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Homemade Fire Cider

With cold and flu season upon us, here is an amazing healing tonic to help keep your immune system boosted, along with other incredible health benefits. This could be the most powerful tonic to keep you healthy. Look at all these wonderful ingredients and how they all heal your body!
-The recipe is down below-

Fire Cider

Is a traditional immune-supporting remedy with deep roots in traditional medicine. This zesty, infused vinegar is packed with powerful immune-boosting, anti-inflammatory, anti-bacterial, anti-viral, and circulatory herbs. The addition of hot peppers and raw honey makes it both spicy and sweet.

You can use this fire cider as a defense against cold and flu pathogens, at first sign of cold symptoms, as a decongestant and expectorant when the cold has set in. Not only is this an immune tonic, but homemade fire cider also stimulates digestion and helps circulation throughout the body, along with many other health benefits. You can sip a shot glass a day of this beginning mid-autumn and throughout winter, or all year round if you’d like.

About Homemade Fire Cider:

Onions and other members of the allium family, like garlic, are high in flavonoids, polyphenols, and constituent allicin. They are antimicrobial, antiviral, antioxidant, immune-enhancing, and anti-inflammatory. They are also packed with vitamins and minerals like vitamin C, K and B6, calcium, manganese, potassium, folate, and thiamine. Onions are full of sulfur compounds that protect the body from ulcers and various cancers. They can also fight bacteria in the urinary tract. The most important of these compounds is called quercetin, an antioxidant compound that could provide protection against cancer, heart disease and allergies. Onions cure sore throats, helps bring down high cholesterol, eases arthritis, great for heart health, and much more.

Horseradish root has been used for medicinal purposes for thousands of years. It is naturally rich in antioxidants, and antibacterial killing harmful bacteria and microbes that results in infections. It can help protect your body from cellular damage by attaching themselves to free radicals. Studies have shown that it can also prevent growth of colon, lung, stomach, and other cancer cells. It’s packed with nutrients galore including calcium, dietary fiber, folate, manganese, magnesium, potassium, vitamin C, and zinc. Horseradish roots high sulfur levels help clear sinus passages and clear mucus. It’s also a great weight loss aid, speeding up the metabolism, helps with digestion, supports immunity, expels toxins from your body, and helps keep your liver clean.

Ginger root has a very long history of use in various forms of traditional medicine. It’s been used to aid digestion, reduce nausea, and help fight the flu and common cold, just to name a few. Gingerol is the main bioactive compound in ginger. It’s responsible for much of ginger’s medicinal properties. Gingerol has powerful anti-inflammatory and antioxidant effects, according to research. It helps with weight loss, can help with osteoarthritis, lowers blood sugars, helps improve heart disease, can help treat chronic indigestion, reduces menstrual pain, lowers cholesterol levels, contains a substance that may help prevent cancer, improves brain function which protects against Alzheimer’s disease, can help fight infections, and much more.

Organic and fermented apple cider vinegar is left raw, unfiltered, and unpasteurized to keep the “mother”. These cloudy strings are beneficial enzymes, pectin, and trace minerals, intact. The prebiotics in apple cider vinegar are incredibly beneficial to healthy microorganisms that monitor your digestive system. It’s a useful remedy for people diagnosed with diabetes, because it can help lower blood sugar levels. It can also prevent glucose in the blood. Apple cider vinegar is also a great aid in weight loss, lowers blood pressure, and reduces cholesterol levels. It also helps control renin, a hormone produced by your kidneys responsible for constricting and dilating the blood vessels. Apple cider vinegar kills bacteria, prevents cancer, helps boost energy levels, and has many other healing properties.

Raw honey has been used in traditional medicine for thousands of years, and it provides a range of health benefits. Raw honey, which comes straight from the beehive, contains healthful bee pollen, bee propolis, and plenty of antioxidants. Honey naturally offers antibacterial actions, wound-healing effects, dietary antioxidants, and anti-inflammatory effects. It even contains anticancer properties. Honey contains other vitamins and amino acids like niacin, riboflavin, pantothenic acid, calcium, magnesium, manganese, potassium, phosphorus, and zinc. Honey also contains hydrogen peroxide and glucose oxidase and has a low pH level, which means it can kill harmful bacteria and fungi. Also, because of its unique chemical composition, it does not help yeast or bacteria grow. Honey helps with relieving coughs, has a soothing effect on digestion, and powers that benefit the brain. There are definitely many other healing benefits of this amazing liquid gold.

