Syrups and Cordials: comfort in winter

With the modern emphasis on reducing amounts of simple carbohydrates we ingest, it may seem strange to think about the production of sugar or honey based recipes. Unless you are faced with someone suffering from diabetes or Syndrome X, there are good reasons for delivering herbal medicines in a syrup.

Children are much more likely to take their medicine if they are syrup based (and personally I would much rather give them a small dose of sugar rather than a mouthful of artificial sweeteners!). Syrups can also be helpful when you are using very bitter or bad tasting herbs (remembering not to do this if you are taking a bitter which much be tasted to kick start your digestive processes.) They can also be fun, allowing you to match flavours and herbs to suit your mood and physical need.

The production of medicinal syrups has been set out in great theory and detail on The Herbarium website. If you wish to make syrups from layering sugar and powdered leaves, barks or petals, it is best to follow the herbarium instructions. They also advocate producing syrup which has a 2:1 sugar to liquid ratio to prevent decay and bacterial infiltration of the finished product. If you are producing syrups for your own use and keep the bottle in the fridge after opening, I use a 1:1 ratio as this has always worked for me.

My basic syrup recipe comes from Non Shaw and Christopher Hedley. After you have made your decoction of herbs, you need to evaporate the resulting liquid by 7/8s over a minimum heat. On my gas cooker, an inch of liquid evaporates during the course of one hour, so if I’m making a medicinal syrup from four pints of liquid, it can take a whole day to evaporate leaving me with the required one eighth. That’s fine if you have sufficient time but if I’m making syrups and cordials during a workshop which only lasts three hours, we usually compromise and make a simple cordial which doesn’t require such a massive volume reduction.

General syrup recipe from Non Shaw and Christopher Hedley's Herbal Remedies

1 l (2 pints) water

40 g (1 1/2 oz) dried herb or 100g (4oz) fresh chopped herb

450 g (1 lb) sugar

Put herb in water, bring to a boil, let simmer 20-30 minutes, strain. Clean out pan, pour liquid back into it, let sit on minimum heat until you only have 2 dl (7 fl.oz) left. Add sugar, simmer until sugar has dissolved, pour into jars, label. If making a syrup with more liquid, the general rule of thumb is add 1lb sugar or honey to every 1pint of liquid.

When we were making syrups during yesterday’s workshop, the question was asked, “Which herbs would you not put in a syrup?” It wasn’t something I’d really thought about before, but apart from the obvious poisonous herbs, I really couldn’t think of anything I would actively avoid putting in a syrup.

What I would be wary of is to use herbs which could be dangerous in high doses. For example, several years ago I experimented with a Seasonal Affective Disorder (SAD) syrup made from St John’s wort seed tops and lemon balm with added lemon juice. It tasted wonderful and I was really worried that anyone with children who might get hold of the syrup could ingest large quantities which might do them harm. You could argue that this holds true for any medicinal product and is the reason why one should always be mindful of dosage and safety where any kind of medicinal product is concerned.

I have to admit, I don’t use most of my syrups in their concentrated form. I prefer to drink them in a mug of hot water. I find this the most comforting way to take them as I don’t have a very sweet tooth and a spoonful of syrup is too sweet and doesn’t last long enough in my mouth to truly savor.

What I really like about making syrups is the ability to create something unique for an individual at this moment in time. Yesterday was a classic example. Judith has been suffering with a lingering tickly cough. It is irritating especially as she sings in several choirs during the week. She was going to make a classic cough syrup of hyssop, white horehound and marshmallow. When I mentioned that Chris has found relief for his coughs with sage and thyme, she added some of those, proving heat with root ginger and added flavour with juice and rind of a lemon.

Judith’s cough syrup

1 handful dried horehound, marshmallow, sage and thyme

½ handful dried hyssop

Fresh orange peel diced.

1” root ginger grated.

2 pints water

Everything was placed in a saucepan, covered with water , brought to the boil and simmered with the lid on for 20-30 minutes. It was then strained and the liquid measured (1.5 UK pints). After cleaning the saucepan, the liquid was returned and 1lb 8 ozs sugar was added. The mixture was heated slowly, stirring with a wooden spoon until all the sugar was dissolved. The syrup was then brought to the boil and poured into sterilised bottles, sealed, labelled and dated.

