✨ MEDICINAL ELDERBERRY SYRUP ✨ I always get a cold between the summer and autumn months 🤧 Anyone else?! With elderberry syrup it clears up so much faster! 😍 If you haven’t got a bottle of this in your fridge already, let’s get you out foraging! Many of our folk medicines aren’t scientifically tested, but elderberry is the main active ingredient in a popular over the counter medicine! Studies show it clears up a common cold 4 days faster than control groups and we know it’s packed with vitamin C, and is anti-viral and anti-inflammatory too! 💚 RECIPE: Pick the berries off 5-7 ripe elderberry heads. Add them to a pan with 1 litre of water and a selection of spices, I use orange peel, hogweed seeds, cloves and sliced fresh ginger. Bring to the boil and simmer on a low heat for around 40 minutes. Mash and muddle the berries and spices halfway through to release the flavour. After 40 minutes, take off the heat and allow to cool slightly. Add 1 cup of raw local honey and stir to dissolve. Pour through a sieve into a sterilised bottle and keep in the fridge for up to three weeks. If you want it to last longer, fill up an ice cube tray! NOTES: Usually combing through the fresh elderberry heads with a fork works well enough! Occasionally (when the berries seem to really want to hang onto their stems) I will freeze my elderberry heads and then pluck off the frozen berries which come away more easily! Tag someone you’d love to make this elderberry syrup with! 🥰