Tag: DIY

Homemade Elderberry Syrup — Yes, It’s Super Easy!

I have a tendency of fluffing all recipes I have at my disposal. This usually isn’t due to some creative spark igniting in my brain needing to flare out—no, it’s far more practical of a reason.

I almost *never* have all the damn ingredients necessary to make the thing. Regardless of what the thing is.

In this case, I was missing some honey to mix with that bag of dried elderberries that had been collecting dust in my cupboard for forever. The berries have a best buy date, which was rapidly approaching, so I tossed caution to the wind and yelled into the ether, “Let’s do this!”

Okay, it wasn’t that dramatic.

Measurements to base your concoction off from:

  • 3 1/2 cups of water (you can make this as fancy as you want, or use simple tap water)
  • 2/3 cups of dried elderberries (You can get ’em from any local herbal shop, or the dreaded Amazon. Make sure to pick any little stems off before placing them in your pot.)
  • 2 tbsp grated fresh ginger
  • 1 tsp cinnamon
  • 1/2 tsp cloves
  • 1 cup sweetener (honey/agave–as organic and raw as you want, or even the teddy bear if that’s what you have)

Heat the elderberries and water to a boil inside a pot, not floating in the air where gravity doesn’t exist. Add in your spices. Simmer for at least 45 more minutes, with or without a lid. (I used a lid.) Elderberries can be toxic if uncooked, and there is a lot of banter on the web about how little is too little of time to cook them. Always err on the side of caution, especially if you aren’t a doctor, or herbalist, or magician.



Use a spoon or potato masher to mush, mush, mush your berries! I did it at various stages throughout the cooking process. Remove the berries from heat and let the mixture cool off before using some cheesecloth, or a strainer, to drip drip drop your liquid.

Once inside a container away from ginger pieces, cardamom bombs and berries, add in your honeys or agaves. I actually added the honey/agave mixture to my jar before pouring in the elderberry liquid.

Make sure your 16 oz mason jar has a tight lid, and TA DA! You are an Elderberry Master. Or at least an apprentice. Keep it in your fridge and take daily for preventive measures.

Typical dosage: 1/2 – 1 tsp for kids and 1/2 – 1 tbsp for adults daily. If you’re sick, you can take the dose every few hours for a boost of C immunity.

This is a good base recipe to start with. I didn’t measure my spices at all, and I added dried ginger to the mix. You can add cardamom, allspice, nutmeg, whatever tickles your fancy.

The thing is, all of these warming spices have Ayurvedic magic, so you can’t go wrong. (Okay, fine, you can always overdo it, but the point is, warming spices are generally good for the Soul.) And please don’t thump me on the head, but I’m going to lead you to a Goop article here. I’m a dry, brittle Vata, so warm me right on up! (Full disclosure: I have a friend who is currently touring India, Tibet and Nepal, so she’s got me all frenzied with Ayurveda again.)

I only had about a quarter of a cup of honey, so I mixed in the rest of my agave. You can thicken your syrup with cornstarch or arrowroot powder–you’ll have to play with the amounts to get it just right. This batch I made of my elderberry syrup was definitely a little liquidy, so next time I’ll use the arrowroot, or maybe just use less water, or boil the mixture longer. Who knows!

The beauty of elderberry syrup is the fact that it can be different every time you make it. You are not sucked into some sort of locked recipe that cannot change. You can add lemon, apple cider vinegar or just boil some fresh apples in the mixture as you please.

This particular recipe has a refrigerated shelf life of a few weeks. If you add liquor to it while cooking, the alcohol will stabilize the mixture for much longer. Since elderberry has gone ubiquitous in the past ten years or so, search the web and find gummy recipes, too! Cocktails, elixirs, simple sauces for your pancakes. (I definitely want to try to the gummies for the kiddo.)

I once read about how our affinity for St. John’s Wort literally made the plant itself stop growing for awhile… that tiny block of written passage leaves me cause for worry about over-using our friendly, magical berry. I suppose time will tell on that one.

Enjoy! And remember, I’m not a doctor who’s hawking an end-all cure for what ails you, I’m merely an average Jolette sharing a recipe I, myself, have just made last night. Come to think of it, it’s time for my tablespoon right now. ❤

Dry Skin / Eczema Cream (safe for wee ones)

{This post is edited from an original post on my Chronicles of Seedling website from April 20, 2016.}

Baby Boy has the driest skin on the planet (next to mine). He also has eczema from time to time, and sometimes it is quite awful. While the cortisone cream the Doc gave him works… who wants to use that? Not me. I had some California Baby cream, which was great, but I also have a ton of my own ingredients, so I chose to re-use the cream jar and start mixing my own stuff.

The recipe is below:

  • 1/4 cup of almost equal coconut and castor oils
  • 1 tsp calendula extract

Heat on stove, stir until mixed.

Set aside, let cool. Apply when hardened.

We use this all of the time now, and I need to make some more. With the first batch, I used much more coconut oil than castor; I will continue to play with the ingredients and amounts listed here.

For some reason, it smells like cinnamon to me. YUM. I imagine you can add calming essential oils to the mixture, like lavender, to your own liking (and safety!).

So far, this seems to work better than the other stuff we’ve tried. Is it the calendula, or the castor oil?? Coconut hasn’t really done too much for my son on its own… We apply it directly to his skin, as well as using thicker coconut milk as ice cubes for his baths.

Perhaps it’s the mixture itself! I remember reading somewhere that herbal remedies work better in a group.

Tell us what you use for dry skin and eczema!