Winter tonic/Elderberry immune boost – Made with wild elderberries which I pick with the help of many friends, a blend of Echinacea purpura and angustifolia and a local blossom honey. The Elderberries are anti viral and the Echinacea boosts the immune system, blended with the honey it is both soothing and tasty with an interesting tingle. It will sooth a sore throat almost immediately and has helped many singers. Some people such as school teachers take a bit every day and have found it to ward off the usual bugs that they have had in previous years. Others have reported taking it at the first signs of infection and knocked it on its head before its had chance to catch hold of them.
Feel the Warmth this Winter and Beat the Blues
with
Winter Tonic
ELDERBERRY POEM
Dear Elder berry
Genus of flowering energy
Who feeds our birds
Brings colour to our hedgerow universe
Needing only light to grow
Unfussy so and so
Thank-you
For the medicine you bring
To help us through the winters biting winds
Ensuring singers stay in voice
Soothing body shocks from sometimes negative choices
To help us breathe
Alleviate our allergies
And balm our joints and injuries
Your flora makes us strong
Each day a little easier to face
Teaching us one way into the universe
Is through the forest wilderness
No matter our pretensions
We owe our lives to what is underfoot
No temple made by mortal hands
Could ever be so good
So I conjure you my brethren
To be forever grateful for her gifts
For nature is our lifeline
She’s our survival kit
Be aware of earth as poetry
For it is how we breathe and live
She sends her glorious incense up
From a medicine woman’s shrine
Who from berries made a dewy cup
To pour her sacred wine
So let us arise
And open up the gates
To breathe the wild warm air of health
For natures plants still pledge themselves
To the guardianship of our ailments
We evolved with plants around
With them we must still fortify ourselves
For here on the paths of everyday
No matter what our human ways
Is all we need to breathe
Today
So thank-you
Dear Elder berry
