For those who were able to join the workshop at the Pittsville Library (and for those who couldn’t make it), here are the recipes we used when making elderberry syrup and fermented honey garlic. And remember – these are very forgiving recipes. If you don’t use the exact measurements, that is okay! You can also play around with the elderberry syrup recipe to add other ingredients or remove some that you don’t like. There are plenty of variations out there, but this is how I like to make mine.

Elderberry Syrup

We made a large batch of elderberry syrup at the library. Here I’ll give smaller ratios, though you can halve the recipe, double it, or triple it as needed.

1 cup black elderberries (fresh, dehydrated, frozen)
1/8 cup echinacea root (to help boost the immune supporting properties!)
1/8 cup ginger root
1 T cloves
1-2 cinnamon sticks
4 cups distilled water
Raw honey to taste

Add all of the ingredients to stainless steel or ceramic pot and simmer on the stove over medium low heat until the volume has reduced by half. Alternatively, you can make this in an Instant Pot pressure cooker by cooking it on manual high pressure for 15 minutes. Once the mixture cool enough to handle, pour it through a strainer or cheesecloth. Compost the spent herbs. Elderberry syrup can be taken as is (unsweetened) but it will have an earthy sour flavor to it. To sweeten and also add more antimicrobial power to your syrup, add raw honey to it to taste once the syrup has cooled. Do not add the honey until the syrup is no more than warm or you risk killing off some of the antimicrobial compounds in the raw honey. In a recipe like this, you might find that you only want 1/2 cup honey for your taste, or maybe you find that you like a sweeter and thicker syrup and use 1 cup of raw honey. If you opt to add lemon juice or another citrus for the vitamin C content, do not add until after the syrup has cooled since vitamin C is not heat stable and will be destroyed.

To use the elderberry syrup, an adult dose is 1 Tablespoon 2-3x daily between meals as a general health tonic. General dosing guidelines are based on a 150 lb adult, and so you can adjust the dose based on your weight. If given to a baby less than 1 year of age, do not sweeten with honey as babies less than 1 should not have honey. If you start coming down with an illness, you can increase the frequency of the dose.

Fermented Honey Garlic

This is an easy immune boosting tonic to make and requires only 3 simple ingredients!

2-3 raw garlic bulbs, cloves peeled and chopped in half
Raw honey
Raw Apple Cider Vinegar (optional)

Placed your rough chopped raw garlic cloves in a small jar. Add a splash of Raw Apple Cider Vinegar to the garlic. This is optional but will help with the fermentation process. Pour in enough honey to completely cover the garlic, leaving at least 2 inches of head space in your jar. Seal the jar and let it ferment for 1 month on your counter. During that time be sure to burb your jar from time to time to let out the fermentation gasses. After you have burped the jar and resealed it, give it a little shake to make sure that the garlic at the top is still covered fully with honey. Exposure to air for a prolonged time can lead to spoilage. Once the full month is over, move the jar to the fridge. You can begin taking the garlic cloves or honey at any point during the fermentation process if you don’t want to wait a full month to try it.

To use fermented honey garlic, an adult dose is 1 Tablespoon 2-3x daily between meals as a general health tonic. General dosing guidelines are based on a 150 lb adult, and so you can adjust the dose based on your weight. Because it contains honey, do not give this to a baby less than 1 year old. If you start coming down with an illness, you can increase the frequency of the dose. Both the garlic cloves and the honey will have antimicrobial properties. You can also add these to dressings and food if you’d like to use them as a seasoning, but keep in mind that they should still be kept raw. If you are adding it to a cooked meal, add it at the end of cooking after you have removed it from the heat source.