elderberries.com

Cedar fever hits me HARD every year from December through February. The scrubby green Texas cedar trees turn a distinct orange with seed pods, and simultaneously I get stuffy, congested and fatigued, for about two months straight. Sometimes I can hardly tell whether it’s still allergies or I’m getting sick, and I usually do end up with a cold or mild flu at least once every winter, presumably because my immune system is upset with me for being so stupid as to live in a place crawling with cedar when I have such a strong reaction to it.

So in an attempt to ease the yearly pattern, I’m taking my elderberry vs. colds research (for example, this article from Herbal Remedies, this article from Myrtle Beach Online and this article on Sambucol from WebMD) to heart this year.

The results? Since mid-December I’ve been taking a dose of elderberry almost every day, and while I can’t say I’ve been allergy-free, I’ve definitely stayed sickness-free, which is a good thing. Finding elderberry products in Texas hasn’t been easy though. I found the Sambu Guard I wrote about earlier at a small pharmacy called “People’s Pharmacy,” but when I searched HEB, Randalls, my local drug stores, I found nothing. Even at Whole Foods, an organic and natural foods grocer, I found only the same Sambu Guard and some elderberry extract in pill form. (But who wants to waste the yummy taste of elderberries on capsules?)

Speaking of that Sambu Guard, by the way, it was $12 a bottle at the pharmacy, and $16 a bottle at Whole Foods. In a vitamin store in Canada, it was $23 CAD! I found it online here, though, for just under $10 a bottle, and with a flat $5 shipping fee for the whole order to Texas, that turned out to be by far the best deal. (And no, they’re not paying me to say this. I wish they would!) The bottle says to refrigerate it and use it within 8 days, but the pharmacist assured me that as long as it stays in the fridge, it can last longer than that.

I also ordered a larger bottle of Sambu, which is basically just the elderberry extract without the echinacea and other flavorings. I expected it to be somewhat bitter, but I found it quite good. Much thicker and syrupy and less sweet, but a good addition to a hot herbal tea with a bit of sugar or honey.

And as another note, Terry from Stuff I Feel Like Writing About is embarking on a similar route to herbal health through the mystical elderberry. I look forward to seeing how it works for her too.

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