Simple Kitchen Remedies

Here we have two simple kitchen remedies that we make especially for winter colds and coughs.  The first one is a honey based cough syrup.  It is made using organic onion, organic garlic (which we grow ourselves), organic ginger and organic thyme.  It can be made with just onion, or onion and garlic if that is what is available.  These ingredients are covered with raw honey (raw retains all those good enzymes), and heated over very low fire for a few hours.  The honey extracts the beneficial components of the ingredients.  Once it has cooked we strain the honey through a strainer and put the onion, garlic, thyme and ginger pieces to the side to be used in cooking, and keep the honey as a cough syrup.  This cough syrup is equally effective, if not more (in our experience) than the rather expensive options available at health food stores.  It also is very pleasant tasting, which helps when giving it to children.

This second remedy is very simply garlic cloves (bruised) in organic olive oil.  We use garlic that we grow in our garden.  We let this oil sit for a couple weeks and then take it by the spoonful either as a daily immune stimulant or when feeling a cold coming on.  This oil can also be used in cooking.  To get the best results using it for medicine within cooking it should be used unheated, as for example a salad oil.

Why organic?  When making medicine, we always strive to use 100% organic ingredients for the simple reason that when one is sick, the worst thing is to increase the body's toxic load by using herbal medicines made from conventionally grown ingredients.   When dis-eased the body needs the healthiest ingredients possible so that it can find its balance once again!