– Today, I want to share
with you a master recipe for making a medicinal
herbal syrup using any herb. (gentle music) Hi, sweet friends. I'm Mary and welcome to Mary's Nest, where I teach traditional cooking skills for making nutrient-dense foods, like bone broth, ferment,
sourdough, and more. So, if you enjoy learning
about those things, consider subscribing to my channel and don't forget to click on the little notification bell below. That'll let you know every
time I upload a new video. Today, I'm continuing my series of videos, where I share with you master recipes for making medicinal herbal remedies.
And if you want to view the
other videos in this series, I'll be sure to link to it in the iCards and in the description below. And so far, we've covered master recipes for making medicinal herbal teas, medicinal herbal tinctures, as well as medicinal
herbal oils and salves. And speaking of the description
underneath this video, if you open that up, there
will also be timestamps there, and those timestamps will list everything that I'm going to cover in this video. So, if anytime you want to
jump around or jump ahead, it'll be very easy for
you with those timestamps. And also, in the description
underneath this video, there will be a link to the blog post over on my website, Mary's Nest, same name as my YouTube channel, that will correspond with this video.
And I'll have a lot of
information in there, all about master recipes and specifically the one
we're going to make today for herbal syrups. Also in that blog post will be the recipe, the master recipe, for making
this medicinal herbal syrup and you can read that online
or you can print it out. Now, before we get started, I want to say I'm not a
doctor, I'm a homemaker, but I'm a big fan of home remedies. However, if you're pregnant, or nursing, or you're thinking of using
herbal remedies with children, or maybe you take medication either over-the-counter or prescription, or even very importantly, if you have allergies of any kind, especially those related to hay fever.
When you use herbal remedies, you will really want to discuss this with your medical practitioner to find out if this is something that can be integrated or a compliment to whatever your situation is at the time. So, I always say when it comes to working with medicinal herbs, "Always err on the side of caution. It's best to be safe." Now, two things that I want to cover, first of all, I want
to answer the question: what is a master recipe? What do I mean when I use that term? A master recipe for anything, really, is simply a basic set of instructions with basic amounts that lay
out how to make something.
So, when you look at a master recipe, you will find amounts for certain ingredients. However, there is a lot of
flexibility in those ingredients, so that in the case of like
an herbal master recipe, you can plug in the herbs
that you want to use to treat your particular
situation or condition. So, in the case of making an herbal syrup, a master recipe will call
for X number of herbs, X number of water, and X number of sweetener. Now, what I like to do is
make this very simple for you. And rather than talking in ounces, because I don't think our ancestors were weighing a lot of things, and you know I'm the last
person who's going to tell you you need to buy a scale to do anything. I really liked the idea of
just having general amounts and always reinforcing with you that this is not an exact science.
So, don't get wrapped up
when you read a recipe and it says ounces. So, what I'm going to tell you for making a medicinal herbal syrup is how to measure your herbs
in cups to get one ounce and how certain herbs will measure a little
differently than other herbs and I'm going to make it
all very simple for you. But before we move on to that, the next thing that I
want to talk about is, what exactly do I mean when I
use the term medicinal herbs? Are they different than just herbs? The truth is, most herbs, whether they are culinary or medicinal, really fit both roles.
And the same is true of spices. These are things that we may
use in culinary purposes, like thyme, and oregano, and basil, but all of these herbs also
have medicinal purposes to them. So, they're wonderful for
bringing health properties into our cooking and they're also wonderful for bringing health properties
into our home remedies. Now, today, for demonstrating
our master recipe for making a medicinal herbal syrup, we're going to make a thyme syrup. And that's thyme, the herb, T-H-Y-M-E. Now, when it comes to making
a medicinal herbal syrup, your dried herbs are
going to work the best. And if you're using an herb like thyme that's very small once it's all dried up, you're probably going to need about a cup. Now, if you're using an herb that's more like a dried
flower, like chamomile, then you're probably going to
need about a cup and a half because that's a little larger and it takes up a little
more room in the cup. But to get about one ounce, you're going to probably
want about a cup and a half of the camomile flowers.
