Hawthorn Berry Syrup

The hawthorn berry was the last syrup I have made this year, and it was made in exactly the same way as the elderberry syrup and the rosehip syrup. I decided to make just a small amount of this syrup and started with just 200g of berries. Please do not use any berries that you cannot identify without any doubt, we are very experienced.

The berries were sorted and those which were not used were put out on the bird table, so none were wasted. I won't list the recipe again, it can be found under the rosehip page above if you would like it. Hawthorn berries have lots of heart benefits amongst other things, more can be read here if you are interested.

This syrup tastes quite like the crab apple jelly I made last year and is an equally beautiful colour. Will be keeping this one for myself, although the children have been using the rosehip and the elderberry syrup to help with their recent cold.

Rose Hip Syrup

We have just made the rose hip syrup for the winter season, these small fruits of the dog rose contain a huge amount of vitamin C amongst other things which helps protect against catching colds and flu, if you would like to know more about the benefits you can read here.

We started by collecting the rose hips, but please remember only pick berries if you know exactly what you are picking. After washing and sorting out the good ones we ended up with about 500g.

Due to their hardness it is best to chop the rose hips first either by hand or in a food processor. Then put the whole lot in a pan and bring to the boil with double the amount of liquid to rose hips, so in our case we put in a litre.

We boiled this for about 5 to 10 minutes then left it to steep for 20 minutes. The cooled mixture was then put through a straining bag to leave us with just liquid and no pips. This strained liquid needs to be returned to the pan and re heated to add and dissolve the sugar, usually with syrups I add an equal amount of sugar to the liquid... so if your end product is 1 litre you would add 1 kilogram of sugar but I have found this quite sweet so we have added slightly less. If you add the sugar a little at a time you can stop at a level which is sweet enough for you, it is also possible to add honey instead of sugar which is something we will be doing next year.

Here is the finished product, I have taken the photograph outside so that you can see the wonderful colour. This is not only a very effective natural remedy but also tastes divine on natural yoghurt or ice cream.

The rose hip syrup has had special meaning to the children this year as we have been watching a wonderful history program called Wartime Farm, and they went into details of how important this was to children's health during the war.

We have also made elderberry syrup again this year as another of our natural remedies for the home medicine cabinet. We made double the amount of this as it was so effective last year, if you would like to make some you can find it here.

Elderberry Syrup

This week we have made the elderberry syrup for winter, this has been used in folk remedies for centuries to boost the immune system and to help protect against colds and flu amongst other things. If you would like to read more about the benefits there is this site or it is easy to search for others.

First we collected our elderberries, we used about 500g in all, make sure you know what you are picking NEVER use berries if you do not know what they are. Once they start to droop or hang they are ripe, we collected a few from several bushes to ensure there where enough left for the wildlife of the area.

The 500g of berries can easily be removed from their stalks for the pot by using a fork. We just covered the berries in water approximately a litre and cooked them for about 20 minutes. Then we put all of the pan contents through a straining bag to remove any berry remains and seeds. At this point measure how much liquid you have and return to the pan to add some sugar, you will need to add about 500g per 500ml if you are using metric measurements, or if you use imperial 1lb of sugar  for each pint of liquid you have. Simmer for a further 10 minutes until all of the sugar has been dissolved and you can then bottle it up into your sterilized container.

As you can see it is a very dark purple colour and has a very thick texture like syrup, you need just one tablespoon of this in a glass of water per day or just a teaspoon on it's own, my children love the taste of this. I will add another couple of sites at the bottom here in case you would like to read further on the benefits  HERE and HERE