Can we make herbal tinctures with 40% (80 proof) spirits alcohol?

The ways we prepare the blessed plants we gather and grow, after harvest, brings out their different medicinal, and culinary qualities. Whilst vinegar or glycerin can be used, herbal tinctures, are often made with a 'menstruum' that's a blend of alcohol and water. So drawing out the parts of the plant which are soluble in both these mediums. They are concentrated, so small doses can be enough, and the alcohol acts to preserve them, meaning they have a longer shelf life than say, infusions or teas.

In Australia, most 'spirits' we buy at the bottleshop are 37.5%, lets say 40%. It can be very difficult, to access 100 proof (50% alcohol ), or 200 proof (around 95%) grain alcohol (ethanol). You definitely can't just rock up to the local pub for them as you need.

Wise woman ways, or Folkloric traditions tend to use 100 proof Vodka or Brandy, where as commercially prepared tinctures you buy, are generally made using grain alcohol, or ethanol. When using dried plants, the ethanol is generally then diluted with water, to varying ratio's.

Does this mean, this way of working with green folks to make medicine is out of reach of many? A recent experience got me pondering this...

At my medicine cupboard, I came across a Chickweed tincture, Stellaria media, I'd made in a situation where all I'd had access to, was a bottle of 40% alcohol Vodka. Made with the fresh plants tops, not dried, she's a juicy one too. It was dated 2014. As a treat, I pulled out some fancy crystal, poured myself a glass and tasted her. It's simply Vodka right? Totally fine. I tried a Nettle one. Totally fine. Hhhmm....

I opened up Richio Cech's, ' Making Plant Medicines' (page 20)....

"As a menstruum for dry herbs, make "diluted alcohol" by combining one part by volume of grain alcohol with one part by volume of distilled water. If grain alcohol is not available to you, then forget adding water and just use the highest proof spirits you can find. The alcohol you use for dry tinctures must be at least 40 proof (20% pure alcohol) or you risk the possability that the extract will not be adequately preserved.

As a menstruum for fresh herbs, use grain alcohol without adding water. If grain alcohol is not available to you, then just use the highest proof alcohol you can find. The alcohol you use for fresh tinctures must be at least 80 proof (40% pure alcohol) or you risk the possability that your finished extract will not be preserved. Always choose spirits that do not contain a lot of flavouring additives. A tincture works best when it tastes like the herb, not some other flavouring agent that was in the alcohol to start with."

The other tangent I've been exploring is 'preserving' foods. Alcohol is used with things like fruit, fill jar with fruit, cover with Brandy mmm. Elderberries anyone? In 'The River Cottage Preserves Handbook', by Pam Corbin, she writes that 'alcohol is a very useful preserving medium, but to function effectively, it must be in the form of a spirit that is at least 40 percent alcohol (80 proof). Gin, vodka, rum, brandy and whiskey, are all suitable.' Shelf life is given as 3 years for preserves using 40% alcohol. Not bad, the Chickyweed tincture I'd had was 4 years old, and still had her abundant greenery floating in it!

I'm putting this out there for feedback. Totally love to hear from you if you have comments or experiences! With the seeds coming up in our garden, these ideas are also emerging....

New moon, new n fresh garden....

Walking back from the beach a whiles back, we looked up a side alley, and spotted with our scavenging eyeballs, a stash of used decking timber being piled up for hurling. We asked the demolition slash builders permission, then proceeded to do laps with it, by car and bare foots. Miles removed the nails from the lot, and we had a pile ready for a growing ember of diy potentials. New raised garden beds, which is what one needs for growing on such sandy soils as we have here.

So it began :). Isn't it beautiful?! We also repaired old beds that had rotted through. Then found a ready made pine box on a chuck out pile which we lined with recycled plastic to extend its life.

After selling two of my felted dolls :) we had the dosh to invest in some premium landscape soil, three cubic metres worth, which seemed rather an overwhelming amount when it poured from the rear of the delivery truck! However, we've nearly found homes for it all....