But don't worry, just do
the best that you can. It's not an exact science, whether you have a cup or two cups, it's all going to work out in the end and it's going to be a wonderful
medicinal herbal syrup. Now, some herbs are better for making medicinal syrups than others. Thyme is an excellent herb for making a medicinal herbal syrup because it's very
soothing for a sore throat and for a cough. So, it's a wonderful
syrup to have on hand, especially if you're
plagued with colds, or flus, or any sort of upper
respiratory infection. It's loaded with all sorts
of anti-microbial properties. On the other hand, certain herbs, like for example, rosemary, don't necessarily lend themselves for making a 100% rosemary
medicinal herb syrup because rosemary is extremely strong. And in large quantities, it can take on a rather odd, what some people will
describe as a soapy flavor. So when you're using an herb
that's extremely strong, like a rosemary, it's best to create a
medicinal herbal syrup where you're using a combination of herbs where those that are really
strong don't take center stage, but more take a role
of being complimentary for their medicinal purposes, but yet their flavor is tamped down by using other herbs in
combination with them.
And I will go into more
detail about all of this and about the different combinations that I like when making
a medicinal herbal syrup in that blog post that
I mentioned earlier. Now, today, for demonstration purposes, we're going to keep this very simple and we're going to simply make
this a thyme herbal syrup. However, there are a lot of other things that you can add to this if you decide you want to add
additional herbal properties or additional healing properties, and something that I will recommend is that if you decide you want, or you're going to go with just the one cup
of dried thyme leaves, but you want to add some
additional healing properties, you can add other herbs, you can add other spices, and you can also add other aromatics. A wonderful medicinal herbal syrup made with thyme as the base can also include some sliced
onions and sliced ginger, and then they're all simmered together, and then you have,
really, an excellent syrup that is wonderful to be taking
during cold and flu season. So, know that there are a
lot of things you can do and I'll cover all of this in
the accompanying blog post.
And now, you know why I tell you that I put timestamps
in the description below because I like to be very thorough whenever I discuss medicinal herbs. So, it does take me a little while before I actually get to
making the master recipe. Now, there are a few
things I want to mention, and I think this'll be especially
helpful for the beginner. If you find yourself in the
middle of cold and flu season, and you're new to home remedies, and you've not had a
chance to make any of those that require a little
more time and attention like fire cider, and tinctures,
and so on and so forth, don't worry. Herbal syrups are perfect because these can be made in a day and ready, literally,
within no time at all.
And also, if you're new
to using herbal remedies, an herbal syrup is very pleasant to take. So, if you're not accustomed
to taking something strong, like a fire cider or
something like a tincture, a syrup can be a wonderful,
gentle introduction to herbal remedies. Now, I do want to take one
minute to speak to those of you who have corresponded
with me who are diabetics. Now, a herbal syrup is probably
not the best option for you. And the reason is herbal syrups don't lend themselves very well to using alternative sweeteners. Now, we're going to talk about some different sweeteners
here that we can use, but that are what I would
call a real sweetener, like a honey, or sugar, or a sucanat, which is simply the dried
sugarcane juice in its whole form, or maple sugar, or maple
syrup, and so on and so forth.
We'll discuss those a
little in detail later. But again, these are all things that diabetics may not be
allowed to have in their diet. You would want to talk to your
doctor about that in detail. So, if that's the case,
if your situation… If you are a diabetic and your situation doesn't
allow you to use sweeteners, like real sweeteners like honey, then you really want to look
to using things like tinctures, and your fire cider, and your herbal teas, things that are very gentle and that don't have any added sugars. And again, specifically in
the situation of diabetes since that's very serious, discuss these things with
your medical practitioner.
