This keeps well in a dark bottle like amber in a cool place for months. This is just a simple recipe with 3 ingredients. Small batch. 1/4 cup dried elderberries or 1/2 cup fresh. 1 and 1/2 cups filtered water (I used our good fresh well water) 1/3 cup raw honey. Place elderberries and water in a pan and bring to a boil watch and stir, and then turn heat down so it can simmer 25 to 35 minutes. Strain the juice out into a bowl and mash berries to get all you can out of them. Add your honey and cool. Put into dark or amber glass bottles. 1 teaspoon one or two times a day for maintenance. When ill 3 teaspoons 4 times a day 1/2 that for children. You can dilute this with water for young children.
Sambucol or Sambucus have always helped me to avoid or drastically minimize colds and the flu...thanks for posting this, I will surely be giving it a try...that store-bought stuff isn't cheap!
Interesting. Think we still have several quarts of canned elderberries that we picked wild several years ago.
Thanks! I sure hope I can get elderberries to grow on my new land. I want berry bushes everywhere if I can keep the critters at bay.
I was just thinking about elderberries the other day. We're watching Walking Dead start to current (I've already seen all, the Mr has not) and elderberry tea comes into play during a killer fever. I'd forgotten about them until that. Thinking I will plant some along the fence line. Yet another plant most people do not recognize as an edible.
II am sure this has been discussed before, I know there is a community that make elderberry tincture. Tincture implies 100 proof alcohol added to the black elderberry berries. We made it for years and give some to friends & relatives. I used to suffer pneumonia frequently. I have not had a bout in 13 years where prior to that I had eight serious hospitalizations. No scientific proof yet comfortable with the results. GB
We have been using Sambucol for years and I swear by it. @sarawolf do you find that the results are the same when using fresh or dried? Is the syrup the same consistency? Sometimes I think that benefits get lost when using dried. If you plan on forging for elderberries make sure you really know. Elderberries are similar to water hemlock which is very poisonous. Foraging for Elderberries: Finding & Identifying Elderberries | Homestead & Gardens
Very true Motomom, everyone be very careful. I have yet not been able to use fresh. Hard to get around here, so it is dried for us. OH wow I love the old movie Arsenic and Old Lace.
In researching elderberries someone had asked- why not just eat the fresh or dried berries. Here is the FYI answer that I felt was good to know.
@sarawolf I just picked up some dried elderberries. It are so tiny, sort of looks like mouse droppings. I found them locally for about $17.50 a pound. I plan on making a batch this week.
