Thursday, January 5, 2017

My Elixir: A Flu and Cold Remedy

Ah, flu season, when the nights are long and the short days are usually filled with plenty of sweet treats and friends and family, the flu and cold bugs run rampant. Well we're half way to spring thankfully but we're still not quite there yet and if you haven't fallen prey to some nasty cold bug then I'm sure you know someone who has.
So if you're somewhat paranoid of catching something, are currently fighting something, or are trying to recover from a cold or flu, here's something that might help!
My mom calls it "Ruby's Elixir" but honestly it's just a immune boosting tea that is fairly easy and simple to make and just has 6 ingredients. 
So here we go! Here's a how to on how to make a tea that will have germs running in terror! ;)
Ingredients:
makes about 3 servings
one big chunk of fresh turmeric about as long and as thick as your thumb.
1 chunk of fresh ginger about half as much as the turmeric, so a little bigger than your thumb nail.
2 tablespoons elderberries
1-2 fruits of any kind of citrus.(I usually use lemons but I've used oranges and grapefruits too.)
Honey(preferably locally sourced and raw/organic.)

First thing's first is to mince or as I do, use a garlic press to mince the turmeric up for me. Chopping into small piece works perfectly fine too, but I love using the garlic press, it's much easier and as you can see it chops the turmeric much smaller than I could probably achieve with a knife.


You need to scrape all the bits off the end if using a press, and make sure to pull out the pieces that didn't make it though. 
Turmeric is what I call fondly, "anti-everything bad for you" so it only makes sense to have it in a cold remedy, be aware though that turmeric can and will stain everything yellow! So if you press a lot of it through your garlic press, it will probably wind up be as yellow as mine is!


Do the same with the ginger, but be forewarned ginger is really fibrous so all you may get out the other end is juice and bigger pieces are really hard to press!
Ginger is also a great anti-bactieral, anti-viral, but it also is really good for stomach maladies, so if your cold or flu comes with a sick stomach, ginger should help soothe it.


 Obviously no cold or flu remedy would be complete without citrus! Any kind of citrus will do so if you prefer orange flavored tea over lemon, go for it. I just happen to like lemony teas. 
Juice 1-2 fruits whatever your preferred method is to do so but try to keep the peel if you can, the peel is really good for you also.


Now the elder berries! Add about 2 tablespoons. If you don't have elderberries I would suggest looking for them. They are amazing for colds and flu's! And they taste pretty good too! we get them dried wholesale in bulk from Frontier Coop.(https://www.frontiercoop.com/) They're great for any respiratory or throat symptoms. I've read you can even make cough syrups out of them but I have yet to try that yet!
If you don't have elder berries on hand, that's okay! Your immune system can still benefit from the turmeric, ginger and citrus. 


Now of course, add water. I usually just estimate the amount of water, depending whether you want it strong or weaker is all up to you. But these amounts should be good for about 4-5 cups of water. I just went ahead and filled up this whole pot which is about 6 cups.
You'll then need to cook and steep it for about 5-10 minutes until it starts boiling 


Once it's boiling, you can then add the honey!! Now honey I never really measure, so it's all up to you and what's going to satisfy your sweet tooth.



Once the honey is melted it's pretty much ready to drink! You can let it just sit and steep more if you want to but usually at this point we strain and then refrigerate and reheat as needed. It should be a rich purple/yellow color. A couple cups a day should keep the disease bugs away!

This is a fantastic immune booster/cold remedy, and during the flu season, this is something you might want to have handy to kill any disease bugs!
Stay warm everyone! Spring will hopefully be here soon!

Until next time, happy homesteading!
~Ruby~


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