DIY Delight: How to Can Elderberry Syrup + Adding Honey
Elderberry Syrup can be a game changer when you or your family get sick during cold and flu season. I love having this on hand for a sweet preventative and for when we’re battling that cold. I have found a few people in my area that make elderberry syrup! While I love supporting small businesses and moms with side hustles, it gets pretty expensive to purchase all the elderberry syrup that we need for the winter season. It’s easy enough to make that if you can get your hands on some elderberries, you should give it a try! Don’t forget, you absolutely HAVE to cook elderberries. They are toxic when uncooked!
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Benefits of Elderberries & Ginger
Elderberries are a great immune system booster, thanks to their antioxidants. Elderberries can help with cold and flu symptoms by reducing congestion and easing other symptoms. They’re also used to help prevent colds. Elderberries can also help decrease inflammation and bruising when applied topically.
Ginger joins elderberries in helping to build your immune system. It can help with nausea, digestion, pain relief, heart health, and more!
It is so exciting to me that nature provides so much for us and sometimes it is found right in your backyard. Another I’ve found is plantains! Check out this post about these powerhouse herbs and how to infuse them in oil.
Raw Honey vs Store-Bought Honey in your Elderberry Syrup
Raw honey has its own great qualities and will be a perfect addition to your elderberry syrup. Honey has properties that are antibacterial, antifungal, and antiviral. It helps boost your immune system, relieves some allergy symptoms, and has antioxidants. Honey can also help with energy, blood sugar regulation, and heart health. It contains a lot of minerals including potassium, magnesium, and phosphorus!
Make sure when you choose honey you get RAW local honey. Raw honey is not processed so the nutrients are all still in your liquid gold. Store-bought honey is often heated so much that most of the nutrients are killed. The heat destroys antioxidants, vitamins, minerals, and the antibacterial properties. What’s the point if all the good stuff is killed?! Because heating kills all the good stuff in honey, we won’t be canning our elderberry syrup with the honey in it. We’re just going to be canning the elderberry juice, and then adding honey later so we can get the amazing benefits from all the ingredients! We need all the help we can get during cold and flu season. Please remember that babies under 1 year old cannot have honey.
Making your Elderberry Syrup
What You’ll Need:
- 4 cups fresh elderberries (2 cups dried elderberries)
- 2-3 tbsp minced gingerroot
- 8 cups water
- 2 tsp ground cinnamon
- 1 tsp ground cloves
- cheesecloth
- 5 half-pint jars (or 10 4oz jars)
- water bath canner
- canning tools (optional but super helpful!)
Let’s Get Started!
If you picked your own elderberries, make sure you get all the ripe berries off the vines and discard any unripe berries, leaves, stems, etc. Also if you picked your berries…PHEW good work, it is not for the faint of heart. Wash the berries and add them to a pot. Mince some gingerroot and throw it in there. I LOVE the smell of fresh gingerroot! Add 8 cups of water to the pot and heat over medium-high heat. Boil the mixture for 30 minutes, stirring occasionally so nothing burns to the bottom of the pot.
Turn the heat off and let cool for about 30 minutes, until you can work with the berries. Using cheesecloth over a bowl, strain the berries. Squeeze out all of the juice from the berries, don’t leave any of that good stuff. The ginger can get stinky on your hands so if you want to avoid that, wear gloves!
Return the juice to a clean pot and stir in cinnamon and cloves. Bring back to a boil over medium-high heat. Reduce heat and simmer for 30 minutes, stirring occasionally. Enjoy the delicious smell while your mixture simmers.
Water Bath Canning
Prepare 4 oz or 8 oz canning jars and fill the canner with water. Start heating the water. Fill each jar and then add 1/2 tbsp lemon juice, leaving 1/2 inch head space. When ladling the juice into the jars, make sure you stir up the spices so they don’t all end up in the bottom of the pot and in your last few jars. Spread out all the delicious flavors.
Wipe the rims of the jars with a clean washcloth and put the lids and rings on. Add the jars to the canner and process for 40 minutes. Don’t start the timer until the water is boiling. Turn off the heat and let sit for 5 minutes before removing the jars from the canner. Let cool for at least 12 hours before checking for a proper seal. Remember, when storing your jars, store them with the rings off. Check out this post for more info on storing jars.
