We’re always on the lookout for easy ways to help you help your family prevent illness, and move through them faster if you do get sick.
Elderberry is one of our favourite family herbs. Keep some dried berries or a commercially available syrup in your natural medicine cabinet at home so you can reach for it when a cold or flu hits the household. Elderberry has a long history of use in Europe for treating coughs, colds and fevers. It’s the perfect herb for flu season. Elderberry tastes nice, so it’s easy to get into kids as a syrup or warm or iced herbal tea, frozen pops or integrated into smoothies. It helps fight viral infections
Gelatin is one of our secret immune-boosting ingredients. It’s almost pure protein, is super digestible and helps to heal the gut – the foundation of your child’s immune system. While you might not be into them eating lots of Jell-O because of the sugar and artificial colourings, you can easily get them the benefits of gelatin without the harmful additives. You can buy unflavoured gelatin powder in grocery or health food stores and dress it up in many ways. Here’s how to make one of the tastiest immune-boosting treats: elderberry gummies.
You will need:
1/8 cup unflavoured gelatin powder
1/2 cup elderberry syrup (we used Sambu Elderberry Concentrate by Flora because it’s sweetened with honey instead of sugar)
1/4 cup hot (not boiling) water
coconut oil for greasing candy moulds (melted or spray – we used Coconut Oil & Butter Ghee Spray from St. Francis)
Silicon candy moulds
Directions:
- Grease candy moulds with coconut oil.
- Place 2 tbsp of elderberry syrup in a 2-cup measuring glass. Add gelatin powder and whisk into a firm paste.
- Add hot water. Continue whisking until mixture is smooth.
- Add remaining elderberry syrup and continue to whisk.
- Pour mixture immediately into candy moulds. Refrigerate for 2 hours.
When gummies are firm, pop out of candy moulds and enjoy some immune-boosting goodness. Store in airtight container in fridge for up to 3 days.
