Cold & Flu Season Kitchen Remedies

True healing is within our hands, right within our kitchen. For millennia, we have created our own medicine, herbal medicine, natural medicine, through our food. What we put in our mouths and how we make it daily is how we assimilate and process our nutrition and nourish ourselves. It is how we come together in our communities. It is how we help nourish and grow our families. It all comes from serving with our hands, creating a nurturing space from our heart, and putting energy into our creations. The kitchen is where it all starts when it comes to our health where we're empowered to make small daily choices that help us become healthier.

For a long time, natural medicine has been taken out of our hands. It has been removed from the practice of the kitchen for the last two to three generations. The last time natural medicine and whole foods were taught and practiced in our kitchens, generation after generation, was with our great-grandparents.

I am going to share natural remedies you can do to help empower you and your family.

Remedy 1: Fermented Garlic Honey

Since we are starting the transition into fall, right now is the Stomach and Spleen season in Chinese nutritional medicine, meaning our digestive center — the center of our earth, the center of our being — is especially active right now. We're moving into the Lung and Large Intestine season. So, if you're starting to feel the beginnings of grief, or whatever you're processing in your life, this is the time it will start speaking to you. There are things we can do in the kitchen to help nourish and support this seasonal transition, and to help process the grief and lessons this season offers in a healthy way.

The first remedy is a traditional at-home fermented garlic honey.

Ingredients: five to six cloves of garlic, ideally from a small, organically and locally grown source. Local honey, raw if you can get it.

Method: Peel and cut up the garlic cloves. Combine with the honey in a mason jar. Stir every couple of days; you'll see it start to bubble a little, which is the fermentation process. Let it ferment for one month.

Dosage: One tablespoon a day per person to help lower the risk of getting sick, and to help at the start of not feeling well (sore throats, coughs).

Why it works: Garlic is antimicrobial and potent. When we start to feel sick, it often shows up first in the mucosal lining — the nasal passages and tonsils. This is the body's secondary line of defense, after the skin, which serves as the first. Honey is a natural antibiotic. Combining the two helps wipe out unwanted pathogens while supporting the body's healing.

Cautions: Do not give honey in any form to babies under one year old. If you are diabetic, look at substitutes instead of honey. Garlic honey has a distinct garlicky-honey taste, so some kids may not love it. Start with a teaspoon or half teaspoon and build up from there.

Remedy 2: Crock Pot Elderberry Syrup

For when you're too busy to make elderberry syrup the traditional way, but still want it on hand because you're tired of your kids getting sick — this is a slow cooker method you let simmer for twenty-four hours.

Ingredients: distilled water, locally grown elderberry (dried, or fresh if you're wildcrafting nearby), echinacea purpurea for immune support, cloves, ginger, cinnamon, and optionally nutmeg. These are warming, circulatory herbs that help deliver the vital nutrients of the elderberry. You'll also want local honey or vegetable glycerin as a sweetener.

Method: Add all ingredients into the crock pot and fill with distilled water. Let it brew for twenty-four hours, stirring every couple of hours while you're awake. Set it to low overnight so it isn't running on high while you sleep. Once cooled, strain it through a cheesecloth into a glass container, twisting and compressing to get all the juices out (clean hands or gloves recommended). A wine press helps if you have one, and it's genuinely fun to make.

Bottling: Use amber bottles, if possible, as the dark glass helps preserve it, and store in the refrigerator. Fill the bottle about 70% with the elderberry liquid, then top the remaining 30% with honey and/or vegetable glycerin. Mix and store in the refrigerator for up to two months — don't go past that. Label the bottle with the make date and expiration date, roughly six to eight weeks out.

Dosage and use: One teaspoon per person per day as a preventative. It can also be stirred into oatmeal or pancakes as a syrup. It's best used preventatively, but if you do start getting sick, it may help you fight milder colds. You may need to add zinc and other immune supports once you're actually sick. As always, no honey for babies under one year old.

Make sure to keep it refrigerated so it doesn't go rancid.