I've pulled out the seed collection, both purchased, and saved from previous crops. Food, flowers and herbs all in together, go da diversity! Ive been dancing about sprinkling mixtures on the soil, and watering them in gleefully. Tonight it's raining which is great :).

Some plants which were growing in pots, have been planted out to stretch n spread, like two very happy Motherwort's and a Lemon Balm, I cut back to their new growth. Some were in older beds and have been dug up, fresh soil mix added then replanted, including our Yarrow patch, and some Parsley seedlings.

Next task is to add in some of our homemade compost layered on top, so all the worms and greeblies can delve down and settle in. Not mulching yet too many seeeeeeeds!! To be added to with plants from Byron Herb Nursery. Just a few ;).

So, the Nooks medicine garden will be growing with the waxing moon. Hopefully by full, there will be small green folks popping up, unfurling round abouts, and others settling in their roots deeper. A bit like us.....   
 

Depression and Bush Flower essences, part 2

Finding out what makes your life worth it, what ignites you, is kinda the antithesis of depression. Oh ok, I'll just write a to do list shall I? I don't mean to over simplify, especially where energy and motivation have often left the building. For me though, working with flower essences, indeed herbs, touch me, as I mentioned in the previous post. Bonus is, if needed you can often use them whilst also on pharma. It doesn't have to be either /or.

If you are drawn to work with them, I'd recommend mostly a single, or two, essences to start off with. So that you can feel out what, if any changes or shifts are occurring. As you get to know how that feels, you could introduce another. Some folks say 3-5 essences can be combined, I find that's a bit too much information for me.

Do know that things may become more challenging, or amp up before they ease, and allow for this. It just seems the way of things, like the death throes of ol shit, but hang in! The effects can be worth it.  

For most people with mental health issues, often our auras have been damaged by abuse or trauma, this is where I've experienced the Australian Bush Flowers, 'Fringed Violet' (Thysanotus tuberosus) can help. To reseal and mend these tears. It's a way of reweaving the energetic scars, or wounding caused. So, that's where my friend had started me off, with a mix of Fringed Violet, and 'Angelsword'  (Lobelia gibbosa). The 'Angelsword' can assist with releasing psychic entities that may have entered where the aura was open, or simply attached to us in daily life. As they do. Which is a whole post in and of itself. Without sounding like an infommercial, I found these flowers really helpfull. They quietened things down enough for me to begin to connect with local flowers. Perhaps you will have your own ways to do this, or be drawn to different flowers. Take what feels right, leave the rest eh.

Over the last few days I've been walking along the beach and  there growing in pure sand, blooming away is Wild Sea Rocket! She waved her low growing, succulent flower spikes at me :) Cakile maritima is the British Isles plant, and Cakile edentula the American. Both occur in Australia, seeds washed upon our shores. The main identifying difference being in the fruit. Lucky for me, she's covered in them, and the wee horns on her lower section tell me we have maritima growing here!

Now I knew Scotland's 'Findhorn' Flower Essences have their interpretation for this plant, but I wanted to feel out my own. So I sat with her, and listened for messages. Well, actually after sitting a whiles watching the waves and getting 'I ground you enough to witness emotions', I lay down. Surrounded by her abundant growth gazing at passing clouds, rather like the succulent groundcover herself does, laying low as needed. A few tears came. Saline stuff, wouldn't bother her. She grows where salt spray and sand are her nutrients. I made two 200ml bottles of mother essence ;)

Mental health is a process, this isn't a finish line type situation. It's adjustments and changes made with lifes ebb n flow. Diversity is however, something I experience plants seeing the beauty of, embodying and helping to emerge. Bush flower essences can hold some of that space for us, preserved in a wee dropper bottle o sunshine and a dram o booze. So too, it seems do those arriving by ocean from places far away, like Sea Rocket :).