Made My First Cough Syrup

Have you all discovered Frugally Sustainable yet?  I had browsed around over there off and on in the past, but I’ve started reading more posts lately and loving it. 

If you subscribe to the blog, you get a free copy of Andrea’s e-book “Herbal Rescue:  Your Guide To Creating A Homemade Herbal First Aid Kit”

Today I made this herbal cold and cough syrup.  The boys and I all tested it, and we give it lots of thumbs up for taste.  I loved how easy it was to make, and the ingredients were pretty inexpensive.  I always have lots of fresh ginger in my kitchen, and I was able to buy echinacea and licorice root in the bulk section of our health food store.  I spend $3.30 total for enough echinacea and licorice root to make several batches of this syrup.  The honey was a bit more expensive, as I wanted to get raw honey for this recipe (I don’t usually worry about whether my honey is raw, since I mostly use honey for baking, which means it’s getting cooked anyway).  But our health food store had that on sale last week too, and I got a one pound container for about $7.  I only made half a batch of the syrup because we get sick very rarely (knock on wood) and because the cute little jar I wanted to use isn’t very big. 

I chopped up my ginger nice and small, added the echinacea and licorice root, and simmered it until it reduced to about half its volume.  The house smelled great.  Then I strained it through my nut milk bag and stirred the honey into the liquid, which was still hot enough to dissolve the honey without having to put it back on the stove. 

All done and ready for the fridge after its photo shoot!

The bottle was in a box of canning jars that my MIL gave me a few months ago.  I didn’t know at the time what I could use it for, but I figured I’d come up with something.  It’s perfect for my homemade cough syrup!

If you haven’t had the pleasure of checking out Frugally Sustainable yet, head over and browse around.  And you’re welcome!