Hands-on how-to: making your own tinctures

Although I've made reference here and there on this blog to throwing together tinctures, it seems I've never done a dedicated post on the subject before.

What was I thinking??

Actually, what I was thinking was that anyone could find the information pretty easily out there on the interwebz. Thing is, turns out the instructions 'out there' are often needlessly complicated, incomplete or downright wrong .. sigh ..

So today's post, like so many before it, is in answer to some of that nonsense. Hopefully I'll be able to clarify some details, clear up some confusion, dispel some myths and help you to see that you, too, can make far better quality tinctures at home than you can buy anywhere - and do it on the cheap, too.

Like cooking or baking, making your own herbal remedies is about following a basic recipe, learning the ratios, then, as you gain experience, winging it according to your best judgement. There are - of course - exceptions to some of the rules, and I'll cover those too.

What follows is my own experience, based on about 2 decades of tincture making.

The TL;DR version of this post? Plants + booze x time = tincture. But there's a little more to it than that, so read on ..

Tea vs decoction (and everything in between)

Some of us been talking about burdock root in the comments section at Tim's veggiepharm blog and in background emails, too.

But we're getting a little mixed up in our terminology about how we're using it, so here's a quick rundown of the 'official' terms for the various kinds of hot water methods used in herbal medicine.

These guidelines apply to most herbs, not just burdock. And yeah, there are exceptions of course.

A spoonful of sugar - discussing (medicinal) herbal syrups

It's been years since I've been able to dry the airy parts of some of my herbs successfully, especially those with large or thick leaves. The Ottawa River valley is notoriously humid to begin with; we've had a few really really humid summers in a row and this one, phew, it's been downright wet (but at least not hot!).

So, as with the past few summers, I have to find other ways to preserve my herbs for winter. One of those ways is by making syrups. I've been told that the pioneer women in my region nearly always preserved their herbs as syrups. I don't know how accurate that is, but I can see the reasoning. Syrups are instantly available, they can be easily turned into a cup of hot, sweet tea, and they're (let's face it) easier to get down the throat of a recalcitrant child (or husband) (or farm hand). In days of yore, tinctures weren't the 'thing' they are now, booze being at a premium or verboten. I wonder about the availability of sugar to a housewife way up in the bush, though ..

i.d. (a couple of) useful weeds in the autumn, by request

Okay kids - as several of you know, I'm always up for a game of "name that weed", wherein you take pictures on your walks, send them to me and I try to figure out what it is we're looking at. It's a fun game - but maybe frustrating for some of you who are just starting out and don't know, really, what you're looking for. This post full of pictures might help.

This is actually a good time of year for what I like to call reconnaissance walks - getting to know the lay of the land, learning where the colonies of this or that useful plant are in your neighbourhood or yard, or park, or even the edges of the Walmart parking lot - so you know how to recognize them and what kind of conditions they prefer to grow in.

Now, I'm not suggesting you necessarily pick plants that you find in those urban areas. I'm not suggesting you don't either - that's another discussion - but these are great places to find and get to know what your target plants look like.

The most common, probably, is plantain , the ever so useful stuff I make my ointments from:

Remember, you can always click to embiggen.

Garbling the echinacea, and why you should try your hand at it too.

I have read so many different takes on harvesting and using this plant. Use 5 yr. old plants, only. Use Purpurea only, or Augustfolia only. Yes, you can use other cultivars; no you can't. Yes you can use the leaves and flowers or even the seeds; no you can't. Use the rhizomes only; use the little roots; don't use the little roots .. damn it, if I was waiting for consensus I would never use this plant. You know what I think when I see so many opinions? Go with your gut. So here's how I garbled my echinacea plants today; how you do yours is entirely up to you.

Making plantain balm

I usually call this plantain ointment, but the husband thinks "balm" sounds more soothing. And as this is some very soothing stuff, we'll go with that.

Plantain ointment, oops! I mean balm is good medicine for the skin, especially for those of us who work with our hands. Gardening hands, dry wood stove feeding hands, dog-walking in the cold without gloves hands. I like it for hang nails, too. It's fantastic for rough feet and of course it is so good for haemorrhoids that I'm tempted to call it "Preparation P.". But that just sounds weird, so I won't.