We have all had a cold for over a week, and I'm trying to use more natural remedies, so yesterday I decided to use the frozen rosehips and elderberries I picked in the late summer/early autumn to make a syrup. It has been a huge success with my toddler!
Ingredients
300g of frozen rosehips
250g of frozen elderberries
Cinnamon stick
Cloves
water
200g caster sugar
Method
I placed the berries and spices in a pan and covered with water, boiling for about 20 minutes.
At the end I used a potato masher to mash all the berries to make sure I was extracting all the goodness.
I put them through a sieve and collected in a pan.
I then lined the colander with a tea cloth (a muslin would have been better but I didn't have one handy!) and poured the liquid into it, allowing it to drain through for hours. This is important if using rosehips as they have fine hairs.
I put the liquid into a measuring jug to see how much I had collected - 200ml. So I combined with the equivalent of sugar in grams (so 200g) and boiled for 10 minutes to combine.
Poured into a clean bottle (sterilised would be better, but I wasn't organised enough and knew I'd be using straight away anyway) and popped into the fridge.
Use either as a cough syrup or poured onto porridge etc.
Nutritional and medicinal benefit
Rosehips have a high vitamin C content.
Both rosehips and elderberries are good for fighting colds, coughs and sore throats.