We've been finding all sorts of good things growing just now and have been making sure we make time to harvest some of this goodness. I have been gathering cleavers wherever I have been able to find them for a friend of mine. Cleavers are good for all sorts of things and they have long been regarded as a valuable lymphatic tonic. I wanted to make some into a tincture for my friend. It is so easy to do and tinctures are so potent and easy to take.
Just gather your plant material (tinctures can be made from all sorts of different plants).
Chop and then put in jar.
I like to fill the jar all the way to the top.
Then add your chosen alcohol. This is the first time I've tried using gin.
The next morning you may need to add a touch more alcohol to make sure it is filled right up. Then...just store it in a cupboard and wait 6 weeks ( I like to shake it whenever I remember) and that's it. Strain (although I quite often
am lazy or forgetful and just skip this step) and it is ready to use.
8 comments:
What are cleavers? Never heard of them.
I was wondering the same thing...can't really tell from the picture. Assuming tinctures are not for kids? Or are they? Interesting...I didn't realise that tinctures were like tea made with alcohol! Very cool.
My boys love to run after me sticking them all over my fleece jacket ;-) They just did this to me again 3 days ago while at the creek. Fun loving fellas.
It's interesting to know they have a usefulness...I'm not sure if we can find that much, I'll have to poke around. Usually the bits I find here are just random small plants.
I've been madly drying this for the last few weeks - we even found a massive forest of them on a walk.
Cleavers are thought of as a pesky weed by most people. Here is a link with some fairly good photo if you want to try to find it.
http://www.agf.gov.bc.ca/cropprot/weedguid/cleavers.htm
Some people call it goosegrass or bedstraw. It tends to stick (or cleave) to you when you touch it. Once you sort of know what you are looking for you can easily identify it by this stickiness. If you google it you will find it can be used for many health issues.
Hi Stephanie, I don't know that I would have given my kids tinctures when they were really little but what I do now is to put a bit into a cup of tea and let it sit for a bit. I feel that most of the alcohol evaporates (dissipates?) and that they are left with just the goodness of whatever I made the tincture with. The only one the boys have taken internally is elderberry tincture/elixir, it is delicious.
This is in response to the comment you left on my site: Indeed it is awesome to grow avocadoes outside, that being said, our options for fruit trees that will thrive are somewhat limited to citrus. The grass is always greener, eh? Jelly bean tomatoes are just really small tomatoes, I have red and yellow types growing right now, they're awesome for roasting and eating right off the vine. They're really firm, almost crunchy. Half the size of cherry tomatoes and with significantly less juice. Love them! But I love all tomatoes, No discrimination! :)
The alcohol is not enough to cause harm to kids. It's okay to give a tincture to kids because you really only need to take a drop or few of the tincture at a time. Some people say to take more but often they are very potent and you really only need a few drops. Alcohol is what draws the medicine out of the plant and then it helps your body to absorb the medicine quickly. There's actually alcohol in a lot of drug store medicines too.
Post a Comment