The weekly “little of this, little of that” feature here at Like Mother, Like Daughter!
(This will all look and work better if you click on the actual post and do not remain on the main page.)
{Confidential to Becky, expecting your fourth: You apparently put the wrong email on the form — I am ready with an answer but can't send it! Email me again!}
Wow, so much information in the comments to my UTI post! It's so interesting to me how different people are and how one thing works for one person and another for another. One definite benefit to being connected online is that the knowledge base expands so much.
Long ago I had tried the cranberry cure (and the “100% pure cranberry juice, organic” version) to no avail. It does work for some! For me, what I posted works. You might find that another tip works for you.
The main thing is that it does not make sense to keep taking antibiotics (often the wrong one) for years. Some commenters noted that they are now being told to stay off antibiotics completely! This is a crazy situation to get into, because obviously we may need them for real at some point. But you can totally see how it happens. We just don't have all the information we need (and that includes medical professionals). We really need to address the overuse of these important substances…
Anyway, thank you so much for chiming in! I find it all so fascinating.
Here's another home remedy that I find works for me in preventing colds and making the ones I do get less severe:
Elderberry cordial.
Elderberries are very good for you and have been shown to be beneficial in preventing or treating many diseases (you can do a search for it on the NIH site if you want to read the studies).
You can make a syrup and leave it at that, but the cordial is so nice and Anne-of-Green-Gables-ish that somehow it hardly seems medicinal. In fact, I have developed a cocktail I call The Immunizer using it (I'll have to do a post on my cocktails, most of which don't pretend to be particularly healthy — meanwhile you can find it here on my Facebook). It's nice by itself too. And a spoonful won't hurt a child and may help them just drift off to sleep…
Here is my recipe (adapted from my friend Jennifer's recipe that doesn't call for boiling, but just for steeping for two weeks). The recipe is very flexible — I've added some things (like the hibiscus) that I think boost the goodness, but you can leave it all out if you want and just stick with the elderberries. It happened that I found the spices in the form of a half-price wine-mulling mix at my grocery store (and it was organic to boot), so I just opened that handy packet and was all set. If you don't have all those spices, the ginger is the active ingredient.
Elderberry Cordial, Like Mother, Like Daughter
1¼ cups dried elderberries (I buy on Amazon — affiliate link — but am looking for a source out in the meadows near me!) You can use 2 cups of fresh elderberries if you have them. Do remember that the seeds of the elderberry are poisonous, so the straining step at the end is important.
2 tablespoons minced fresh ginger or 1 tsp. dried
1 stick cinnamon, crushed or 1 tsp. dried
1/4 cup dried rosehips
2 tablespoons dried orange peel or the fresh peel of one orange
1/4 cup dried hibiscus flower (also called Jamaica in Hispanic stores or Kerkaday in Middle Eastern stores)
Water to cover; about 3 cups
Boil/simmer these ingredients together for at least 3 minutes, up to about 10; let steep for an hour. Alternatively, you can steep them for two weeks in the jar with the brandy (below).
Strain well through a couple of layers of cheesecloth or a clean potato sack towel, pour into a large container or pitcher.
Add:
About 3 cups brandy
Raw honey, to taste (about a cup)
Mix well.
Decant into jars and keep in a cool dark place. I put the amount that we are going to be accessing in the near future into a dark bottle so it's handy.
Take a teaspoon as needed (for children too), or a little snifter for you.
On to our links!
- In honor of it still being Epiphany, I'd like to share my friend Michael Olbash's presentation of a Lessons and Carols service at our church, St. John's in Clinton. This is a most ambitious effort of his; the children from a small school, IHM in Still River, MA, assisted by just a few adult singers (including our Bridget whom you may spot in the video), offer under his direction a lovely time of prayer and singing. The motets are challenging! It just shows you what can be done (well, if you have someone with Michael's talent and time to do it — but the kids did it too!). Here is the program if you ever wanted to try something like it next year…
- Eve Browning of the University of Texas at San Antonio is working on a book about Xenophon. Seems a fascinating topic, judging by this article. I particularly enjoyed the part about the Phoenician merchant ship's orderliness and Xenophon's fictional narrator's pleasure in domestic tidiness as well: “even pots appear graceful when they are arranged in a discriminating manner”!
