Elderberry Syrup

There is nothing quite like a hot drink on a dreich day to warm you up. If it has medicinal benefits, all the better!

Elderberries are well known for helping to boost the immune system and can help to lessen the duration of colds. Now, you might be thinking 'Great! I'm going to pick some and eat them'... A word of caution, elderberries need to be cooked before you eat them other wise you can, at best have a sore stomach ranging to worst case vomiting and diahorrea, it is also important to not eat the seeds. That sounds very risky and like a lot of hard work, says you. It is totally worth the effort to make this syrup, which can be taken as is, for a medicine, made in to a hot drink, cool drink or mixed in to a cocktail. This does use a fair amount of sugar, but the way I see it is, you aren't having that much in once go and I would much rather know that I am consuming sugar, as opposed to something laden with artifical sweeteners.

Ripe elderberries, removed from the stalk

per 500ml of liquid you will need

10 cloves

the juice of 1 lemon

650g sugar

Put the elderberries in a pan and cover with water. Bring to the boil, then turn the heat down and simmer for 30 minutes.

Take the pan off the heat and strain the liquid in to a bowl or large measuring jug.

Measure how much liquid you have and then weigh our 650g of suger per 500ml. Put the elderberry juice, lemon juice and cloves in to a clean pan and bring it back to a simmer.

Add the sugar 1/3 at a time stirring well inbetween to make sure the sugar has dissolved, allow it to simmer for 10 minutes until it gets to a syrupy consistensy.

Pour the hot syrup in to hot glass bottles / jars and put the lid on. Keep in a cool place out of direct sunlight. 

Once opened keep in the fridge.