Now, for a master recipe to
make a medicinal herbal syrup, you're going to need one
ounce of your dried herbs. In this case, one ounce
of thyme is one cup. And I'm specifically
using the lemon thyme. I like lemon thyme very much, and this is something I grow in my garden and that I've just dried
and keep handy in my pantry for both culinary purposes
and medicinal purposes, but any time will do. And as I mentioned
earlier, in the blog post, I'll definitely talk about other herbs that make excellent syrups. And as a matter of fact,
if you're interested in learning how to make
your own elderberry syrup, which is always very popular
during cold and flu season to help boost immunity, I have a video where I
show you how to do that and I'll be sure to link
to that in the iCards and in the description below. And as a matter of fact,
in the description below, I'll put a link to a playlist I have where I've combined all of the
videos that I've made for you that include immune-boosting foods, as well as home remedies.
And I think you'll find
that playlist very helpful, whether you're a beginner or you're far along on
your home remedy journey. So, we've got our one
ounce of dried herbs. In this case, one cup of dried thyme. You're also going to need
four to six cups of water. Now, I like to use four cups of water because I've been using home
remedies for many, many years.
I was raised on home remedies. So, I'm very used to the
taste of these things and I'm very used to the taste
of different types of herbs. So, I like to make this more concentrated. If you are new to home remedies, if you're new to using herbal remedies, and you're new to the tastes
of these different herbs that you may use to make these syrups, you may want to increase the
water to a total of six cups. Now, we are going to be simmering this and we're going to
decrease the water by half. Whether we start with
four cups or six cups, we're going to decrease it by half. Now, when you look at other recipes for making medicinal herbal syrups, you may find that the
proportion or the ratio of liquid to sweetener is 1:1 and sometimes even 1:2.
I find that exceptionally sweet, but a lot is going to
depend on your taste buds and what you become accustomed to in terms of the more medicinal flavors of the herbs that you're
using to make your syrup. Now, we're going to be
decreasing this liquid as we simmer it by half. So, since I'm starting with four cups, I'm going to have two cups of liquid. If you start with six cups, you're going to have three cups of liquid.
Now, many recipes may say, "If you have two cups of liquid, add two cups of sweetener." Or, "If you have three cups of liquid, add three cups of sweetener." And some will, even as
I said, do a 1:2 ratio. So, if you have two cups of liquid, they may say anywhere
from three or even four, which would be the one to do, four cups of sweetener. And that's just, I feel, way too much. So, in this master recipe, I'm going to recommend
that if you decrease… If you start with four cups and you decrease your liquid to two cups, I would recommend one cup of sweetener. But in the written directions, I'll also explain that you can certainly
add two cups of sweetener or even more, and I'll also have the measurements for if you decrease this to three cups because you started with six cups. Alrighty, now, let's take a minute to talk about the sweetener. I like to use honey. It's my favorite option for
making medicinal herbal syrups and as I've shared with you in the past, my husband's cousin raises bees and shares some of the honey with us, and it's always wonderful honey.
So, that is always my first choice. However, you do have options. If you are new to this, and you need to make this right away, and all you have on hand is white sugar, you can use sugar because, again, you're taking these syrups in relatively small amounts. So, it's not the end of the world if you make this with white sugar if that's all you have on hand and you really want to take advantage of the medicinal properties
that the herbs can offer and you want to take them in a syrup form.
Now, other options are sucanat. This is simply sugar. It's what white sugar came from. This is a white cane sugar. This is the whole cane sugar, the whole sugar cane juice
that's simply been dried, so you've got all the minerals intact. So, this is one option. Another option is coconut sugar. This works very similar to sucanat, both in consistency and taste. So, this is another
option that you can use if you are relatively
far along on your journey from leaving processed foods
like white sugar behind and moving to more of a
traditional foods kitchen and you've started incorporating some of these various whole sweeteners or whole sugars in your kitchen.
