Ah, 'tis back to school time.


This means life gets a little more complicated and inevitably someone is going to get sick. I don't know what it is about the first week of school, but I swear we have had a respiratory illness the first week of school since 2012.


This year though, I'm trying a new tactic. Tonight, I decided to make some elderberry syrup. Now, when the kids were really little, I used to buy this stuff premade. I thought it had to be working- they were rarely sick. The truth is we never went anywhere to get sick. Nevertheless, I'm giving it a try this season in hopes that maybe it will ward off the evils that are coming our way- or at least lessen the symptoms.



I found this recipe Homemade Elderberry Syrup Recipe - Happy Healthy Mama. I decided to use the Instant Pot method since it's faster and I did not feel like babysitting the mixture. I use my Instant Pot for everything: broths, yogurt, proofing dough. This is one kitchen tool I cannot praise enough. I mixed my berries, ginger, water, and two cinnamon sticks instead of the ground cinnamon right in my Instant Pot. I omitted the cloves because no one enjoys them in our house. I do keep whole cloves on hand for my homemade air fresheners but that is another blog post. I set them to pressure cook for 9 minutes, vented and then strained the mixture. I made sure to press down on the berries to get out all of the juice then tossed the strained mixture in the trash.

Finally, I let the strained mixture cool and added a cup (give or take) of our own raw honey. I just eyeballed it. As most of you know, we have our own bee hives. This year we extracted 180 pounds of honey from our five hives. It comes in handy for all sorts of recipes and again, for sickness. I popped my jar of syrup in the fridge and that was it. Super simple, no fuss, and cheap. I immediately took a tablespoon full and will continue to take one daily. Children can do a little less. When we are sick, we will add in a few extra doses.


Is there any truth to the healing properties of elderberry syrup? That I cannot tell you. I can only hope that the extra antioxidants can't hurt. Here's to a happy, HEALTHY back to school for everyone. Oh, and yes indeed I did get out my fall decor. You know I'm a habitual premature decorator.