Honey and Onion Natural Cough Remedy

Here’s an easy homemade cough remedy that you probably already have the ingredients for. It’s a honey onion syrup—before you get grossed out, it doesn’t taste like onions when it’s done. Really. We’ve been having some coughing and sore throats among the little people lately, and my husband remembered his dad making this for him so we thought we’d give it a try. What you’ll need: Raw honey (regular honey would work okay, but the raw honey has enzymes in it that have been cooked out of the processed honey you get at the store) Onion Garlic (optional) Ginger root (optional) Cut your onion in thin slices across so it makes rings. I used two small red onions harvested from our garden last fall. Put all the slices in a pot or bowl and cover with honey. You can add your garlic and fresh grated ginger to it as well if you would like. Garlic has antibacterial properties and ginger is for flavor. I ended up adding more honey to this pot. Now let it sit overnight or 8-12 hours. If you use it too soon the onion flavor is stronger. After it sits and has worked its magic, the honey and onion juice will be more of a syrup. You may want to stir it around a little bit to even out the consistency of the syrup. It doesn’t taste like onions to me, although it’s definitely not as sweet as straight honey. Strain out the onions or just scoop the syrup you want out of the side of the pot. Children take 1-2 teaspoons, adults 2-4 teaspoons. Sweet husband likes it—the honey soothes your throat plus you get the health benefits of honey, onion, and garlic. We gave this to my 11 year old daughter who has been coughing and complaining of a sore throat before I added the garlic and ginger. I told her it was honey and a secret ingredient. Here’s her reaction, “Is this some kind of herby thing? Ewww. Can I have a drink?” The secret ingredient caused a bit too much curiosity (probably should have just said it was honey and herbs!), and she soon found out the secret ingredient was onions. The next time I offered her some she said she’d rather be sick for two more weeks than take any more of that stuff. Silly girl. We added the garlic and ginger (one clove of garlic crushed and about 1/4 tsp raw grated ginger root) and the next morning it tasted really good to me and a bit too gingery for sweet husband. But it does soothe the sore throats—I haven’t had enough willing, coughing, guinea pigs to vouch for it’s effectiveness on a cough yet although I have heard from others that it works. Stores in a sealed container at room temperature. One sweet lady on youtube said she just keeps this in a pot on her stove all winter and adds more honey and onions as needed. Give it a try and let me know if it works on your coughs!