Posted on 01/29/2022 5:54:08 AM PST by Diana in Wisconsin
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I was surprised, too! :)
Freeper Little Jeremiah suggested linking to this thread, lots of useful info. Her post 1188 has an elderberry syrup recipe.
https://freerepublic.com/focus/bloggers/3735908/posts?page=1192
I find chickweeds to be the most difficult to “weed” by hand, those tiny little roots! Hate to use Round Up, but it does work.
Aha, I meant you could copy whole thing here plus link. To make it easy for people I’ll post. I should hang out on this thread. I need it!
Elderberry Syrup
I got this Elderberry recipe from a long time herbalist (non-professional but years of experience). I don’t necessarily follow utterly precisely. Last time I made it I didn’t have as much honey on hand as I usually do so added a bit more alcohol, which I do not like (affects me badly) so I put 1 T syrup in a cup and add very hot water to evaporate some alcohol. Friends and others who have had this batch said it’s just fine.
Note: I use dried berries and some berries are not cleaned very well – some batches are better than others. Go through your berries - I go through bit by bit on a plate and search through for stems or off colored berries. Then I sift through a strainer to get smaller debris out. It doesn’t take too long to do a pound, and it makes a better product.
I make a pound at once, I put all berries into a large pot, cover with water, and let sit for 24 hours, then strain out the liquid and save it, then pour boiling water on the berries again just to cover, let sit until cool, and strain again. I twist the berries in a piece of fine cotton cloth to extract every bit of juice.
Next I warm it up enough so that the honey (or sugar) will dissolve. Really the proportions of juice to sweetener to alcohol are not carved in stone, each time I make it is slightly different, always good and never goes bad.
Keep in mind that elderberries could probably be used as a natural dye, any cloth it touches is forever.
If you make a whole pound, you will need several bottles. I store in Clear Springs 180 proof grain alcohol bottles, or glass juice bottles. Also, I did not follow her recipe precisely, I used just less alcohol (I use Clear Springs which is twice as strong) and a little less sweetener. I have used either raw sugar or honey depending on honey price.
Keep in mind that the honey or sugar acts as a preservative, and if you use much less it may go bad. You only take 1 Tablespoon at a time though. If you don’t want to use much or any sweetener, than you have to make a tincture, which uses a lot of alcohol. I did elderberry tincture once and much prefer making the syrup.
Original Elderberry Syrup Recipe
My method above has a lot more juice per recipe and a bit less alcohol and stays good for at least 2 years in a cool dark place.
7 cups elderberry juice
8 ¾ cups honey
3 cups 80 proof vodka
Warm the elderberry juice to “hot, but not boiling” temp… between 150 and 180°F should be plenty. Stir in the honey and stir until it’s completely dissolved and blended.
Remove from the heat, and stir in the vodka.
Pour into sterile jars or bottles (sterilize them by boiling for 5-10 minutes in boiling water, then let drip dry upside down until filling)
Cap and LABEL. Store in a cool DARK place (or bottle in dark brown glass)
Standard dose for adults would be:
Prophylaxis (prevention) 1 tablespoon 2x a day. If there is active flu in your office or family, double that, or take more often.
Treatment: 1-2 tablespoons every 3-4 hours
Children under 12: half the adult dose
Toddlers and infants: Talk to your doctor! But, lacking that, 1 tsp at similar intervals to the adult dose should be adequate.
There is NO way to overdose on this! Put it in juice, jello, pour it over ice cream- any way you can get the kids to take it is fine.
Alternatives:
If you do not want to use any alcohol in the syrup, use
7 cups elderberry juice
14 cups honey
Proceed as above, ignoring the reference to the vodka.
If you don’t want to use honey (probably best to NOT use it for babies under 1 year)
7 cups elderberry juice
11 ½ cups sugar
I’ve gotten my elederberries from Starwest Botanicals and consider them very good. No doubt other places have them. I got locally picked once and could not get enough worth making syrup from.
https://www.starwest-botanicals.com/category/elder-berries/
I have bought herbs from this company and they have good quality, just never bought elderberries from them.
https://www.herbco.com/p-1336-elderberry-whole-organic.aspx
Thanks. I went to the Starwest botanicals website and looked around. I want to get some elderberry plants for the spring. We used to have some in our woods, would like to get them going again.
