I haven’t had a cold since since Christmas, clearly my post Christmas resolution to take vitamins every day is having an effect.

I’m aiming to keep it that way by any means necessary and a friend of mine started taking elderberry syrup before Christmas and didn’t catch the lurgy that the world and it’s wife have had since December. He’s so convinced that it’s good for you, he sent me some dried elderberries so I could make my own. So I did.

I used this recipe, with a few changes, I used thyme honey so didn’t use dried thyme, whole cloves because I didn’t have ground and I had a lemon knocking around so in it went.I put half a cup of dried elderberries, two cups of water, a sliced lemon, two tablespoons of ground cinnamon, a tablespoon of whole cloves and two tablespoons of chopped ginger into a large saucepan and brought it to a simmer for about 30 minutes until the liquid had reduced by half. I mashed the berries a bit and then drained the liquid through a sieve and a piece of muslin making sure to squeeze all the liquid out of the berries that I could. Once the liquid had cooled a bit, I added 227g of raw thyme honey (this one) to the liquid and bottled it, it made approx 400ml if syrup.I take a tablespoon (15ml) every morning in shot form which should help ward off the nasties but if that doesn’t work and I succumb to a cold then I’m supposed to take the same amount two to three times a day.