These are two that act very
similar in their properties. So, both of these can work very well. Another option is maple sugar, although maple sugar, I find very costly and I really like to
reserve this for those times when I'm baking with something that I want to maintain
the light color of, like a sugar cookie. And maple sugar doesn't really
have a strong maple flavor, but it's very light in color so it doesn't affect the
significance of the… or the coloring of the baked good. So, that's what I
usually reserve that for, like a yellow cake mix, or as I said, sugar
cookies, and it is pricey. So, I kind of use it a little judiciously. But if you want, you can use maple syrup.
This is usually a little more affordable. I find this at Costco and Sam's and usually can get a
pretty good buy on it, and that works very well if
you don't want to use honey. You can also use things like
date sugar and/or date syrup. That's kind of become a popular sweetener in traditional foods kitchen, but you want to keep in mind that that does have a
little stronger flavor and a much darker color. Not that it really matters when
you're making herbal syrups because they do tend to
lean to a darker color or a darker… And thicker and darker consistency. However, depending on your taste buds and those of your family's taste buds, a date syrup may be something
that you'll want to work up to because it does have a stronger flavor and something that you become
more accustomed to over time. But any of these will work very well.
And sucanat and coconut sugar
are relatively affordable. Now, what I'm going to do
is pour my water into my… pot here. And before we get started with
this, I just want to mention, 'cause I get a lot of questions about this little cooktop
that I put on my island here. This is made by Cuisinart
and I'm very happy with it. It's just a Cuisinart Countertop Burner and I will be sure to put
information about this in a link if I can find one, I'll
put the model number. And if I can find a link, I'll put this in the description below. I'm very happy with
this countertop burner. The only thing that I have
shared with many of you who have asked me about it
is it does run a little hot. So you just need to be a little… In comparison, at least, to my cooktop.
So, I do need to be a little careful about when it's got minimum
and then one through five. And I don't think I ever go up to five because this really does run hot, but I'm very happy with it
and it comes in very handy. And I also get a lot of
questions about this. I've had this for so long and I don't even really
remember where I bought this, but if I will look online and if I can find one that's very similar, I'll definitely put a link
in the description below. Now that I've got my water in my saucepan, I'm going to go ahead and turn on the heat and I'm going to bring this up to a boil. And then we're going to go
ahead and add in our herbs and then we're going to
turn it down to a low simmer right when I go ahead and add in the herbs because that's going to adjust the volume.
I'm going to take the
handle of my wooden spoon, and we're going to go ahead
and put it into the saucepan, and then we're going to measure how much volume there's in there. And then I'll show you
what we're going to do as a little trick so we know when we've reached half when it has evaporated down, when it's simmered and
evaporated down to half. So, I'm going to turn this up and we're going to watch for
this to come up to a boil. Well, this came up to a boil. I just turned the heat
down a little, as I said, this burner runs very fast.
So, I've got it now on a nice simmer and I'm going to go ahead and
I'm going to add in the thyme. So, I went ahead and poured that thyme in. And I have to tell you,
if you decide to use thyme or in specifically like
I did use lemon thyme, oh my gosh, the aroma, it's just amazing. But you're just going to mix this up to make sure all the thyme or whatever herb you're using becomes wet and submerged well into the liquid. Now, I'm going to take the
handle of my wooden spoon, I'm going to submerge
it down into the pot, into my saucepan here, and I'm just going to gently pull it out, and then you're going to
be able to see a water line on the wooden spoon or maybe a chopstick is also very good to use for this. And then I know exactly what my
four cups with the thyme, what the volume is, by measuring it with the
handle of my wooden spoon.
So now what I do is… Now, if you want to be very exact, you can do this with a ruler. But what I'll do is simply eyeball this to where I feel is in the
middle, basically half. And then when I feel this
starts to look like it's reduced to about half, I will use this to check and all I do in terms of making
a little measurement here… Some people will use a rubber band. I always feel, "Is the
rubber band food-safe?" I'm just not sure, But in any event, here's my watermark. I'll take my rubber… (Mary mumbles) I'll take my little bit of twine here and I'll just estimate, guesstimate where I think the halfway mark is.
