The First Cold of the Season

We've been down and out for the last two weeks or with lots of coughing, runny noses and such stuff. I haven't had any energy to finish the numerous posts I began! So, parden me as I repost something from last Fall...

What does a "Former Black Panther" and a Nurse from the "Bataan Death March" have in Common?

Both of them used sliced onions and sugar to make cough syrup.

I was talking to my mother last week about my Failed Experiment and she suggested next time I make some onion syrup. She said Lou told her about it years and years ago.

Lou was a friend of my mother's from back in her Marchin' and Protestin' Days. I'm not sure if they met at "Resurrection City" or if it was later. Lou would leave his house in Anacostia and come to our farm for some fresh air several times a year.

Sometimes, Lou's son (who lived with his mother on a Lesbian Commune) would also join us. He took his daughter to her first March when she was 6 weeks-old and introduced my family to Pow-Wow Dancing. Lou had a painting of Che Guevara in his hallway, a porch swing in his living room and mirrors in his bedroom. He went down to Mexico in the mid-1990's and worked with the Zapatista Army of National Liberation. Growing up, I was in awe of Lou.

So, when my Mama told me about Lou making onion cough syrup, I smiled. She also mentioned that she had recently read about nurses using the same method during the Bataan Death March. She had a cough, so she made a batch. Super-duper easy...

To make the syrup....

1. Slice the onions in very, very thin slices.

2. Cover with sugar.

3. Wait 24 hours for the sugar to meld with the juice from the onion.

4. Refrigerate and use within two weeks.

 

I tasted it and it was decent. I think a young kid might even swallow it. I haven't decided, yet, if I'm going to give it to Lina next time she has a cough. I don't know about the sugar. But I have a feeling, if it's really bad and I have nothing else, you will find me slicing up some onions.

 

 

****Just a Reminder, I'm not a MD, so please check with your Doc before taking this syrup. Thanks.