Maggie was interested in a mineral rich and fortifying syrup. She chose to make a nettle and rose petal syrup, to which was added ashwagandha roots and a small handful of rosehips.

Maggie’s Nettle and rose syrup

2 large handfuls of dried nettle leaf

1 12oz jar full of dried apothecary’s rose petals

1 small handful of dried ashwagandha roots

1 small handful of rosehips

¼  inch grated ginger root

2 pints water

Everything was placed in a saucepan, covered with water, brought to the boil and simmered with the lid on for 20-30 minutes. It was then strained and the liquid measured (1.25 UK pints). After cleaning the saucepan, the liquid was returned and 1lb 4ozs sugar was added. The mixture was heated slowly, stirring with a wooden spoon until all the sugar was dissolved. The syrup was then brought to the boil and poured into sterilised bottles, sealed, labelled and dated.

Lorraine was attracted by the bowl of fresh rosehips on the table. These had been picked on the farm two days previously. She decided to make a warming rosehip syrup with added ginger and lemon.

Lorraine’s Spiced Rosehip Syrup

3/4lb fresh rosehips

1” root ginger grated

1 lemon juiced and peel diced.

2 pints water

After placing all the ingredients in a saucepan, they were blitzed to a pulp using a stick blender before bringing to the boil and simmering for 30 minutes with the lid on. The contents were then strained through muslin to remove all the seeds and hairs. 1.25 (UK) pints were returned to the clean pan together with 1lb 4 ozs of sugar. The mixture was stirred constantly on a gentle heat until all the sugar dissolved and then was brought to the boil before pouring into sterilised bottles. The bottles were then sealed, labelled and dated in the usual way.

Bill and Janey made a spiced apple cordial using the recipe posted last time. During lunch we drank a rose and lemon balm cordial which I made during the summer and froze.

Rose and lemon balm cordial

5-6 strongly scented roses (I used a mixture of Apothecary’s Rose, William Shakespeare and Gertrude Jekyll)

20 lemon balm stems

4 flowering stems of self-heal

4 lemons

2 lbs of sugar

2 UK pints (20fl oz) of water

Remove the leaves from the lemon balm stems and the leaves and flower stalks from the self-heal and place in a large bowl. Chop into small pieces with scissors. Add all the rose petals and mix. Remove the ends of the lemon and cut into slices. Add these slices to the herbs. Measure the sugar and cold water and place in a saucepan on the heat. Bring to the boil stirring all the time with a long wooden spoon. Pour the sugar syrup carefully into the bowl. Cover with a suitably sized dinner plate so all the plant material is submerged under the syrup. Place the bowl in a cool larder or fridge overnight. You will see that the syrup has turned pink by the following morning. Remove the dinner plate and strain the syrup into a jug. Squeeze the plant material well to remove as much syrup as possible. If you want to maximise your syrup, return the squeezed plant matter to the bowl and cover with cold water. Mix well then strain again and drink. (This should provide your first taste of the cordial at a suitable strength for imbibing.) Pour your rose syrup either into sterilized glass bottles or clean plastic bottles and immediately freeze. The glass bottles should be sealed, labelled and dated and kept in the fridge once open. Dilute to taste with still or sparkling water.

With recent drops in temperature, it is tempting to think there is very little produce available to make ourselves something fresh. A quick walk around our urban environment in the noontime sunshine revealed a multitude of fresh nettles and a red exuberance of rosehips. There is still time to forage and make sufficient cordials to keep us through the winter.

A symphony of spices

As our northern hemisphere moves away from the sun, shortening days and cooling temperatures turn our thoughts to ways of retaining heat both in our bodies and our environment. Whereas in spring and summer we long for the vibrant, refreshing taste of green herbs, autumn flavours come from the spice cupboard.

In ancient times, to trade in spices meant control of great wealth. Despite our seeming isolation from the hot countries of the middle and far east, our British ancestors have always loved cloves, nutmeg and cinnamon. 

Scholars may claim the Crusaders brought spices back with them for general use, but archaeologists have found evidence for Phoenician traders plying their wares around the majority of the British coastline during Roman times and probably before that.

