There’s something truly empowering about making your own homemade cold and flu vinegar—especially when the ingredients come straight from your own garden. This fiery, tangy tonic is packed with powerful herbs, roots, and spices that work together to strengthen your immune system, fight inflammation, and help your body recover naturally.

If you’ve ever felt that first tingle of a sore throat, or that telltale sluggish feeling before a cold hits, this is the perfect go-to remedy to have on hand all winter long.

What Is Homemade Cold & Flu Vinegar?

Also known as “Fire Cider,” this traditional herbal remedy is made by steeping immune-boosting ingredients like onions, garlic, horseradish, ginger, turmeric, hot peppers, and lemons in raw apple cider vinegar, with the mother. After sitting for a few weeks, the mixture is strained, sweetened with RAW HONEY, and sipped as a daily health tonic—or taken by the spoonful at the first sign of a cold.

It’s spicy, tangy, a little zesty, and absolutely full of natural plant power.

Why Make It Yourself?

When you grow and make your own remedies, you control every ingredient—no fillers, no artificial additives, no mystery sourcing.

Each root, bulb, and pepper is harvested at peak potency, giving you the freshest and most nutrient-rich blend possible. Plus, making your own vinegar infusions is deeply rewarding—it connects you to your garden and to the generations before us who relied on natural remedies for wellness.

The Superstars in Your Jar

Here’s a look at what each ingredient brings to the mix:

• Onion: A natural expectorant that helps clear congestion and ease coughs.
• Garlic: Nature’s antibiotic—packed with allicin, which supports immune response and fights infection.
• Horseradish: Clears sinuses, reduces mucus buildup, and stimulates circulation.
• Ginger: Calms inflammation, aids digestion, and eases nausea and sore throats.
• Turmeric: One of the strongest natural anti-inflammatories, with curcumin to help fight aches and pains.
• Hot Peppers: Rich in capsaicin, which boosts metabolism, improves circulation, and opens up airways.
• Lemons: Loaded with vitamin C and antioxidants, they give your vinegar a bright, refreshing twist.
• Raw Apple Cider Vinegar, with mother: The perfect base—it extracts nutrients and helps balance pH, while supporting gut health. Make sure to get organic, raw, unfiltered apple cider vinegar, with the mother! The mother is VITAL to the fermentation process and is where all the wonderful health benefits come from! Think PREBIOTICS and PROBIOTICS!
• Raw Honey: This is important not ONLY for antimicrobial, antifungal, and antioxidant properties, but ALSO a great way to balance the SPICY nature of the cider. PLUS, you have the added bonus of beneficial trace minerals. 
  • Try sourcing local, raw honey when possible. When I need to source elsewhere, I personally choose Steen's Pure & Raw Multi-floral Manuka Honey.

The Benefits of Regular Use

Just one spoonful a day can:

• 💪 Strengthen your immune system
• 💥 Reduce inflammation throughout the body
• 🍽 Improve digestion and gut health
• 🤧 Relieve sinus pressure and congestion
• ⏱ Soothe sore throats and help shorten the duration of colds
• 🔥 Warm the body and stimulate healthy circulation

It’s also a great natural salad dressing base or can be drizzled into soups and stews for an immune-boosting kick!

Growing Your Own Healing Garden

What's the best part? Most of these ingredients—onions, garlic, peppers, ginger, turmeric, and even lemons—can be grown right in your own garden or indoor growing space. Growing them yourself means they’re fresh, organic, and full of life-giving energy. Your homemade vinegar becomes more than just a remedy—it’s a jar full of your own harvest, love, and healing care.

Homemade health doesn’t have to be complicated—just powerful, simple, and from the earth.
Start your next batch today, label it with the date, shake it every day or two, and in just a few weeks, you’ll have your very own bottle of garden-grown immunity magic.

WANT THE EXACT RECIPE? Here's the LINK to my recipe page where you will find directions on how to make this Cold & Flu Vinegar!

Don't forget, my Edible & Herbal Food Forest Guide which includes many recipes like this one, the shortcut to YOUR OWN backyard paradise, and SO MUCH MORE, is available today! Let me teach you what I have learned through years of dedication and experimentation!

Always remember:

The Future Is Worth The Patience Of The Present

-Michele

The Homemade Gardener

*Always do your own research when using herbs or homemade herbal remedies. Make sure you, or any of your family members, are not allergic to, or could possibly have a reaction to, any of the herbs/materials you chose to work with. There is documented data out there—some of the most effective natural helpers on this planet live in your backyard and will make a huge difference once you start applying the principles of preventative homemade remedies. If you are concerned about conventional drugs mixing with your homemade natural concoctions, there are doctors out there who combine conventional medicine, with natural preventative healing. Your doctor can tell you if any problem would occur. JUST ASK!!! Turmeric can have blood-thinning properties so it is always best to partner with a doctor if you are unsure of if this would effect you or the medicines you may be on.