Add Honey When you Open your Elderberry Juice
When you’re ready to open a jar of elderberry juice, transfer it to a larger jar and add raw local honey to taste. I usually add about 2 tbsp to 4 oz of juice and 4 tbsp to 8 oz. Mix well! Remember that babies under 1 year old should not have honey. As always with canning, make sure you do your own research and know all the proper measurements needed for a safe acidity level. Use trusted, well-tested recipes and the correct type of canner. Thanks for checking out this post and I hope you LOVE your elderberry syrup. Let me know in the comments what you think.
No Sugar Canned Elderberry Syrup
Equipment
- Waterbath Canner
- 5-6 half pint jars or 10 4oz jars
Ingredients
- 4 cups fresh elderberries or 2 cups dried
- 8 cups water
- 2 tbsp ginger root minced
- 2 tsp ground cinnamon
- 1 tsp ground cloves
Instructions
- Wash elderberries and make sure there are no underripe berries in your mix. Mince the gingerroot.
- Add elderberries, gingerroot, and water to a pot and bring the mixture to a boil over medium-high heat, stirring occasionally. Turn the heat down and simmer for 30 minutes.
- Turn the heat off and let cool for about 30 minutes, until you can work with the berries.
- Using a cheesecloth over a bowl, strain the berries. Wearing gloves, squeeze out all of the juice from the berries. (The ginger can get stinky on your hands if you don't wear gloves)
- Return the juice to the pot and add cinnamon and cloves. Bring back to a boil over medium-high heat. Reduce heat and boil for 30 minutes, stirring occasionally.
- Prepare 4oz or 8oz canning jars and fill the canner with water. Start heating the water. Fill each jar and then add 1/2 tbsp lemon juice, leaving 1/2 inch head space. Wipe the rims of the jars with a clean washcloth and put the lids and rings on. Process in the canner for 40 minutes (start the timer when the water is boiling). Turn off the heat and let sit for 5 minutes before removing the jars from the canner. Let cool for at least 12 hours before checking for a proper seal.
- When ready to open a jar of elderberry juice, transfer to a larger jar and add raw honey to taste. Mix well! (About 2 tbsp for 4 oz jars & 4 tbsp for 8 oz jars.)
4 Comments
judy
hi
I have picked and canned Elderberry juice , for several years, I call it “tonic” as I also don’t add any sugar till im ready to drink it.( and I add fresh ginger and cinnamon ) My question is about the lemon juice addition. I just this year was reading about the concern about elderberry’s not having enough acidity to safely can?
Well I just did a batch without any sugar or lemon juice…..I guess my quesion is it ok to Not use the lemon juice? and would you be able to tell if it went bad….after canning.
I have drank, jars of my elder tonic with no ill effects in the past?
thanks
sincerely. Judy
Samantha
Hi Judy! Thanks for your comment. I saw a few recipes for canned elderberry syrup with honey in it and the heat will kill much of the good stuff that’s in honey so that’s why I decided to add my honey later. You could, however, add sugar if you wanted before canning and that wouldn’t change anything. I choose honey over sugar though for the extra benefits.
Anyway, about your acidity question: the reason we add lemon juice to low acidic food is to make them safe from bacteria growth and botulism. Sometimes you can clearly see when something canned has gone bad because there is mold or a bad smell. Unfortunately with botulism, you can’t see, smell, or taste, anything different in your food and it is very serious. The risk of botulism is relatively low but if you’ve canned your elderberry juice without lemon juice then the risk is higher that bacteria could grow in there. There are many people out there that say they’ve followed certain recipes for a long time and never had any problems so I can’t say if your elderberry juice will cause you any problems, but to me it isn’t worth the risk. You don’t have a problem with things like that until one day you do.
I hope that was helpful!
Anita
I’ve been researching and have found it is not safety to home can elderberries. I do a lot of canning so I understand it all. So we’ve been preparing it but freezing instead.
Samantha
I think it is great that you are freezing your elderberry juice! At the end of the day you have to can what you feel comfortable canning based on the information and research that we have and as long as we’re getting all those beneficial properties of elderberries in a safe way, that’s all that matters. Canning elderberries as juice or jam isn’t something that I have been able to find a ton of research on. What I do find though talks about how canning elderberries is unsafe due to the higher ph, like many other foods, so I feel comfortable adding lemon juice to mine and canning it. Other things that I’ve read say that there just hasn’t been enough tested recipes for canning elderberries and that’s why there isn’t an “approved recipe.” I look forward to doing some ph testing myself in the future and for when there’s more solid information out there on canning elderberries. Thanks for your comment and happy preserving!