avoiding the Plague like it's, well... the Plague.

We used to be healthy.

When we lived in Iowa, flu season would roll around and we'd be all, "Oh, pshaw.  Oh, shrug, shrug.  Oh, whatever."  We'd get the occasional cold, but the barfs were very rare for us, hitting us only once every few years.

The last couple of winters, though... man.  I don't know if it's the climate down here, or if our house is some kind of disease-ridden hotbed, or if our new Missouri friends are secretly and slowly trying to poison us, but, dang.  We have been hit hard and often, with our stomach bug cycles seeming to just repeat over and over and over from February until June.  Multiply the barfs by eight people across four months, and it is truly apocalyptic.  I'm genuinely surprised I'm still alive to tell the tale.

But this year, you guys.  This year is going to be different.  It has to be different.  I just can't do it anymore.  So I'm girding my loins, stocking my arsenal and setting my face to rout the enemy.  I will not be mocked; I will not be conquered; I will not be weak.

I'm busting out the big guns: a daily concoction of elderberry syrup and grape juice.

 I keep a silly-looking Dixie cup dispenser on hand in the kitchen for this daily purpose; the flip-top mason jar lid has made it MUCH more likely that I'll stay regular with this, since it requires so little effort or clean-up to bartend this cocktail.

Why elderberry syrup?  Because this stuff is a Christmas-flavored Immune System in a Jar.  I get kits from my friend Paige (YES! I KNOW!) at Elder N Honey Co. and make it with honey I buy locally.  (Eh.  "Local" is relative; I buy mine by the gallon through a friend in Iowa, so it's not exactly in my backyard, and figuring out how to get it from her place to mine involves a series of complicated hand-offs compiled to form what we've dubbed "Operation Honey Wagon.")  If you can boil pasta, you are a more advanced chef than is required for making your own elderberry syrup with one of these kits.

I ordered two kits this year, which is enough to make about six pints, but we're already through two pints so far, so I may need to order a couple more when they come back in stock.  (These seriously fly off the shelves; they're that good.)

The results of one kit.

Also - why do I add grape juice?  I'm both proud and ashamed to admit that it's mostly because of an unquestioning belief in everything I read on the internet.  I saw a random Facebook post about the stomach flu being unable to survive in a stomach regularly doused in grape juice.  Why?  Who knows.  There is no supporting science that I'm aware of.  HOWEVER.  I figure it can't hurt, and I'm a desperate woman.  So, grape juice shots for everybody!!!! (Except Laurelai, who is the only preschooler in the history of the world who doesn't like juice of any kind, so she takes her elderberry syrup straight and neat.)

I will soon be adding these Vitamin D drops and some sodium ascorbate to the cocktail to add to the immune boosting powers, but for now, this is at least a good start.

For Callista, who is old enough to take remedies with honey, but is also still young enough that I'm solely responsible for her care and therefore constantly looking for shortcuts, I use these Vitamin C drops, also from Elder N Honey Co.  They come with their own little dropper, so I don't have to deal with using my own medicine syringe, which is just more work than it's worth somehow.  I ordered 6 oz. to cover us for the upcoming season.

In addition, I also have been brewing my own fire cider - a truly terrifying infusion of apple cider vinegar, lemon juice, horseradish, turmeric, garlic, jalapenos, etc. etc. etc.  It sits for a month, at the end of which time I am supposed to strain out all the solids and refrigerate the infused liquid.  At the onset of any nasties, any of the Potentially Infirm are instructed to mix a shot of this fire cider with some honey, and cross their fingers that they don't poison themselves.  It all sounds very thrilling, and promisingly effective.  My half-gallon batch was ready to strain on Halloween... but I've been too chicken (ahem, I mean, too early pregnant and too concussed... and also too chicken) to approach it.  But I will pep-talk myself into it one day soon.

After sitting for a month, the ingredients seem to have leached most of their color - and presumably, their essence - into the liquid.  Which I am very afraid but resolved to drink.

I am also about to embark upon a journey of fermenting garlic cloves in raw honey, which I'm actually quite excited about, and seems simple enough.  (Peel garlic; cover in honey; leave in breathable jar for a month, turning occasionally; beat All the Germs; call yourself a home remedy wizard; win awards.)  

And that, friends, is what my kitchen is currently churning out in preparation for creating an anti-Plague bubble around the Van Voorst family this winter.  What other tips do you have for me?


*Yes, yes.  I realize this post was a total plug for Elder N Honey Co.  I'm not being compensated by them or anything; I just love this company that much.  The Amazon links, on the other hand, are purely affiliate links.  Cha-ching, suckers. JK JK I am always grateful for the small amount of commission that comes my way when you order - at no extra cost -through the links I post!)