Elderberries are berry good for you!

Following on from the competition the other day, I have been asked for the recipe for Rosie's Most Efficacious Cough Linctus so in the spirit of caring and sharing, here it is.

This recipe makes around 4 x 200ml bottles

250g/8oz elderberries
600ml/1 pint water
250g/8oz honey
1 cinnamon stick
3 cloves
piece fresh ginger, peeled and roughly chopped
1 tablespoon allspice berries
1 teaspoon black peppercorns
1 tablespoon freshly grated nutmeg

Put all but the honey into a pan, bring to a boil then reduce and simmer for around 30 minutes. Squash the berries with a potato masher to release the juice during this time. Strain the mixture through a jelly bag, and once cooled add the honey, stirring to combine. Bottle and seal. Use within 1 year.

Do not give to children under 12 months of age because of the honey.

Take the cough linctus as required but do not add to hot water as it destroys the properties of the honey.

Elderberries are extremely high in Vitamin C and both the berries and the honey have anti-bacterial qualities. So much so that elderberry juice is now being used to treat some strains of the flu virus that have become immune to the vaccines.
This linctus is delicious and even just looking at the colour cheers you up!