I’m always interested in home remedies to keep me away from doctors. I pick plantain from our yard and school yard when it pops up to use for insect bites and other ailments. For sore throats I use is raw apple cider vinegar, honey, and water. James over at Survival Punk shares a home remedy for a stubborn cough that uses three of my favorite ingredients – medicinally, of course. Check it out…
Medicinal Moonshine to cure coughs
For this article I wish I had a gypsy wagon for selling snake oil from. Crazy James’ Snake Oil Wagon of Wonder. Maybe a new business venture for me if this Survivalpunk thing doesn’t pan out. So I got over the stomach virus thing and a few days after I started having a sore throat and a horrible cough. I felt really bad for a few days, achy, tired, runny nose, the works. I thought I might have caught the flu going around. Actually I might have or maybe bronchitis, I’m not sure I don’t go to the doctor and I’m not a doctor, I don’t even play one on the internet. All I know is five days later I’m still coughing and it sucks. One of my good friends who knows a lot more about both herbal remedies and a lot more about moonshine told me to take some to get rid of my lingering cough. Well I’m never one to turn down a chance for booze so this is what I did for my cough.
The recipe my friend gave me, after I already made this one, is as follows:
- One Shot of Moonshine
- A spoon full of Honey
- A squeeze of Lemon juice
I might try that when I wake up but right now I’m drinking another recipe. I knew she had said to combine Moonshine, Honey and Lemon and Googled that while waiting for her to text me back with her recipe. I came across a whole slew of Moonshine remedies on this site. What I followed was his Pleasant-tasting syrup for a nagging cough, and a nagging cough was exactly what I have. The recipe looked super easy so let’s make some Moonshine cough syrup.
Ingredients
You will need three things to make this cough syrup. Moonshine, Honey and a lemon. I love short shopping lists. If you can get real Moonshine or make it then that’s the best. I was in a pinch and even living in Tennessee couldn’t get any quickly. The local liquor stores now sale moonshine. It is not as strong as the real stuff but close enough for me. For the honey I suggest going local if you can. I bought the most local stuff I could get with the cone still in it. For the lemon just get one, unless your Florida Hillbilly you probably don’t have them growing in your backyard.
Related articles
- DIY Herbal Cough Drops: Sore Throat Remedy (20somethingallergies.com)
Survival Sherpa 
Homemade Cough and Cold Syrup
It comes from a book I mentioned briefly before called 10 Essential Herbs by Lalitha Thomas. This is a rare (I believe because it’s out of print) book from 1996 that my mother-in-law stumbled upon somewhere. It’s very interesting because Lalitha is not a “certified” anything when it comes to herbs, but it’s clear as you read through the book that they are very much a part of her daily life and that her own personal study and use of herbs is extensive. Personally, I’m very happy to read a book by someone who doesn’t have letters after her name but has devoted much of her life to learning a craft, and Lalitha is incredibly skilled at communicating how to use herbs in a down-to-earth way for anyone who is just learning. I love this book in particular because it focuses on 10 easily acquired herbs (cloves, chaparral, cayenne, comfrey, ginger, garlic, onion, peppermint, slippery elm and yarrow) and shows you how to treat almost anything with only these 10 herbs. Amazing!
This recipe I’m sharing comes from her chapter on Onion, which I confess I had sort of skipped over at first to read the other chapters on more “interesting and useful” herbs. The laugh is on me, because when I finally got around to reading about the humble onion, I was astounded at how useful it is! I made this recipe in 20 minutes yesterday while puttering around the kitchen making other things and Abbie and I have been using it since then. It seems to be keeping her coughing to a minimum, as well as helping to ease my sore throat and minimizing my stuffiness. I feel like it’s helping to decongest my sinuses, which is such a relief, even if it means I’m going through tissue by the boatload.
Ingredients:
1 cup freshly chopped onion
About 1/2 cup raw honey
Plus any of the following (optional):
1 tsp. Cloves (whole or powdered)- specifically good for pain relief
1-2 Tbsp. Comfrey or Slippery Elm (dried or powdered)- Comfrey is particularly good for healing, and Slippery Elm has more of a reputation for soothing and coating the throat
1-2 Tbsp. fresh chopped Ginger root OR 1 tsp. Ginger powder- Ginger increases warmth, circulation (important for healing) and the overall effectiveness of the syrup
**You can include all of these optional herbs, but at a maximum of 2 Tbsp. extra herbs total
Directions
Put chopped onions and any herbs of choice into a small stainless steel or glass pot (not alumnimum). Add enough honey to cover the onions ( for me, this seemed to be about 1/2 a cup, though I didn’t measure exactly).
Turn the pot on low heat and slowly simmer. The honey will soften and become liquidy, and you want to keep the temperature very low while allowing the herbs to steep in the honey. It’s best to keep a lid on to help keep all of the medicinal properties of the herbs in the syrup, and just take the lid off to give it a quick stir every few minutes to ensure it doesn’t burn at all (though the temp. should be low enough to prevent this).
Give it 20 minutes of simmering, then remove it from the heat. Strain the onions and herbs out and store the remaining honey (which might have flecks of herb in it and this is fine) in a small glass jar with a lid and keep it in the fridge.
The syrup can be used as often as needed, up to every half hour. Here are the dosages:
1 tsp. for a younger child
1 Tbsp. for anyone 10 years and older
While we’re on the topic of using onions medicinally, I thought I should mention another use I learn yesterday. A commenter said that when her children are sick, she puts chopped onions in a small bag around their neck when they go to bed and in the morning, they wake up well. First I had ever heard of it, but I’ve heard stranger things. Wouldn’t you know it that later yesterday, as I was reading about onion in the book, I read that breathing the fumes of an onion will help with congestion from a cold or other illness!
Since both Johanna and I have been plugged up lately (her more at night, me all the time) I decided to chop a large onion into chunks and put it in a bowl on the night table near where we both sleep. I couldn’t quite bring myself to actually put it in bed with me, but I could still smell it, for sure! Well, last night was the best sleep I have had in a few nights and the first time that I woke up without feeling all plugged up! Three cheers for the onion!
Adult recipe additions
These additions are to be used by only an adult 80lbs or over
Herbs to add:
Cumin 1/4 tsp nutrition
Cayenne 1/8 tsp for heat diaphoretic
Slippery elm bark powder 1/2 tsp nutrition demuculant
Thyme 1/4 tsp strengthen immune system
After straining onions and syrup take warm onions in a press or potato ricer and press juices out into the honey this is the consent rate the good stuff.
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HS, congrats! You just made this mornings post for me.
It’s amazing that the onion, which I love and DRG hates, has such medicinal properties.
Many thanks for adding great value in the comments!!! Many won’t get to the comments, so I’m adding this to a post today 🙂
Now I’m a quest for “10 Essential Herbs” by Lalitha Thomas. I’ll let ya know if if I find it.
Keep doing the stuff!
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Lovely blog
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