That looks pretty good. And now I know that I need my liquid to come up to this string line and I'll know that I've
reduced it by half. Now, you just want to
keep this on a low simmer. And if I was doing this on my stove top, I would put the lid on like
this, just sort of ajar, and then I would put my exhaust fan on so that it could take
down some of the steam. But since I'm just doing this here on the island on this little cooktop, I'm still going to put things in ajar and we'll just let the scheme… The scheme. (Mary laughs) We'll let the steam escape where it may. But we're going to keep an eye on that and check it periodically to see when we've got it reduced by half and then we'll move on to the next step. Before we continue with the process of making our medicinal herb syrup, I wanted to share some books with you that I think are very helpful if medicinal herbs remedies
are of interest to you.
And specifically, one of
my favorite all-time books that I want to share with you is "Rosemary Gladstar's Medicinal
Herbs: A Beginner's Guide." And what is so great about this book, it's just sort of an oversized paperback, but it's got a lot of
wonderful pictures in it. She teaches you how to know the herbs, how to grow the herbs, and then how to use them. And she goes through about, I
believe it's maybe about 20, basic or 24 effective herbs to know, grow, and use. Many of them are very basic herbs that you'll be familiar
with, like chamomile, and lavender, and lemon
balm, and peppermint.
And so, it truly is a beginner's guide and everything in this book
is so easy to understand, so easy to follow, so easy to implement, and so easy to make, and she shows you how to make her different home remedies. But anything by Rosemary Gladstar when it comes to herbs is
going to be outstanding. But this beginner's guide is a
book that I highly recommend. And I know many of you have shared with me you have this book also
and you feel the same way.
But Rosemary has a variety of books. This is another one I have from hers that I actually found at Half Price Books. I love going to used bookstores. And this is called, "Rosemary Gladstar's Herbal
Recipes for Vibrant Health," and this is another nice book. She just has a lovely presentation and she's always got good pictures that help you understand about the herb, and what it looks like, and what you're going to be doing with it.
And so, I highly recommend this too as you maybe go farther down your journey and are interested in making even more different herbal recipes. But "Rosemary Gladstar's Herbal
Recipes for Vibrant Health," and I'll definitely link to these books in the description below if it's something that interests you. But definitely, Rosemary Gladstar
is a very prolific writer and her books are very popular. So, I highly recommend looking in your local used bookstores, and I think used bookstores seem to becoming more and more popular. So, definitely keep an eye out if you go to their health section or sometimes they're in
the gardening section. Again, it really depends
where they put them, but keep an eye open for her books because they are wonderful.
And then this one is called "Fire Cider," and those of you who
make homemade fire cider are going to really enjoy this. And if fire cider is
something that's new to you, I'll be sure to link to my video in the iCards or in the description below on how to make fire cider. But at least the way I make it. And what's so fun about this book, this has 101 zesty recipes
for health boosting remedies made with apple cider vinegar. And it's by Rosemary Gladstar, but it's cute because
it says, "And Friends," because what she's basically done here is pulled together 101
recipes from different people who show how they make their fire cider because there's so many
things that you can add to the apple cider vinegar
'cause that's what it is. It's basically an infusion
of different herbs, and spices, and aromatics,
and so on and so forth that you infuse into apple cider vinegar, and then you strain it
after a certain period that you allow it to infuse
and then you take it as…
Some people can drink it straight, I usually like to mix mine in
a little water (Mary laughs) to make it a little more mild. But it's wonderful for boosting immunity. And so if you really find that
you enjoy making fire cider and you're really looking for
a lot of different varieties, I highly recommend this book. It's a lot of fun. The final book that I want to
mention to you is if you find having a resource for
master recipes interesting, and I really liked them, and that's why I wanted to
share this series with you. I think you might really
find this book interesting.