- Ever since I have understood the importance and unique quality of chant, I have been committed to helping others understand as well. Here is a great article to introduce you to the reasons this form is different and much needed in worship today (why other forms of music, no matter how beloved, can never be a substitute for chant). By the way, the “Swain” mentioned in the article is Joseph Swain, whose book Sacred Treasure (affiliate link) is a must-read on the subject (it's so expensive, but perhaps a library near you has or could be persuaded to buy a copy).
- Monsignor Pope on some common-sense Catholic teaching on some aspects of immigration. Whether you are pro- or anti-building the wall, it's well to review these thoughts.
- The St. Hildegard Abbey, a look at the continuation of the abbey begun by the saint (and doctor of the Church) herself.
- Writing tips from Walter Benjamin. Like one's health, some things work for some people and not all, but I found these tips food for thought about the writing process.
From the archives:
- Some thoughts of mine on dating: for teens; for adults; how your marriage is God's plan for preparing your children for theirs.
- Getting some traction on your plan to get organized? Here's how you make meals a little easier on yourself: Stash these 12 things.
- It's still the season of Epiphany; in the old calendar, two saints to celebrate: St. Hyginus and St. Theodosius.
While you’re sharing our links with your friends, why not tell them about Like Mother, Like Daughter too!
We’d like to be clear that, when we direct you to a site via one of our links, we’re not necessarily endorsing the whole site, but rather just referring you to the individual post in question (unless we state otherwise).
Genevieve says
One caution when using a wild source of elderberries: make sure they really are elderberries. A relative made a batch of what they thought was elderberry syrup, but they had picked poke berries by mistake. Figured it out by the resulting gastro-intestinal distress.
Ashley says
Hi! Have you tried making Boston Brown Bread with sourdough? Do you steam yours? We read about it in Farmer Boy and I’m curious to try it, especially if I can put my sourdough starter to work. 🙂
Thank you for posting about St. Hildegard’s Abbey – it’s fairly close to me so we’ll have to check it out. I need to learn more about her!
Kate says
I use to buy an elderberry syrup from the family business Beeyoutiful. It was very good, but since we went through it quickly, it became expensive. I bought some bulk dried elderberries and brew up a cup of very strong tea whenever someone is getting sick. I throw a handful of berries into a teapot, pour boiling water over it, and let it steep for at least an hour to overnight. I add a spoonful of honey for taste and its anti-bacterial properties. My daughter made us a medicinal concoction over Christmas that is potent – crushed garlic cloves, fresh lemon juice, apple cider vinegar, and honey. Sick ones took a tablespoon throughout the day and it really helped buck one up.
Carol Kennedy says
Thank you for your posts regarding Gregorian chant. I can appreciate its beauty, but I really struggle with the Latin. I know David Clayton has talked about the contribution of Anglican chant, through the Ordinariate. And we attend an Ordinariate parish so we hear it often. But I am trying to understand the “hierarchy”—if there is one—among the languages used for worship in the Church. And how chant done in English stands within the Church’s liturgical life. I think I am being really vague here, not sure how to express my confusion or struggle, but it has to do with my frustration with Latin and my experience of the beauty of English speaking liturgy done really well. What are your thoughts?
Tara says
Carol – I can relate to the initial struggle with Latin. I was wondering the same thing, so I looked into it, and was shocked to learn that Vatican II did not mandate that the Mass be said in the vernacular! On the contrary, the unchanging parts of the Roman Rite (like the Canon) were always meant to be in Latin! But, within the Catholic Church there are different Rites. Each Rite has a language proper to it. In the Ordinariate, English is the official language of that Rite. For the Byzantines, their liturgical language in Old Slavonic and for the Maronites it is Aramaic, but for the Roman Rite, well, Latin always was and will always be the language proper to the Roman Rite. So I guess I was sort of shocked into changing my perspective on the whole thing, realizing that how I feel at Mass is not as important as letting each Rite be what it is, and really committing to learn and love the Latin as a Roman Catholic. It’s working. I still love to hear the Psalms in English, chanted beautifully, and of course I would! It’s my native language. But I have come more and more to appreciate and love my “native liturgical language” as a Roman Catholic.
