It’s been a weird winter here in Boston. Hardly any snow so far. But that doesn’t stop the colds and flus that come around when all the windows are shut and the kids are sharing germs like crazy with their friends.

Awhile back, my daughter caught some kind of bug, and then she cured herself – it was so cool!

Here’s what happened…

Ruby (my 9 year old) and I were at the local natural food/everything store looking for clay to make our own face masks (I’ll give you that recipe another day). While we were there, we picked up a book for Ruby, called A Kid’s Herb Book: for Children of All Ages. (I can attest to the ‘all ages’ part, I love it just as much as Ruby, and I want to make every recipe in the book!)  It’s a practical and fun book by Lesley Tierra about herbs and healing potions and nature and more. To me, it’s magic in a book. Ruby pored over the book and tagged recipes she wanted to try.

About a week after we bought the book, Ruby started to get a cough and started to feel stuffed up and crummy. Now usually we reach for our familiar arsenal of natural remedies when someone in our house gets sick. But this time I encouraged her to look up her symptoms in her new book, and see if there was a remedy she might like to try.

Well, she found this fantastic Garlic Syrup!

Now before I go on, let me tell you honestly, if I had found this syrup recipe, made it myself, and suggested she take it, she wouldn’t have tried it in a million years! But she made it herself (with a bit of help from me), she decorated the bottle and claimed the concoction as her own!  She took it every two hours for a day and half and wow – total recovery – super fast!

In many healing circles this Garlic Syrup is known as Fire Cider. You can find it pre-made from many wonderful small natural companies..

Here’s the recipe and notes straight from A Kid’s Book of Herbs:

“This syrup is especially good for stubborn coughs, bronchitis, pneumonia, mucus and lung congestion (when there is clear to white mucus). If there is heat (high fever, slight chills, and yellow mucus), then eliminate the ginger and cayenne. Take in teaspoon doses every two hours or as needed.”  ~ Lesley Tierra

Enchanted Healing Garlic, Lemon and Honey Syrup:

Mix together thoroughly: (Ruby and I just put everything in the blender)

• 1/2 cup lemon juice (freshly squeezed is preferable)
• 1/2 cup water
• 1/2 cup raw honey
• 5 large cloves of garlic – minced or pressed
• 1 teaspoon grated fresh ginger or  1/4 teaspoon ginger powder
• a dash of cayenne powder

Put it in a container and keep fresh in the fridge.

Note: What we noticed was that the longer we kept the syrup in the fridge the stronger the syrup tasted of garlic. So I think next time we would make 1/2 the recipe and use it within the week.

If you’d like more natural healing remedies for colds and coughs, check out my comprehensive list here.

May you and your family not need this remedy, but if you do, may healing happen quickly.

 ~~~~~

ninamanolson

Nina Manolson, MA, is the founder of Body-Peace®.She helps women end the war with food and body and finally feel truly at home in their body—as it is.

She is known for her deeply feminist, anti-diet, body-peace® approach. She brings her 30 years of experience as a therapist, Body-Trust® Guide and Psychology of Eating Teacher to helping women create a respectful and trusting relationship with their food and body.

Nina’s Body-Peace® work is all in service of helping people get off the diet roller-coaster, and into a compassionate and powerful way of eating & living which creates a positive long-lasting change in and with their bodies. Her courses, coaching, poems and Body-Peace APP positively change the conversation that women are having with their body.

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