Every housewife with means kept her spices under lock and key, bringing them out to flavour festive dishes often during the dark times of the year. Sometimes their use would be to make rancid meat more palatable and safe to eat, whilst richer folk would dazzle their guests with saffron and beaten gold leaf.

Much of British medical knowledge in the middle ages was based on the works of Middle Eastern physicians such as Avicenna as well as classical Greek and Egyptian texts. Their use of spices to warm the blood and keep it moving around the body was well known and ginger syrup retained its place in the British Pharmacia for arthritic pain until the 1950s.

All spices have warming qualities to a greater or lesser degree. Nutmeg is a warming, stimulating spice. It is a traditional digestive remedy and generally stimulates energy in the body. It can be used with other warming spices for people who tend to be on the cold side, constitutionally. It makes a useful poultice for chest congestion.

Large doses (i.e. more than two whole nutmegs eaten at once) are hallucinogenic causing massive hangovers and inability to urinate. They are a favourite high with prisoners who cannot obtain other illegal drugs but they are often unaware of the side effects!

Cardomom and cinnamon have a gentle effect, if you are trying to persuade someone to help their circulation whilst professing to hate spices. They can easily be added to family staples such as rice pudding or apple pie without anyone protesting. Cardamom has been widely used to treat infections in teeth and gums, to prevent and treat throat problems, congestion of the lungs and tuberculosis, inflammation of eyelids and digestive disorders.

Cinnamon has a myriad of uses, from treating Raynauld’s disease to type two diabetes. Every herbalist will wax lyrical about cinnamon if you listen to them long enough.  Jim Macdonald has written, “Cinnamon excels as a stimulating diaphoretic, and is specific for when there is poor peripheral circulation but the afflicted is either sweating profusely or has diarrhoea and is becoming dehydrated.”

He describes this as an example of a diaphoretic that checks perspiration, rather than promoting it. He says this action isn’t inhibitory; rather, it helps to prevent dehydration resultant from weakness in the periphery. He believes diaphoretics don’t, as is often stated, work by stimulating sweating but rather by controlling ventilation via directing circulation and regulating/correcting tension or weakness in the periphery.

King described cinnamon, “For post-partum and other uterine haemorrhages, it is one of the most prompt and efficient remedies in the Materia Medica.” Ellingwood was another nineteen century herbalist who used cinnamon as “a haemostatic of much power” saying, “it is positively reliable in all passive haemorrhages.”

Cumin and coriander are both anti-bacterial, warming and cooling, thanks to their diaphoretic properties. Other spices such as turmeric and chilli are increasingly being used for their anti-inflammatory and pain-relieving qualities.

Turmeric is an ancient Ayevedic medicine.  It is a useful digestive stimulant and chologouge. It gently warms the digestive system and through slight bitter and pungent flavours, it increases secretion of digestive fluids. Turmeric also stimulates the production and secretion of bile, which is extremely important in the digestion of fats.  Difficulty digesting fats can be resolved by stirring a little turmeric into food, or taking as a warm tea before or after meals.

The classical method of taking turmeric is to dry fry the powder, then add to a cup of warm milk sweetened with honey. A teaspoon stirred into warm water with a spoon of honey is a pleasant digestive stimulating tea or eat a small portion of rice cooked with turmeric, or add to your soup broth. The anti-inflammatory properties of turmeric for treating psoriasis led to one mother hiding turmeric in scrambled egg for her seven year old.

Never add more than 1tsp of turmeric to any dish or it will ruin the flavour. If you need to take larger amounts at any one time, the dose is usually ingested as capsules of powder or tinctured root.

It’s difficult to talk about spices without giving recipes. Here is my favourite warming winter tea

Warming winter tea

Place 1-2tsp flax seed together with a broken up cinnamon stick and maybe a couple of cardamom pods and some sliced orange peel, a handful of fresh or half a handful of dried rosehips and the juice of half an orange. Put all the ingredients in a small saucepan and fill the saucepan with cold water. Bring to the boil, then simmer uncovered until the amount of water has halved from evaporation. Strain, add honey to taste and sip while hot.