It's titled, "Master Recipes
from the Herbal Apothecary," and there are 375 tinctures, salves, teas,
capsules, oils, and washes for whole body health and wellness. And this is a very interesting book. What I wanted to do in
my series here on YouTube was to share with you those master recipes that I felt were for making
the most common things, like your tinctures, and in this case, your syrups, your herbal oils, your herbal salves. These things I find, and
of course, herbal teas. And speaking of verbal teas, if you are looking for a
recipe for making an herbal tea that can really help
with a good night's sleep if you struggle with that, I have a video where
I show you how to make that particular… I have the main master recipe video, but then I have another one where I make the good night's
sleep tea as I call it. And I'll be sure to link to that. That's a very popular video and a lot of people have told
me they really liked that tea. And I'll be sure to link to that 'cause sleep problems can
often be very troublesome.
But in any event, getting
back to master recipes. So, I just wanted to share for you those sort of broad master recipes that I thought really
covered a number of areas that could be very helpful for you to have in your repertoire to be able to make these things that then can become part of your home remedy medicine
cabinets, so to speak. But this book, "Master Recipes
from the Herbal Apothecary," oh my gosh. They go into a lot of
detail about a lot of ways to make a lot of different
herbal preparations.
So if that's something that interests you, be sure to check out that book. Alrighty, well, we've got
this old beautifully simmered. And what I did was I took my wooden spoon with my string. And when I felt it looked like
it was pretty much reduced by about half, I kind of
eyeball it, and I checked it. I checked it at one point, it
hadn't quite reduced by half, but as you can see, this has gotten right up
to where the string is. So, I know that I have reduced
this concoction perfectly so that we're down to maybe approximately
two cups or so already from the original four
cups that we started with. Now, what I'm going to do is
strain this through a strainer.
But we're going to do a double strain because we want to make sure that we get out every last
little bit of the herbs. And so the first thing I'm going to do is take my mesh strainer. I'm just going to put it
over my measuring cup here if you have a bowl, whatever you have. And then we're just going to go ahead and start to strain this out. Now, once you get all of your herbs down into your mesh strainer, just press on it ever so gently just to try and get out any liquid that may be being held in by those herbs.
And then when you lift all of this out, let me turn this around for you and you look down at your measurement, you should have about two cups of liquid if you started with the four cups and you decreased it by half. If you started with the six cups, then you'll have about
three cups of liquid. Now, don't throw these out.
If you compost, certainly, you can throw them into your compost pile. But they do… It's amazing how, even after
simmering in this hot water, they still have some fragrance to them. So, what I recommend doing is
a couple of different things. You can spread this out on a baking sheet and just put it in a very slow oven, the lowest that your oven setting will go. Or even if you have a dehydrator, you could use that and
just let them dry out. And then, you can put them in a tea bowl and use them to make tea. You can put them into sachets to make like a little
potpourri, something like that. But there's still life… In my humble opinion, there's still life left to those herbs. So, that's a few things to think about. Alrighty, now let's move
on to the next step. Now, my mesh strainer did a very good job straining out the bulk of my thyme. And when I look on the bottom, the very bottom of my pitcher here, I really don't see much thyme.
I see a very, very tiny, tiny little bit. So, I'm not going to do a double strain and the reason is because
when you do a double strain, you do lose a little bit of that liquid and I want to try to preserve
this best that I can. But if I felt there was a lot of debris that had gotten through my mesh strainer, and the tighter your mesh
strainer, the better, but if a lot of debris had
gotten through my mesh strainer, what I would do is transfer my herbs to another type of container. And then I would take one
of my flour sack towels. If you've been with me over for a while and you've seen me make bone broth, you know I love straining
using these flour sack towels. And I would just line my
strainer with my flour sack towel and then I would put my strainer over another bowl or
pitcher, whatever I have. And then I would pour this through to give it a double strain and
get out any additional herbs that might be floating around in there. But the truth is it's so minor that I'm not going to worry about
it because the mesh strainer, I mean the flour sack towel,
used to line your mesh strainer or if you don't have this,
you can use cheesecloth.
