So, this is what I call bulk tincture making.
Those of you who work in professional herbal product warehouses may snigger at me but I am just a one-man-band here, beginning to make as many of my own medicines as I can. Making three separate tinctures in one day to me is bulk tincture making…
All these herbs are local, and they are fresh. I went for a walk one early May afternoon by the canal. This time I took the path on the opposite side to the one near my house and followed it as it veered away from the canal edging towards the river on the other side. The path here is quite wide and dusty, fringed with stinging nettles and white dead nettles; I had already harvested quite a lot of both so I passed them by. But when I turned the corner a 14-15′ high Hawthorn tree was in full flower, covered with bunches of creamy blossoms surrounded by bright green leaves. The whole tree was so fresh, so new, and so vibrant I just had to get my bags out. [I always carry bags in my pocket – you never know what you might find…].
I came home with bags bulging and tipped them straight into my straw baskets till I could process them. I don’t keep any herbs in plastic bags for any time at all except to collect and carry home. Anyway, the tree was left with plenty of blossoms so I know where there’ll be berries come the Autumn. I use hawthorn for arteriosclerosis, tachycardia and the prevention of heart disease.
In the area where I live I find masses of Cleavers [Galium aperine] in the spring. Sometimes I juice them, but you don’t get much liquid out of piles of stems and leaves. I prefer to tincture them fresh, or to dry them for teas. The cleavers I picked this spring were mostly gathered from an area close to me [just over the road actually] called Browne’s Pond. It’s a small lake, and what makes it special is that it is only 100 yards from the road, and edged on one side by a residential street. You can’t call it ‘countryside’ but it is a lovely quiet place on the periphery of a small town. We get fishermen here, young families picnicking and feeding the ducks; and the local residents have got together to form ‘Friends of Brownes Pond’ and their aim is to keep it a pleasant, litter-free environment, and to maintain the pond life and water plants around the edges. They have inserted mesh boxes containing reeds and grasses around the edge and are looking after the area well. It’s here I come with my scissors to cut my cleavers. I don’t like to pull them up ‘free hand’ as I always get roots, yellow leaves and clumps of earth.
Cleavers are a native British herb, and is traditionally used as a diuretic and lymphatic. I use it a lot for people with skin problems and enlarged lymph nodes. In the first photo you can see I have made a large jar of Cleavers [Galium] tincture. The photo here shows bunches of cleavers drying to make into teas.
Stinging nettles are all around me, there has never been any shortage of this particular herb. It’s a pity they get such a bad press. Nobody else seems to like them…
They come up each year like clockwork, like old friends. Timing is important for nettles and I gather what I need in the spring then just leave the rest of them alone to do there thing till I want their seeds in the Autumn. I don’t cut the leaves late in summer because of warnings of high levels of calcium carbonate crystals which may irritate the kidneys. I don’t know how true this is but I avoid them just the same. Everybody knows they have to handle stinging nettles with gloves, don’t they. Even then, I always manage to sting myself somehow. One day I want to try the remedy for arthritis the Romans were credited with; that of flaying the joint with the nettles so the skin was stung. This relieved the pain from the arthritis. Perhaps somebody could try it and let me know.
I made a big pot of fresh nettle tincture [Urtica dioica], and still had piles of them to dry for teas. I use nettles as a source of minerals for patients, and have found them useful for some hay fever sufferers.
