~ Emil is making his school lunch for the next day ~

The efficacy of echinacea tincture as an immune-system booster became evident to me around 20 years ago, when I began taking it at the first sign of a cold. Over the years there has been disagreement; some studies proved its usefulness, while others claimed it ineffective. I ignored the studies; echinacea worked for me, shortening the span of head and chest colds from a week to about three days, if that. There were even times when the cold virus would be stopped in its tracks after only 24 hours of taking the echinacea every few hours. Since the herb has amply demonstated its powerful influence on my health, I've never been without a bottle in my medical arsenal.

When I turned 49 this year, my pal Shelly mailed me a kit for making my own. Along with cheesecloth, a tiny funnel, two little glass bottles and a screen, the kit included a small jar half-full of dried echinacea root, to which I added vodka. Tightly capped, it went into the cupboard with the coffee cups and was shaken daily for two weeks. Then it was strained and funneled into the bottles and placed into the fridge. Easy as pie. Now I just need to buy a few echinacea augustifolia plants (purple coneflower, which I have never had any luck keeping in my flower beds) and in a year or two, if they survive, I can make my own from scratch.

Nowadays when there is a sniffle I dose myself and my family at regular intervals with echinacea tincture, alternating with ColdFX, a ginseng derivative. We don't travel without either one.

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Shelly, I have the correct email address for you. Can you find out how to check your junk mail filter to see if my address is being blocked? If so, you can approve the address so it won't happen again.