Tinctures

If you are my "friend" on Facebook, you know that I have been making tinctures. I really should add more photography to my blog, and maybe one day I will - I really want to show you all these cool bottles of all natural "medicine" but for today, because you asked, I am going to give you step by step instructions for making tinctures.

First question answered -- What exactly is a tincture? I know you were wondering.

A tincture is pretty much just a really strong tea. Once it is steeped it is very dark and strong and you only need a teaspoon or so as opposed to an entire cup.

Ok, now that you know what a tincture is - next question is: How do you go about making one?

First, you need to order the herbs you want to use to make the tincture. I order all of my cut herbs from www.bulkherbstore.com - everything is organic and very reasonable in price. Their website and catalog are both a wealth of information about herbal remedies. Any tea or herb can be made into a tincture.

We decided to make the following: Red Raspberry - this is used to treat PMS symptoms and is very good for pregnancy. Snooze Tincture - this is safe for children and hence the name, it helps you sleep! :) Cough Tea - at the risk of once again stating the obvious, this one contains herbs to soothe a cough and break up phlegm. Stress Relief - There are several calming herbs in this tea, making it very useful for stress relief. I Am Life Tincture - this one is similar to the cough and has proven very effective in treating flu, bronchitis, and other respiratory illnesses. Double E Immune Booster - this one is in our daily prevention regimen during the flu season - it contains a powerful combination of elderberry and echinacea - two herbs that have proven extremely beneficial in boosting the immune system.

You are also going to need tincture bottles - mountainroseherbs.com has reasonable prices on bottles. You may also have access to a Frontier co-op. This is where we purchased ours.

Ok, now that you have received your herbs and your bottles, you are ready to prepare the tinctures.

Step one....go to your local liquor store and purchase the largest, cheapest bottle of 80 proof vodka you can find.

I'm serious.

You can prepare the herbs in any glass jars or bottles. I used old pickle jars, juice bottles....as long as it is glass and has a lid. Recycle, recycle....

Fill the jars with 1 part herbs, 3 parts vodka. For example, if your jar is large enough, 1 cup of herbs and 3 cups of vodka.

Put the lid on the jar, give it a good shake, and put it in the crock pot on warm. Line your crock pot with a dishtowel - you don't want the glass bottle against the glass of the hot crock pot.

Leave the herbs in the crock pot for three days on warm. You will have to add water to the crock pot periodically.

At the end of three days take them out and let them cool. I waited two days before I poured mine into bottles. You can do it the same day or wait, whatever is most convenient.

When you get ready to pour you need cheesecloth and a funnel. I put the cheesecloth over the mouth of a large measuring cup. I have one of those 8 cup Pampered Chef ones. Pour the herbal mixture through the cheesecloth, catching the herbs in the cloth. When the bottle is empty, wring the herbs out in the cheesecloth to be sure you made good use of all the liquid. Discard the leftover herbs.

Using your funnel, pour the liquid into tincture bottles. They come in various sizes, from 1 oz to 8 oz. We have some in all amounts.

You can also use a base of vegetable glycerin as opposed to vodka. Glycerin is sweeter and more palatable to children. The downside of glycerin is that the shelf life is only 1 year as opposed to indefinitely with the vodka, and glycerin is much more expensive. The amount of liquor in the vodka tinctures is not harmful to children, but the taste is quite strong.

As for dosage, I am playing with that now, but we are taking about 1/2 teaspoonful 3 times per day of the vodka based tinctures and 1 teaspoon every 4 hours of the glycerin based ones. If that dosage changes I will update this post.

Please post any questions you have and I will try to answer. This was my first try at making the tinctures, but I have used various ones in the past, and I have used teas from The Bulk Herb Store for years!

Be Healthy!!