Forgotten Skills of Backyard Herbal Healing and Family Health by Caleb Warnock & Kirsten Skirvin

Author:Caleb Warnock & Kirsten Skirvin [Warnock, Caleb]
Language: eng
Format: epub, pdf
Publisher: Cedar Fort, Inc.
Published: 2015-02-10T08:00:00+00:00

Kirsten Skirvin’s home cabinet of herbal remedies.

QUESTION: Can I use a less expensive vodka?

ANSWER: When making an alcohol tincture, the vodka should be 100 proof (50 percent alcohol and 50 percent water). Some less expensive vodkas are 40 percent alcohol and 60 percent water. If you use a 40/60 vodka, your tincture may never mature. If you cannot find a good quality 100-proof vodka, you can buy Everclear, which is 200 proof (100 percent alcohol) and dilute it with distilled water. Use distilled water because it absorbs minerals.

QUESTION: Can I combine tinctures?

ANSWER: Yes. Tinctures should be created individually—one herb per tincture. But once your tinctures are completed and strained, you can take them singly or combined. “Kind of like the old pharmacist,” says Kirsten. You can use mature tinctures to make any combination you feel you need for healing. It would be prudent to do some research into what you are combining and why. However, once tinctures have been combined, you are now limited because you cannot use them individually or in other combinations. For this reason, it is a good idea to only combine small amounts, as needed. Tinctures should only be combined when they are mature.

QUESTION: Can I combine tinctures made with different menstruums?

ANSWER: Yes. Menstruum is the word herbalists use to describe the liquid used to create an herbal tincture—alcohol, glycerin, or vinegar. Tinctures made with different menstruums can be combined. However, these should be used in a short period of time because, while alcohol tinctures have a shelf life of years, glycerin has a shelf life of two years and vinegar one year.

QUESTION: Can I combine dried herbs to create a tincture?

ANSWER: Yes, you can combine dried herbs into a specific formula when creating a tincture. For example, when making her tincture for lower bowel health (see Remedies chapter), Kirsten mixes the dried herbs first, making sure the menstruum ratio is correct for the ounces of dried herbs she uses. “There is no harm in that,” she says. “It just limits my ability to use each herb individually for other things.”

NOTES

Pedanius Dioscorides, Book Five: Of Vines and Wines, trans. Tess Anne Osbaldeston, accessed March 24, 2014, http://www.ibidispress.scriptmania.com/index.html.

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Debra St Clair, The Herbal Medicine Cabinet (Berkeley: Celestial Arts, 1997).

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