“I encourage everybody to make a little jar of something yourself because you will feel so good about doing it.” It’s the way it’s supposed to be. I believe we are meant to make and grow our own food, make our own medicine and nourish ourselves with what we have around us. It’s so much better if you make your own. When you grow or make something with purpose, it’s like cooking a meal for your beloved. You are so happy to be doing it that the food becomes magic for that person because of all you put into it.
The Beginning Herbalist
Create your own apothecary by turning your home and garden into a herbal medicine chest.
Meet the Menstruums
The mechanics of crafting herbal products are quite straightforward. The plant is combined with a liquid or menstruum {the herbalist’s word for “solvent”}, given time to infuse and then strained out. Then the final product is ready to be enjoyed. Aside from water, which yields preparations with a short shelf life, the menstruums most widely used by cooks and herbalists are vinegar, oil, honey, and alcohol. Each has specific culinary and medicinal applications because every menstruum has a specialty; some render specific plant constituents into solution, making those nutrients more available for assimilation in our bodies, and others provide a unique and focused delivery system for herbal benefits.
Vinegar has an acidity that makes it a premier extractor of minerals. Herbed vinegars can also be used externally and make great hair rinses, deodorant, and antifungal washes.
Your end-use will determine which type of vinegar you choose to infuse. Supplement or medicinal-quality herb vinegars are usually crafted with either raw or pasteurized apple cider vinegar. For a gourmet salad dressing, try vinegar made from wine or champagne. Distilled white vinegar can also be augmented for cleaning your home.
Oils excel at delivering a plant’s benefits to the skin and underlying tissues and, if prepared and stored properly, can also be ingested. Using extra virgin olive oil is recommended if you plan to consume your herbal oil; its high phenol content complements the nutritional value of the herbs.
Some herbalists use olive oil exclusively, while others employ a variety of seed and nut oils for external applications, such as massage or bath oils. Herb infused oils can be taken a step further and fashioned into salves, creams and lip balms by incorporating beeswax or other thickeners.
Honey is high in protein and vitamins and is antibacterial. Raw honey is pure, unheated, unpasteurized and unprocessed. Being hydroscopic, or water-loving, honey extracts the water-soluble constituents of plants. It also readily absorbs their flavorful volatile oils.
Many of the oils in aromatic herbs are antibacterial, magnifying the anti-infective quality of the honey and the herb. Honey is an effective skin soother, and herbal honeys are as at home in the first-aid kit and the cosmetic face masque as they are in the kitchen.
Alcohol is used to collect and concentrate alkaloids and other non-nutritive, medicinal components of plants. Known as tinctures, herb-alcohol extracts are usually taken internally.
Many herbal texts cite 100-proof vodka as the perfect menstruum for tinctures because of its balance of alcohol and water, while some herbalists swear by brandy.
Whichever alcohol you choose, be aware that 80-proof tinctures require a proportionally larger dose than 100-proof tinctures.
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