This spring, I hosted the UK Herbarium group blog party one month and my dear friend Rita contributed her recipe for elderflower cordial to the party. When our elderflowers bloomed I gathered some and followed her recipe. Simply delicious and I began to just crave a nice cold glass of water mixed with the cordial in the evenings. Coincidentally, I started sleeping like a newborn baby… I eventually ran out of the cordial … and started sleeping poorly again…The other day I just developed this powerful CRAVING for the cordial and thought, well I will just make a batch with some elderflower I had dried.. in the meantime I wrote Rita and told her how I was craving it and mentioned that strangely, I had not slept as well in the last few months as I did while enjoying the cordial nightly. She said she had never heard of elderflower as a sleep aid either, so I went to my bookshelves and just chose Backyard Medicine by Julie Bruton-Seal and Matthew Seal to reference. I figured I would just pour through all the different books and try to figure out just why this cordial made me sleep so soundly! Well right away I see that in that book, the cordial is recommended for hot flashes! A light bulb went off and I have it figured out! You see I thought I was through with my hot flashing part of menopause. I no longer can count up to 35 distinct power surges per hour, wake up so drenched I have to change night shirts 6, 7, 8 times a night. I occasionally feel a bit of a surge, but nothing like I used to feel. The rapid pulse, anxious almost anxiety type of feeling. And I have just attributed my poor sleep pattern of waking several times a night on the kitties wrestling on the covers or one of them cuddled up in my tummy too tight to why I was just a bit too hot…well I know now I must be still having hot flashes, just not as severe, so that is why the elderflower cordial helps me sleep so well.. it is controlling the power surge and keeping me at an even keel! lol! Now in looking back at the really intense flashes I must say I did use cold elderflower tea quite a bit, and it did help, but I believe if I would have been making this cordial then, and just keeping a thermos of cool water and cordial with me at all times I would have had a much, much easier time of it, ( and lets face it, the cordial just tastes yummier than the tea so would have used it more). I had to rush and share this with all of you, hoping that it will help one of my hot flashing mama friends deal with her power surges too:)
Children love this cordial too. Don’t worry, perfectly safe for them!
Lily squeezing all the juice out of the lemon slices
And enjoying her cordial!
Big honey and herbal hugs to all of you who visit Comfrey Cottages xx
