I just got back from the wonderful cool, wet weather in the Northeast, where I spent time at Margi Flint's house in Marblehead being introduced to all sorts of new Materia Medica to learn.
I came back with several single plant tinctures and was able to dig fresh Solomon's Seal Root, Yellow Dock Root, Burdock Root, and Wild Ginger Root. I also took a side trip to Misty Meadows herb farm in New Hampshire where I collected fresh Motherwort, Lycopus, and St Johns Wort to process.
My tincture making background is to either weigh fresh plant material at a 1:2 ratio (most of the time) at different percentages of alcohol depending on the plant. For example to process Yellow Dock I would chop or macerate 5 oz of root into 10 oz of alcohol in 75% alcohol.
Margi's method is a little different. She collects the root, macerates it into vodka and makes sure the plant material has about 2 inches of alcohol over the top of the plants.
Many herbalists have different methods for tincturing and its fun and interesting to learn them.
I am excited to see how these extracts come out.
Now its onward to shaking them regularly and waiting a full moon cycle....
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