Nettle latte is another winter favourite.

Nettle Latte

Make a strong infusion of nettles. Heat a portion of milk and whisk until frothy. Mix hot milk and hot nettle tea in equal quantities. Add honey and powdered cinnamon or nutmeg to taste.

Ginger syrup

1 l (2 pints) water

40 g (1 1/2 oz) dried herb or 100g (4oz) fresh chopped ginger root

450 g (1 lb) sugar

Put the chopped ginger root in water, bring to a boil, simmer for 20-30 minutes, strain.

Clean out the saucepan, pour liquid back into it, evaporate on minimum heat until you only have 2 dl (7 fl.oz.) left. Add sugar, simmer until sugar has dissolved, pour into jars, label.

Sweet Potato Curry

3 medium size sweet potatoes, peeled and cut into approx. 1” segments

2 carrots peeled and sliced

2 celery sticks washed and thinly sliced

1 onion peeled and diced

1 red pepper, diced

1” root ginger peeled and diced

3 cloves of garlic, smashed, peeled and left for 15 mins before cooking

3 courgettes washed and sliced (optional)

1 apple, peeled, cored and sliced

1 tsp coriander seeds

1 tsp cumin

10 whole green cardamom pods

Any other veg you have lying around which needs using up, cut into suitable small pieces

Sweat the onions, red pepper, garlic and ginger in olive oil. Add the spices and cook for 2 minutes. Add courgettes at this point if you are using them and fry until soft. Add the other ingredients and fry for a few moments then just cover with cold water. Season. Cover the saucepan, bring to a boil and simmer for 20-30 minutes until all the vegetables are sufficiently soft for your taste. Serve with rice of your choice.

Mung bean and pumpkin curry

1/2 a bag of mung beans soaked overnight

Half the insides of a large pumpkin

1 tin of coconut milk

One handful of sultanas

1 red pepper, diced

2 carrots peeled and sliced

1 onion, peeled and diced

1 apple, peeled, cored and sliced

2 cloves of garlic

1” root ginger

1 tsp cumin,1 tsp coriander seeds, 1 tsp turmeric, 1 tsp paprika

Peel the garlic and mash with the ginger to form a paste. Sweat the onion and red pepper for five minutes in olive oil. Add the ginger/garlic paste and spices. Cook for 2 mins. Add the carrots, mung beans and pumpkin and fry for 1 min. Add the coconut milk plus another tinful of cold water. Cook for 20 minutes then add sultanas and apple. Cook for another 20-30 minutes until everything is soft. Serve with rice of your choice.

Spiced rice pudding

1pt milk

2 tbsp. sugar

2 tbsp. pudding rice

½ tsp. nutmeg grated

8 green cardamoms

Small handful sultanas or raisins (optional)

Place all the ingredients in a saucepan and bring to the boil. Transfer to a secure, lidded boiling basin and place inside a slow cooker. Fill the slow cooker with boiling water up to the level of the liquid inside the basin. Cook for about 3-5 hours until soft.

Physic for Florentina

Some of my readers will be aware my mother has suffered from numerous small strokes and is now bedridden. She is practically blind and unable to communicate most of the time. Two carers visit my parents’ home four times a day to keep her comfortable. My father feeds her and is her constant companion.

Her main carer is Florentina,  who comes from Eastern Europe, as do most of her fellow workers. The majority are competent, kind and compassionate and have built up a good rapport with my father, who soon discovers their life story and special interests.

When Chris and I were staying at the farm a few weeks ago, Florentina had gone down with a nasty cold. The Saturday was a workshop day, so while others were busy digging roots and making willow wands, I picked a bowlful of elderberries to make Florentina a cordial.

The fruits were simmering on the cooker when the carers came at five o’clock. They are used to me cooking when they come into the kitchen to log in and log out on the telephone. Sometimes they ask what I’m preparing and once how I made the cheese sauce for macaroni cheese. They usually say it smells good and I know their access to home cooked meals of any kind is rare as they are on the road from 6am to 10pm travelling the length and breadth of the North Cotswolds dealing with clients.