I’m told they taste like mushrooms, with a nutrient profile similar to beef.
yeah, those cameras were right o nthe coast- i imagine inland the snow was much deeper
yeah moving in winter is tough sometimes- we’ve done it a few times- but that time was hte worst- The big deck outside the living room window had snow that was up to my chest as lots of the snow from the roof blew down onto the deck in addition to crippled me=
https://www.traditionalmedicinals.com/quizzes/plant-personality-quiz/?results=1
50% nettle; 33% dandelion; 17% hibiscus: RESTORATIVE•STRONG•LIVELY
Sharp & direct; strong & honest; vibrant, lively, & always curious
DAMN! I sound more like a cat, than a plant!
Spent the morning shoveling out my car. Some of the drfts are higher than my SUV.
Well, we have Nettle and Dandelion in common, LOL! And you are anything but a lazy cat!
Thanks for sharing. I was looking to take the Easy Way Out, but it would be ridiculously expensive to make from purchased juice. You need 7 cups for this recipe and I’m seeing an average price of $19.99 for 11 ounces!
I’ve picked Elderberry before. Very labor-intensive. VERY.
https://www.riverhillsharvest.com/product-page/pure-elderberry-juice
I think Mom has the right idea to grow your own! :)
I wonder if you cut the bunches of berries, then put the bunches in the dehydrator, if that would work to more easily harvest the TINY berries? Just thinking out loud, here...
Egads! Hopefully,it’ll be the last big snow of thr winter for,you. Was it a wet snow? Hopefully not. We have a snowblower, but so whites the snow is too wet for it to throw it far enough, then that is when it becomes a real mess.
I remember seeing photos of north Dakota where the snow was up.over the power lines (course I think thay might have been due to drift8ng, but sitll). I have friends in that state, and they haven’t had real big snow years since they time, but did get some whopping flooding once. Ruined a lot of homes I guess fro. What they said. Another farmer we knew lived in Wyoming, and they had snow,up,to,their rooftops. Showed me photos of the path to the front door- glad we don’t get snow like that.
The tops of the vehicle is,bad enough, that must have taken quite a while to shovel out.
On a side note; I was looking at Webcams yesterday,,and saw one from the Bronx. So,I clicked it and it was of a parking lot and there were5 cars inmthe lot doing donuts lolwas funny to watch.
The original recipe I got used 7 cups; I just buy a pound of dried berries, make the juice as explained, and adjust honey/alcohol proportions per the amount of juice, more or less.
I assume that one could use fresh berries to make the uuice, but it would be a different method. Main thing is I think one doesn’t want to cook them, ie boiling etc. Maybe with a steamer juicer? I usd to have one, works well for grapes, pears and not so good for peaches, tried once with blackberries and I had to throw away thejuice. Because the seeds of blackberries contain a bitter substance that when steamed like that for a long time gets into the juice.
Jucst canned them regular way after that.
So, not sure the best way to get elderberry juice from harvested ones, maybe search around? Easier than drying first I would think.
The dray stems shatter easily, so you’d actually end up with more stems in the mix.
I use a fork to pull the berries off the stems. But I also don’t worry about little bits of stem here and there, as long as it’s going to be cooked. The toxin in elderberry plants is destroyed by heat. In the book “Herbal Antivirals” there’s even a recipe for elderberry syrup that uses berries, leaves, and stems, all on purpose. The give the resulting syrup a tea-like aftertaste, but it’s not bad.
Better with a little lemon juice and grated ginger though, that makes it good enough to eat even without the medicinal properties!
That should say “dry stems”. My fingers are dyslexic today.
I’m in for now...been shovelling since 7:00AM. There are a number of elderly and disabled people around me so I shovelled them out too.
Even though I, too, am not a spring chicken and not in the best of shape.
Now I’m going to take some motrin, get in my fluffy robe and spin some vinyl.
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