Hot peppers like cayenne, are high in capsaicin, which is great for colds and flus, because they increase circulation and mucous secretions. Cayenne peppers are rich in vitamin c, vitamin A, vitamin B6, and vitamin K. It is also an excellent source of antioxidants and other plant compounds that protect our cells and promote health. Cayenne peppers can protect heart health, inflammation, blood pressure, immune health, lungs, kidneys, and other organs. It can also help maintain a healthy weight, increases the metabolism, clears congestion, and helps relieve headaches. Hot peppers have many other healthy benefits for the body.

Thyme is a lovely herbal ally for the respiratory system. Its powerful antimicrobial thins mucus making it more easily expectorated, and is a tonic spasmolytic. It is packed with nutrients including vitamin A, Vitamin C, copper, fiber, iron, and manganese. Thyme is also a strong digestive aid and can be helpful with a bad stomach bug, along with cold symptoms. It can also help lower blood pressure, alleviate coughs, boost immunity, help with your mood, prevent bacterial infections, help treat yeast infections, lowers cholesterol, and helps fight against cancer. There are many other helpful benefits of using thyme as well.

Turmeric has been used as a medicine for centuries to treat wounds, infections, colds, and liver disease. Its most active compound, curcumin, has many scientifically proven health benefits, such as heart health, prevention against Alzheimer’s, and cancer. Turmeric is a potent anti-inflammatory and antioxidant, which also helps improve depression, arthritis, and much more.

Fresh black pepper is known as the “King of Spices” and has been valued for its flavor, antibacterial, antioxidant, and anti-inflammatory benefits. It has been used by different cultures as medicine for thousands of years in prevention of cancer, and many diseases. Fresh black pepper has vitamin C, vitamin A, flavonoids, carotenes, and other vitamins to protect the body. It stimulates digestion, increases metabolism, relieves colds, coughs, and chest congestion, which is antibacterial in nature. Fresh black pepper works also as a great antibiotic and has many other healing powers.

Cinnamon has been prized for its medicinal properties for thousands of years for its powerful medicinal properties. Cinnamon is made from the inner bark of trees known as Cinnamomum. It used to be rare and valuable and was regarded as a gift to fit kings. It is loaded with antioxidants, has inflammatory properties, which helps fight infections, reduces the risk of heart disease, helps with diabetes, cholesterol, and improves hormone insulin. Cinnamon regulates metabolism and energy use, has a powerful anti-diabetic effect, has beneficial effects on neurodegenerative diseases such as Alzheimer’s and Parkinson’s disease. It protects against cancer, helps fight bacterial and fungal infections, and may even help fight the HIV virus. Not all cinnamon is created equal. Ceylon (“true” cinnamon) is much better to use.

Homemade Fire Cider ingredients:
1 large red onion, chopped
3 heads garlic, chopped
1 organic lemon, and or orange with peel, sliced or diced
½ cup fresh ginger root, grated
½ cup fresh turmeric root, grated
¼ cup fresh horseradish root, grated
¼ cup fresh thyme, and or 2 sprigs rosemary, chopped
2 teaspoons fresh ground black pepper
2 whole cinnamon sticks
A few fresh cayenne or jalapeño peppers (depending on how spicy you want your fire cider, you might use more peppers, or omit them altogether—it’s better to err on the side of caution because you can always make it spicier later!)
½ to 1 cup honey
2 cups raw, unpasteurized apple cider vinegar

Directions
Remember—you can be really flexible in how you make homemade fire cider. These ingredients are a start, but you can add others. Some other great options are dried elderberries, Echinacea, Astragalus root, even lavender flowers.
Place all ingredients except honey in a half-gallon jar, and cover with raw, unpasteurized apple cider vinegar. Be sure to cover the herbs by at least a few inches, then cut a square of parchment or wax paper and cover the jar before tightly capping it.
Store in a warm place (I like the top of the fridge) for a few weeks, shaking the jar daily.
After three weeks, your fire cider will pack a punch, but you can keep infusing for much longer if you like—I know herbalists that let their fire cider sit for months before straining it!
At this point, you can strain out the herbs from the liquid, but another option is to blend the whole batch in a blender or Vitamix and let it sit for an additional week (without shaking for the last few days to let the ingredients settle) before pouring off the liquid.
Either way, once you’ve finished infusing herbs, add warmed raw honey to taste (I usually add about 1/3 cup), mix thoroughly, and bottle. This doesn’t have to be refrigerated, but it can’t hurt.

Enjoy your magical healing fire cider!

-Warmest Blessings-

Tracy Knight
Coastal Sol