(The Mass of the Roman Rite in the vernacular is such a recent phenom, and I don’t really understand why or how it got to be said in English when Vatican II didn’t even allow/call for that. More research!)
Carol Kennedy says
Hi Tara, thanks for your response. I see what you mean. One slight correction though. The Ordinariate is not its own rite. It is in fact a form of the Roman Rite. So there is the Ordinary Form, the Extraordinary Form and the Ordinariate Form. This is part of my confusion. I need to do more of my own research as well. The Mass in the Ordinariate Form “feels” to me like what the liturgicals documents Vatican II meant–but I can’t back that with quotes. So, like you said. More research!
Tara says
Thank you for clarifying that. All of my reading so far (not extensive so, please, corrections) indicates that the Ordinariate was specifically intended for Anglicans who were coming over to Rome. As a *form* of the Roman Rite, then, Latin would still be its “mother tongue,” with ‘real’ English in places. Any Form of the Roman Rite said entirely in English seems to be from out of thin air, looks like an illicit innovation, but I’ll keep looking.
You may be right about the Ordinariate form being closer to what the VII docs meant, but what I read about the Ordinariate indicates that it’s not intended for the whole English speaking church, just for converts from the Anglican tradition. We (most of us) were Baptized Roman Catholic, that is, into the Roman Rite, unless we choose to ‘affiliate’ with the Ordinariate Form or go over to another Rite. This involves making some kind of formal affiliation, which, to me, would be pretty serious, as I feel as though God adopted me to Himself specifically through the Roman Rite at my Baptism. Either way, for forms of the Roman Rite, it seems we can’t get around the fact that Latin is our “liturgical Mother tongue.”
Victoria says
Carol is correct, Divine Worship (the name of the Ordinariate Rite) is a form of the Roman Rite because it’s governed by the General Instruction on the Roman Missal (which also governs the NO) even though Divine Worship also has roots in some other, non-Roman, Western rites. I also think that Divine Worship looks and feels a lot more like what the council fathers intended, though my reading is that they had intended a lot more Latin to be retained. Some Ordinariate parishes use Latin often for some parts and others not at all.
As a cradle Catholic who has been a canonical member of the Ordinariate for nearly three years now, I have had the opportunity to hear a lot of absolutely beautiful and transcendent English Psalm and Mass-settings (both chant and polyphony). I really, really appreciate the English when I’m bouncing babies in the back of church and have absolutely no chance of picking up a large hand missal to follow what’s going on. I do think the Ordinary of the Mass is pretty easy to passively pick up in Latin over time, but the rest of Mass can get really lost when kids are bopping this way and that. I am teaching my children some Latin at home (they are still pretty little tho) and I think it’s learn-able, but I have also come to believe that the vernacular really has its place in corporate worship.
Becky G says
Hi Leila, I am the Becky you are looking for! I sent another message on the “Ask Auntie Leila” page, but if you have any trouble, my email should be linked to this comment as well. Thank you!
Dyan says
We love our elderberry! In the early summer, we search for elderberry blossoms, and remember where they are. In the late summer, we pick our own and make fresh elderberry juice. We also add honey and sometimes cinnamon and ginger. We have definitely noticed that it helps us when our immune systems are low. Thank you for sharing your recipe. I always enjoy your posts.
SHARON HOLDHEIDE says
I have 2 Elderberry bushes and have just picked, washed, and frozen them. I usually add them whole to a smoothie or yogurt. I’ve never heard that the seeds were poisonous? Are you not supposed to eat them raw?
Leila says
Sharon, yes, the seeds are poisonous, but cooking neutralizes the poison. https://www.healthline.com/nutrition/elderberry#what-is-it
“Symptoms of eating uncooked berries, leaves, bark or roots of the elderberry include nausea, vomiting and diarrhea”
Victoria says
Thank you so much for this post. This is EXACTLY the sort of thing I was thinking while we were sick with the flu that I need to find a good, herbal cordial for illness instead of pumping us all full of Robitussin all the time. I’m a big believer in garlic, lemon and honey tea, but it didn’t seem to cut it this time. I also want to find something with specifically expectorant properties to keep fluid from building up in the ear–which leads to ear infections that my kids are prone to.