You could also use a
couple of coffee filters. All of that would work. The bottom line is they do
absorb some of the liquid. But in some cases, you have to do that because you really may find
that there is a lot of debris after the first mesh straining, depending on how fine your herbs are. So that is something to keep in mind, but we're going to forego that this time. But either way, whether you do a single
strain or a double strain, whatever the case may be, once you get your liquid
to where you're happy with, now you're going to
move on to the next step and the next step does
have some variation, depending on what type
of sweetener you use. There's one way to do things
if you use a liquid sweetener and then there's another way to do things if you use a granulated sweetener.
So, if you're using a sucanat, or you're using a coconut sugar, or a maple sugar, or a date
sugar, whatever the case may be, you're going to want
to take your saucepan. You're going to wash it out,
make sure it's nice and clean and there's no debris left in there, and then you're going
to take your syrup…
Or it's not your syrup yet. You're going to take your infused liquid, you're going to put it
back into your saucepan, and then you're going to take the amount of granulated
sweetener that you want to use, and you're going to put
this on a very low setting, and you're just going to stir it until your granulated sweetener dissolves. Now, my personal opinion
is for two cups of liquid to use no more than one cup
of granulated sweetener. But as I have said, you may see some recipes
that do call for 1:1. If you want to do that, two cups of liquid would call for two cups
of granulated sweetener.
So, that's exactly what you
would do into your saucepan with your liquid, your sweetener: on low, and just stir it until that
granulated sweetener dissolves. If, on the other hand, you're
using a liquid sweetener, like a honey, or a maple
syrup, or a date syrup, whatever the case may be,
the process is very easy. You're going to measure out how much liquid sweetener you want. Since I have two cups of liquid, I'm only going to use one
cup of liquid sweetener. And so, I'm going to use my honey, and I'm going to measure out one cup, and then I'm just going to
add it right into my liquid, which is still nice and warm. But that's the key, it's just warm and the honey will dissolve,
or the maple syrup, whatever liquid sweetener you're using will just simply dissolve. But we will protect, especially
in the case of honey, and especially in a raw honey, we will protect the vital nutrients that are in raw honey without putting them back on
the heat and cooking them.
So, let me go ahead and
measure my one cup of honey. And then we'll go ahead and
pour this into our liquid and then I'll show you the
best way to decant this. Now, I'm going to go ahead
and add in my one cup of honey to my two cups of infused liquid. And when you do this, you really want to have
a nice, pourable honey. That's going to work the
best for this process and it's going to dissolve the
quickest in the warm liquid. Then, I'm just going to stir this around until I feel that the honey
has completely dissolved in the warm liquid. Well, I think this is perfect. The honey is completely dissolved.
And speaking of honey,
I just want to mention, I think most of you know this, but you never want to
give honey to infants. You never want to give honey to anyone who's one year old or younger. And if you do decide to introduce honey into your child's diet or you're using any kind of
herbal remedy with a toddler, really touch base with your pediatrician. I know many of you have said, "Oh, my pediatrician doesn't know anything about herbs or whatever," but maybe you're working with one who is becoming more knowledgeable about integrative medicine.
I've definitely seen that, quite a change from when my son… He's a grown man now in his 20s, but quite a difference from when I first started taking him to a pediatrician and some that I've met over the years who are actually very interested
in integrative medicine. I think, as I mentioned earlier, Dr. Andrew Weil in creating the study
for integrative medicine. I'm not exactly sure what it's called, but I believe it's through the University of Arizona Medical School. And a lot of medical schools now offer programs in integrative medicine. So, I think doctors are becoming a little bit more and more open to not only hearing about these things, but learning about them
themselves and then helping us. But in any… So, I just wanted to mention that. But now, you're going
to want to decant this.
