This weekend, my friends and I drove two hours into southern Maryland for the first-ever Chesapeake Herbal Gathering, hosted by our local herbal healing and learning center, Centro Ashe. Both the old and young (and very young) gathered together for a day of inspiration in the chill of early autumn. Think plant walks, herbal medicine-making classes and talks, potluck, bonfire, a campout, and sunrise yoga.
You might not pick out the D.C. area as a hotbed of herbalism and plant medicine, but our community is a small and mighty one. The mid-Atlantic region is rich in memory and intersecting folk traditions from Native tribes, Africa, Appalachia, European immigrants, and other cultures, and the teachers brought a diverse range of knowledge to the table.
The conference began around lunchtime on Saturday and stretched into the early evening. Multiple classes, talks and plant identification walks were offered simultaneously, so each attendee could customize the event to suit her interests. In accordance with the season, many of the classes centered on preparing the body, heart and mind for the coming winter. Multiple vendors also offered herbal teas, lotions, syrups, tinctures, soaps, coffee beans and even kombucha starters for sale.
Once the sun set, the vendors packed up for home and everyone enjoyed a potluck meal cobbled together from the curries, bread, ferments and vegetables that the community had brought. The night cooled down quickly and I was suddenly reminded that yes, this is autumn. The season of harvest and brisk, clear nights has joined us.
My favorite herbal teacher, Suzanna Stone of , taught a class on making sweet medicinal syrups. You may remember Suzanna from the time I attended her fermentation class at Centro Ashe, and her class on making medicine was just as wonderful – hands-on, practical, and empowering. We all got to taste the medicine she was making and came away with recipes to ward off cold season using healing plants.
Suzanna has generously let me share her recipe for elderberry sumac syrup, a delicious tonic to take daily as a preventative measure or when feeling sick. Unlike my elderberry tincture recipe from a couple years ago, this recipe comes together in just over an hour and makes a big batch. It’s incredibly easy to make and can be scaled up if you have a big family or want to gift healing syrups to your friends.
A note on ingredients:
Elderberries (Sambucus nigra or a similar variety) grow across the country and are easy to cultivate, as Camille notes on her blog, Wayward Spark. However, the peak has passed in most parts and may be hard to find fresh. Local (or at least, American-grown) is best, but if you can’t find them fresh to dry yourself, I highly recommend ordering dried elderberries and other herbs from Mountain Rose Herbs.
Staghorn sumac (Rhus typhina) is in its peak now and grows across most of the East Coast and Midwest. You can easily find wild sumac growing along roadsides in damp areas. Its bright red clusters differentiate medicinal sumac from poison sumac with its white berries, so do your research before heading out with your pruning sheers. Thankfully, they’re easy to distinguish from each other so you needn’t worry too much. My friends and I found smooth sumac (Rhus glabra) on the roadside, which works just as well for this purpose.
Here are some more notes on sumac in Suzanna’s own words:
“A few notes on drying sumac… you can put them in a basket each standing upright but touching each other and cover them loosely with a cloth. They never fully feel dry. There should always be an oily, almost resinous feel to the berries even after a year. Sumac is wonderful as a tea and amazing in savory recipes. Think roasts and root vegetables.
So, another note… plants retain their medicine best when dried out of direct sunlight.
Also when harvesting from roadsides, just take into account how close to the road you are. The further away you are, the less likely of any contamination from cars and potential road side spraying. I find most importantly though, if the plants say yes… then it’s a go!”
Of course, if you can’t find sumac, just double the amount of elderberries in the recipe.
When choosing your honey, it’s vitally important that you choose locally grown honey, not the gunk sold in the teddy bear packaging at the grocery store that’s mostly made up of corn syrup. Cinnamon chips are broken up cinnamon sticks, and add a wonderful warming quality and flavor to the syrup.
elderberry sumac syrup
4 cups water
1 oz. dried elderberries
1 oz. dried sumac berries
2 teaspoons cinnamon chips
1 cup local honey
1/8 cup brandy
Combine the water and herbs in a wide pot. Bring to a gentle boil, then lower the heat and simmer, uncovered, until the volume is reduced by half. You can test this by sticking a chopstick in the liquid at the start, marking the height of the liquid, and checking later using the chopstick to see how much of the water has boiled off. You will have 2 cups of liquid.
Strain the herbs and compost them. Add the honey to the warm liquid and stir to dissolve. Add the brandy as a preservative. Pour the syrup into a large jar or smaller bottles and refrigerate. The syrup will keep for months.
As preventative medicine, adults take 1 tablespoon of syrup daily. When battling a cold or virus, adults may take this dose 3-4 times a day. For children under 12, dosage is 2 teaspoons once a day or 3-4 times a day if battling a cold.
All of those jars look great! And the honey looks glorious!
Thank you both for sharing this syrup. I have an elderberry reduction that i wasn’t quite sure what a to do with. Your photos are beautiful- they really capture that glow special to autumn xxx
Yes, absolutely!
Thank you Jess! Beautiful write up with lovely images. You truly captured the magic of the weekend.
Thank YOU for speaking, teaching, and sharing your knowledge. xo
So beautiful Jess, makes me wish it was last weekend all over again! Thank you!
what’s with the red glare?
can’t tell in this light -…..spirit, sun ????
xoxoxo
Light leak in the camera. 🙂
Really interesting, Jess! Sounds like an inspirational weekend.
Remind me to tell you later about the camping mishap. Pffftt. We need to have a kickass camping trip sometime to make up for my lifetime deprived of proper campouts.
ABSOLUTELY.
wow this is amazing, to bad we dont have this is new york
Hi there – Nice Elderberry / Sumac recipe! I’m an Boston area herbalist and have made elderberry syrup and also sumac tincture. Was looking to combine the two, so like this recipe. Am doing a local demo at farmer’s market soon. I’d like to use this recipe in a hand-out and would credit you & your blog and Suzanna Stone. Is this Ok with you?
Thanks!
Totally okay. Thanks for asking!
Well, this blog sounds excellent as I have also use many herbal syrups whose effect was really pleasant and good.
Source:- http://www.bazbuy.com/health-care/santasapina-syrup .
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