Fire Cider: Our Cold & Flu Season Staple

It’s that time of year. About a month into school, the kids (and teachers) begin to feel the throat tickle, an ache starting, or the stomach rumble. Cold, flu and stomach bug season has arrived.

Winning the daily battles

The human body is designed to fight these viruses and go on about life, unless the immune system is weakened or doesn’t have what it needs to fight the daily battle. Battles win wars. If you lose the daily battles, the war is lost and you get sick.

Fire Cider works on a number of different levels: before you get sick and after you get sick. You still have to clean things up after a virus gets you down.

How I use it

Before I fly. I take some before and after the flight, because inevitably someone nearby is under the weather and sharing germs.
After exposure. If I know I’ve been around someone who came down with something, I take some for a few days.
When I’m sick. I take it several times a day.

That’s the beauty of Fire Cider. It’s made of foods, and you can’t get too much of good food.

The recipe

Ingredients vary from person to person, and this is the recipe I use and enjoy. Many recipes call for “one of an item,” but sizes vary greatly, so I slice and dice first, then weigh, so every batch is consistent.

Fire Cider ingredients laid out on a counter: oranges, red onions, lemons, garlic, ginger, turmeric, jalapeños, rosemary, oregano, and apple cider vinegar with empty half-gallon jars

This fills one 1/2 gallon glass jar and makes about a quart of Fire Cider.

40 g fresh chopped turmeric
80 g fresh chopped ginger
200 g chopped red onion
175 g sliced lemons (about 2 small or 1 large; 200 g if you have room)
375 g sliced orange (about 1.5 whole oranges)
70 g sliced jalapeño (I include the seeds)
175 g diced garlic cloves (about 3 heads)
4 cinnamon sticks
3 sprigs fresh rosemary, 6”
4 sprigs fresh oregano, 6”
10 peppercorns
1 Tbsp clove buds (optional)
2 star anise (optional)
1 cup fresh elderberries (optional)
Raw, unfiltered apple cider vinegar, enough to fill the jar completely
Honey, to taste (after infusing)

Preparing your space

Clean the counter, sanitize the cutting board and wash your 1/2 gallon glass jar. Everything gets washed, because I don’t remove the skins, except the garlic, which is peeled and chopped. Scrub the ginger and turmeric, but leave their skins on.

Packing the jar

Pack the jar with everything except the oranges.
Put the oranges in last. This helps keep everything submerged, so chopped ingredients don’t float to the top and become a mold risk.
If you aren’t using a glass weight, wedge an orange peel at the top, under the edge of the neck of the jar, to hold things down.
Pour the vinegar in slowly so it percolates down and fills all the pockets.
Tip the jar around a bit to release air bubbles, then add more vinegar until the jar is completely full and everything is submerged.

Two half-gallon jars of Fire Cider infusing, layered with orange peel, garlic, elderberries, jalapeño, lemon and ginger under vinegar

While it infuses

Tip, turn, push down. Make sure everything is covered and moving about, and check that there is no mold. Vinegar prevents mold as long as it completely covers the ingredients while infusing.

After 4 weeks you have a powerful, medicinal vinegar. I add honey to mine, but that’s personal preference. Honey makes it easier to take.

Shop our herbal apothecary and join us for a class at Riverbend Hollow to learn more about food-based herbal preparations. This post is for education and is not medical advice.