And I highly recommend
that once you decant it, you refrigerate it. I know few people say, "Oh, if
you make it with white sugar, white sugar is such a preservative. You don't have to refrigerate it." But I just feel better when
it comes to these things to refrigerate it. And in terms of shelf life, again, when you're making things homemade and they're home remedies, there's a lot of maybe
unpredictability as to, say, what is the perfect or exact shelf life. But generally, I like to
think that these syrups definitely will last you
through cold and flu season. And generally, I think stay
fresh and relatively potent for about one year. And now, what about dosing? Again, home remedies,
there's a lot of leeway here on what's considered appropriate. But if I was taking this particular syrup, most likely I would be taking it because I had a cough or I had some bronchial symptoms related to cold and flu in addition to a cough. And I would probably take
this maybe three times a day, maybe a teaspoon three times a day and see if it gave me
the relief that I needed.
Now, personally, I think
if you have a choice between a clear bottle
and an amber bottle, and I know many of you, when you see me do these types of videos, you say, "Mary, where do
you buy your bottles?" I really don't buy bottles,
I kind of just recycle them. And if you've seen my video about hunting for treasures in the trash, kitchen treasures in the trash, I'll definitely link to that and it might give you some ideas about where I find my bottles. But sometimes, they're just ones that other things were in, and I just washed them
up and sanitize them, and just set them aside for when I need them for
my own home remedies.
I'm a big fan of always
letting family and friends know that before they throw something out, to think about it, and
look at it, and say, "Gee, would Mary consider
this a treasure?" (Mary laughs) And then, depending on what the
ordinances are in your town, there always is the possibility of going around on trash day and seeing what others are throwing out, but be careful about
that 'cause every town has different ordinances and you don't want to get arrested going through someone's trash or just their recycling bin.
But you can also put your
friends and neighbors on alert as to the type of things
that you like to recycle. But if you have a choice between a clear glass
bottle and an amber bottle, I really like to store home
remedies of this nature: tinctures and syrups in amber bottles. I feel that it just helps
protect the integrity and the potency of the herbs
for as long as possible. Now, if you have a second refrigerator that maybe you don't open very much and you just put this kind of on the bottom shelf in the back, if it's in a clear bottle, I think that works fairly well. And if all you have are clear bottles, don't worry about it too much. Just kind of maybe tuck it away in the back of your
refrigerator best you can, so each time you open your refrigerator does not give you too much exposure. You can always take your clear plastic…
Not plastic, but clear glass bottles. And that's one thing I want to mention 'cause I do get questions,
"Can you use plastic?" Glass is always going
to be my first choice. But if you do have food-safe plastic and that's all you have, then, yes, that is an option. But you really need to be
careful and you need to make sure that it is very food-safe and that it's not a particularly
soft or poorest plastic because every herb has
different properties and you don't want something, especially in the case of
like making a fire cider that we talked about
earlier that would have the acidic base that may
eat away at the plastic.
So, if you can get some
type of glass bottle, all the better. And what you can always do is if you have those sort of
little brown sandwich bags, you can put your glass bottle
into a brown sandwich bag your clear glass bottle, which can protect it from the light and the constant light exposure from opening and closing the refrigerator. So, that's just a little tip. But what I'm going to do is
I'm going to start decanting some of this in the clear bottle, so you can see what it looks like. 'cause it's a little more difficult to see in the amber bottle. Now, I've just got the
cap over here on the side and I'm using… If you have a real, steady hand and you have a little pitcher like this, maybe you can do it without the funnel, but I find it's a little
easier to do with a funnel. Oh my gosh, look at that wonderful syrup. And now this, once you refrigerate this, it is going to thicken up. And if you started with four cups and reduced it down to two and then added the cup of your sweetener, you are going to wind up in the end with about three cups of syrup.
And so, as you see, I've got plenty and this amount makes plenty
for cold and flu season, even for a larger family. And then, boom, you just
pop this in your fridge and you're all ready next time you need a
medicinal herbal syrup. Well, if you have enjoyed
learning about how to make this, I hope that you'll click
on this video over here, where I have the playlist
of all my master recipes for making herbal remedies. And I'll see you over there in my Texas Hill Country Kitchen. Love and God bless. (gentle music).