Heart Tonic Recipe

 

About six weeks ago I began making myself a Hawthorn Heart Tonic syrup (see Post HERE), but things happen and I soaked my berries longer than the required four weeks.  Apparently, that makes little difference to the potency of the tonic.

Today I finally bestirred myself and finished making the Tonic.

The full recipe, as I have made it, is as follows:

Place 150g dried hawthorn berries into a glass jar and cover with 2 cups brandy (I used 43% alcohol brandy).  Place lid on the jar, and leave the berries to soak for four weeks.  Check the brandy level after a couple of days of soaking, and if the berries are no longer covered add a little more brandy so that they are.  Give the jar a gentle shake each day – and be careful if your lid is not waterproof as the liquor stains fabric (as I discovered!).  

Strain the berries through a sieve, retaining the brandy liquor.  Place the berries into a large stainless steel saucepan and add 5 cups cold water.  Bring to the boil (uncovered), and then simmer for one hour.

Strain the berries through a jelly bag – I no longer own a jelly bag, so I left them to drain in the sieve until they were no longer dripping.  Do not use a blender or crush the seeds in any way as they contain a potential poison, Amygdalin (also found in the seeds of apricots, apples, peaches, cherries and plums).

Measure out the juice and return it to the saucepan.  I’m not entirely sure what I did (perhaps I simmered it too fast?) but there wasn’t much liquid, so I added boiling water to make the quantity up to one cup.

Bring to the boil and stir in the equivalent amount of white sugar (that is, one cup of sugar for each cup of juice).  Stir until the sugar is completely dissolved, then remove from the heat and leave it to cool down.

Add ¼ cup of the brandy liquor (which is now actually a “tincture”) to the syrup, and pour into a glass bottle.

Pour the remaining tincture into a different glass bottle (I carefully avoided using the ‘dregs’ and I presume it could be filtered through a coffee paper or similar if you wanted to).

Label both bottles.  The Hawthorn Tincture can be stored in a cool dry place (not the fridge) out of the light, and will keep indefinitely (it can also be used when soaking berries to make another batch of syrup).  Hawthorn Syrup will keep for around three months in the fridge, or longer if the bottle top has been sealed with wax.

USEAGE:

Of course, it goes without saying that I recommend anyone contemplating making this herbal remedy to obtain medical advice from a trusted health professional before using it.  Hawthorn has been acknowledged as a cardiac tonic for centuries and is generally regarded as a food more than a medicine as it does not build up in the body and cause toxicity issues, but it is always prudent to check things out first.

Like most herbal remedies, Hawthorn does take time to work.  It generally needs to be taken daily for 6-8 weeks before any noticeable difference occurs in blood pressure or cholesterol levels.

The dosage that I intend taking is one teaspoon of syrup in the morning and one teaspoon of tincture in the evening, but I have read that you can take up to half to one teaspoon of syrup three times a day, or half a teaspoon (2.5ml) of tincture three times a day.

Let’s hope it works!

A happy heart is good medicine and a joyful mind causes healing (Proverbs 17:22)

Margaret 😊