Monday, April 28, 2008

Yarrow Tincture, my way

How do I make my Yarrow tincture?

Quite simply actually. First, I harvest the areal portion; newly opened flower heads with a few leaves; of this panacea of a plant friend. It must be a perfectly dry and sunny day. I lay the blossoms and leaves (stems removed) out on paper bags or a shady, airy spot, and let them wilt for a few days. i save the stems for my kids to play with, I ching style :)
I place all the flowers and leaves into my handy quart sized jar until gently full. Then, I cover the herb with either vodka, grain/water dilution, or a nice brandy. There is a kind of scotch you can use too ... have to go back and remember what that is.
Then I cap and label, and put it up in a cabinet for six weeks. Any time after that you can strain and bottle.
I have used a blender too even with the stems and rendered wonderful tincture. I just love the look of the flowers floating in the jar :)

This is a simple kitchen folk method. Nothing complicated, nothing scary. Enjoy!

I have this on hand everywhere. My daughter gets spring nosebleeds so come April I throw a bottle into her bag too. I use it for colds, fevers, stomach upset, sinusitis, bug bites, bug repellent, poison ivy (in the company of mugwort), and a million other things!

I had many lovely photos - but they all went away last summer with a computer crash. So I'm on a mission come July!

5 comments:

Yarrow said...

Sounds wonderfully simple. Thank you so much for sharing your way of making it. I look forward t putting my large yarrow bed to good use this summer.

MsRie142 said...

The yarrow is good for nose bleeds? I didn't realize that. Can you tell me how much your daughter takes for them? How you use it for the nose bleeds. I now need to get yarrow. My son gets nose bleeds all the time and he is getting discouraged by them.

Thank you

Ananda said...

Yarrow - you're welcome!

Marie - I use it two ways for nose bleeds. One is to soak a tissue with the tincture and insert it into the nostril, leaving the remainder of the tissue out of course. Change if needed. Internally, One dropperful to start, then half a dropperful every ten minutes. It usually goes away before the third dose anyway.

I also meant to mention that I only use the white flowered variety. I have heard of some using the colored but don't know myself how it is or if it works the same.

MsRie142 said...

Thank you for the information. Now I just need to get Yarrow. Something has to help these nose bleeds. The red pepper has help them greatly but he still gets them.

thanks again,

Ananda said...

You're welcome - hope it helps. My daughter takes it somewhat regularly, it seems to be a constitutional herb for her, both cooling and modulating for the blood. It has helped a lot.

Blessings