By their final visit at 7.30pm, the cordial was bottled and labelled. Both carers tasted it and were pleasantly surprised, especially Lucas, the young 6’2” Slovakian who was very unsure about tasting anything homemade labelled medicine! They took a bottle for Florentina and thought they might be able to get it to her the following day via a new worker who lived in her house and who would be observing with one of them.

The next morning Lucas told me Florentina was surprised and delighted with her gift. He said he had “taken five minutes” to drive to Florentina’s house and deliver it personally so she could have it straight away – a kindness which really touched me.

Thanks to the cordial, Florentina was able to return to work the next day and was full of praise for the cordial. Apparently everyone in her shared house had tried it and she had told all her clients about it. One of the clients asked for the recipe, so when we were down at the farm last Thursday I took the recipe with me.

It’s strange how you make something and when you look at the recipes you possess, you realise they bare little relation to the ingredients and methods you used. I’ve posted several recipes for elderberry cordial in the past but here is another one.

Elderberry Syrup

Gather a large bowl full of ripe elderberries and remove the small berries from the stems with a fork. Place the berries in a large, heavy bottomed saucepan with a large handful of ripe rosehips and some blackberries if you have them. Add one inch of root ginger (grated), half a nutmeg (grated), sliced orange or lemon peel and one cinnamon quill broken up or some cassia bark. Cover with three pints of water (1.5 litres) and simmer for thirty minutes with a lid on the saucepan. (If the rosehips are not cooked, simmer for longer until they are soft.)

Mash everything in the saucepan with a potato mashed then strain the liquid into a large bowl or jug, using a wooden spoon to get as much of the pulp of the fruit as you can. Alternatively you can strain through a piece of muslin and squeeze the muslin firmly.

Wash the saucepan. Measure the liquid you have strained and then put it back in the saucepan.  Find the glass bottles you are going to store the cordial in and sterilise them in the oven for ten minutes on 100 degrees Centigrade. Sterilise the bottle caps by boiling in water for 10 minutes if they are metal. For every pint (0.5L) of liquid, add 1 lb (0.45Kg) of sugar to the saucepan. Bring to the boil, stirring continuously until all the sugar has dissolved. If you want a thick syrup, evaporate the liquid until it reaches a syrupy consistency. (This is not essential.)  Pour into sterilised bottles and cap immediately. Label and date. This should keep unopened in a cool dark place for over a year. Store in the fridge once opened.

Dose: 1 tablespoon three times a day for an adult. I dessertspoon three times a day for a child. Use for any kind of virus, especially influenza. Alternatively, take 1tsp every day during the cold season to build immunity.

As a cordial: Use 1-2 tablespoons in a mug of boiling water with freshly squeezed lemon juice and enjoy.

The fruit harvest this year has been bountiful; a welcome change from the dearth last year. I’ve made redcurrant and apple jelly, raspberry jam, plum jam, damson jam, damson, apple and blackberry jelly and jam, crabapple jelly and a plethora of quince jelly. The freezer is full of various berries and apple sauce yet the tree is still laden with huge red cooking apples. I’ve never seen them quite so large or so red.

Today I have turned a basketful of windfalls into sugarless applesauce to make muffins and several bottles of spiced apple cordial. I’ve used the same method as for apple jelly and it produces a very pleasant hot drink or could be poured over ice cream.

Spiced apple cordial

Enough windfalls to fill a 5pt saucepan ¾ full once washed and quartered (Don’t peel or core)

Diced fresh orange peel from 1 orange

A small handful of cassia bark or 1 cinnamon quill

1/5 a nutmeg grated

8-10 cloves

3 pints of water

1” root ginger either diced or grated (I meant to add this but forgot!)

Place everything in the saucepan and simmer for about half an hour until the apples are completely soft. Strain through a jelly bag or muslin, squeezing to release as much apple as you feel like adding to the juice. (You might want to leave everything to cool before you start squeezing the bag otherwise you could burn yourself!) Clean the saucepan. Measure the liquid and add 1lb of sugar for every pint of liquid. Bring to the boil then pour into sterilised bottles. Seal when hot, label and date.

Lament for a missed Indian Summer

September is usually a beautiful, busy month. While the sun shines with diminishing warmth I am usually to be found scurrying around hedgerows and my garden, harvesting the last of flowers, fruits and seeds.

