this out.

Sherri of Raisin Acres Farm has a great post on how to PLANT your own bushes of elderberries!

And they are currently out of stock over at Mountain Rose Herbs, but if you do purchase anything from them please consider using my affiliate link at the top right sidebar to help support the blog!

So there you go - my first adventure with Elderberry! Here's to thriving this cold/flu season!