Homemaking, Natural Living, Thrifty Living, Uncategorized

Elderberry Syrup and Tincture Day

by The Natural Catholic Mom

+J.M.J.+

Since fall is here, I decided on Tuesday to prepare our elderberries that I ordered a few weeks ago for cold and flu season.

(I get my organic elderberries from Frontier, here on Amazon.) Elderberries are high in vitamin C, and also contain vitamins A and B-6, making them great immune system boosters. Dr. Josh Axe has a wonderful page on elderberries that you can find here if you want more information, to see the studies he has cited regarding it’s benefits, and to be aware of any potential side-effects.

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The Sambacus plant

We use elderberries in two ways in our home; the first is a syrup. My favorite recipe comes from Heather, the “Mommypotamus,” found here. I really enjoy her blog and have used her syrup recipe and dosing recommendations for a couple cold and flu seasons now.

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First, I got my helpers set up “washing dishes” and kicking on the floor, respectively.
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The ingredients from the recipe are simple, just filtered water, raw honey, and the elderberries
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Here are the elderberries and water simmering
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Once the liquid were reduced by half, I strained my elderberries out. I made sure to press them firmly in the colander with a spatula to get all the goodness out of them!
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After the elderberry juice had cooled, I stirred in the raw honey.
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My finished syrup, ready for the fridge.

This syrup tastes wonderful, and it is so much less expensive than purchasing it pre-made from the health food store. (This batch cost me around $6.50, compared to 8 oz of this popular syrup on Amazon.!)

My next project was a tincture, an infusion of 100 proof vodka with the elderberries. I always keep this and an echinacea tincture in the medicine cabinet. Whenever my husband or I feel a bug coming on, we take a dropperful of each in very hot water with some powdered vitamin C, and it often times is enough for us to keep the sickness at bay!

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The majority of elderberry tincture recipes I have found always call for 1 part dried elderberries to 3 parts alcohol, so that is what I do, leaving an inch of space at the top of the jar.

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My tincture in an old salsa jar (thoroughly washed of course! 😉 )

Tinctures need to sit in a dark cupboard for 4 – 6 weeks in order for the alcohol to extract all of the goodness out of the elderberries. Once I reach the date written on my label, I will strain out the elderberries and transfer the remaining tincture into a dark dropper bottle like these.

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Ready for the cupboard.

January and February seem to be the worst for my family as far as getting sick, so I am glad my tincture will be ready long before that time!

What are your family’s go-to remedies for cold and flu season?

This post is not intended to provide medical advice, diagnose or treat a medical condition, replace the advice of a doctor, or replace your own research on the use of elderberries. The sole intended purpose of this post is to share my family’s uses of the elderberry.

9 thoughts on “Elderberry Syrup and Tincture Day”

  1. Ahh add honey! I think this is where I went wrong the last time I tried making elderberry syrup. That and I tried making most of it into gummies, thinking that would make it easier to give to the kids, and ended up with an gooey mess.

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    1. Aha! I’m glad the honey helped you. Remember to let it cool down before stirring in the raw honey so you don’t kill off all the beneficial properties. I’m curious about gummies with this and with my vitamin C powder too… I’m hoping to have a recipe up eventually for it. I even bought juice today to experiment with! I hope your next batch of syrup is fantastic. ❤

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  2. Thank you so much for this! We bought A LOT of this from the store last year and while I was so glad it worked, it was way too pricey for us to justify using it whenever we wanted. Definitely going to be making our own now. Do you know if it’s easy to repurpose a dark dropper bottle from other supplements? We are nearly out of a few and if I can reuse it rather than buy another one, I would certainly prefer that.

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    1. Jenni, I am so sorry for this late reply! I had typed something to you when you originally commented and didn’t realize my reply didn’t post for some reason! From what I understand it is perfectly fine to reuse those dark dropper botties and save some money!

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  3. Making both of these and needed to know is the syrup ready to consume once it is made or does it also need to sit for a while first?

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