This year feels different. After a dry summer which has caused the ground in the Sanctuary to crack and the two minor springs to stop running entirely, the rain has now come to ease our water problems but temperatures have plummeted. Although I’m grateful, this now brings an added worry of whether the tomatoes will ripen or will I lose my significant crop to rot? As it is, I’m now picking every day or alternate days and using any damaged tomatoes in soup.  

Two nettle roots growing next to the tomatoes are constantly sending up new shoots, so these are my autumn bounty for green minerals.

Spiced Tomato and Basil soup

1lb tomatoes (or an amount you have to use)

2 medium potatoes

2 carrots

A large handful of ripped basil leaves

One medium onion

1 red chilli (adding the seeds will produce a fiery soup!)

Peel, dice and sweat the onion with the chopped chill until soft. Peel and slice the potato and carrots and chop the tomatoes. Add vegetables to the cooked onions and cover with 3 pints of cold water. Bring to the boil, adding seasoning and basil (or any other favourite herbs). Simmer for half an hour with the saucepan lid on until everything is cooked. Blend or liquidise, then strain through a sieve to remove tomato skins.

Nettle, sweet potato and tomato soup

1 colander full of fresh young nettles

1 large sweet potato

1lb tomatoes (or any amount you have to use)

2 carrots

4 cloves of garlic

8” length of lovage stem

1 medium onion

1” fresh root ginger

Peel and crush the garlic and leave for fifteen minutes before cooking. Peel and dice the onion and root ginger and sweat in a large saucepan with the crushed garlic for five minutes in your oil of choice.  Peel and slice the sweet potato and carrots. Slice or chop the tomatoes. Wash the nettles if necessary. Add everything to the saucepan and cover with 3 pints cold water. Bring to the boil adding the chopped lovage and seasoning. Simmer for half an hour until everything is cooked. Blend and sieve to remove tomato skins and any stringy bits from the nettles.

September is also the time of year to think about storing anti-virals and vitamin C ready for the winter. My favourite method is elderberry elixir or cordial and gathering as many rosehips as I can find and store.

Fire cider vinegar is another staple in my household. You can follow Rosemary Gladstar’s original recipe of equal parts of fresh garlic, root ginger and horseradish root but add in whatever spice you fancy. I always add rosehips for vitamin C but if you have any fresh chillis they are good to complement the turmeric powder. If you wanted to increase the mineral content of the vinegar you could add nettle seed or fresh young nettle leaves or shoots if you have any.

Don’t forget another autumn harvest, honey. Many beekeepers are collecting their golden treasure this month, so if you have any near you, it is worth asking if they will sell you a few pounds of fresh honey to last you over the winter.

Think what you might want to add to this honey. Elderberries taste divine but make sure you infuse it in the fridge if you don’t want purple overflow everywhere from fermenting berries. Rosehip honey is another favourite but does involve hours of cutting and scooping out the stones and hairs before blending the flesh with the honey. It is worth waiting until after the first frost when the hips become soft so you can squeeze out the centre without ending up with itching thumbs.

Don’t forget your honeyed roots. Angelica and elecampane are two roots which produce an interestingly flavoured infused honey which may be more palatable in this form rather than in tea. You may want to experiment with sweet calamas root in the same way if you have some to harvest. Don’t be surprised if your infused honey is thinner than the original runny honey. This is the result of osmosis whereby the honey pulls liquid from the fresh roots. It should store for several years but keep an eye on it.

It looks as if this year will be another good apple year. Windfalls from my tree are producing many boxes of frozen applesauce and there are new jars of apple and red currant jelly on the larder shelves. If you are looking for something different to add to your complement of bitters, try rowan/mountain ash or crampbark/Guelder rose berry and apple jelly. They will complement any rich meat but also get your digestive juices flowing. Bitter jellies are an acquired taste, so less is more when you try it for the first time.

One of the most exciting things I heard at our festival was Fred Gillam talking about his comfrey bath bombs for serious bruising following accidents and the news that a London herbalist is experimenting with Crampbark flower and berry tinctures to treat muscle cramps on different energetic levels.

Guess what I’m going to be experimenting with this autumn!