There are many variations to the following, but the basic procedure here will get you through just about any situation when it comes to making any kind of herbal extract you’d care to.

1. Fill a blender half full with the herb or herbs of your choice (any kind of blender will do in a pinch, but Vita-Mix blenders are the best).
2. On top of these herbs, pour out some 100-proof vodka.  In an emergency you can even use whiskey, brandy or any strong alcoholic hard liquor – Everclear cut 50/50 with distilled water is the best, followed by vodka as these are pure grain alcohols diluted with distilled water only.  Other hard liquors have sugar and other ingredients in them so don’t work as quite as well. Don’t let that stop you in an emergency if all you’ve got on hand is Bailey’s Irish Cream, though. After you’ve poured it in, the alcohol liquid level should be 2 to 3 inches above the top of all the herbs in your blender.
3. Blend the dickens out of it for a minimum of one minute up to a maximum of 2 minutes.
4. Pour the mixed contents into a glass mason jar (these come in pints, quarts, and half gallons), put a lid on, and then store in a dark place.
5. At least once a day, shake your mixture thoroughly.  Twice a day is best.
6. After two weeks, strain off the top liquid into another mason jar, and then press the rest of your mixture using a beer press, or a potato ricer, and an organic cotton canvas cloth to act as a filter to strain out the particles.  You can also use the fanciest press around that money can buy = a Norwalk juicer.
7. Store your tinctures in brown bottles and keep out of the light in a cool, dark place.  A top quality extract made with Everclear can last up to a hundred years or more stored this way.

You’re done!  That’s it!  That’s all there is to it!  You can also use pure apple cider vinegar instead of alcohol with certain softer herbs and veggies, but stay away from using glycerin (which is a lousy catalyst with very poor absorption characteristics).

Also check out DIY Organic Chamomile Tincture (image credit, great article as well), and Cannabis Tinctures 101 if cannabis is your thing, but the basics are the same.

Related Reading:

• How to Make a Tincture
• Best Supplements To Kill Candida and Everything Else You Ever Wanted To Know About Fungal Infections
• Total Nutrition – Make your own Homemade Multivitamin and Mineral Formula
• Doc Shillington’s Total Body Cleanse
• Homemade Calcium and Magnesium
• Homemade Vitamin C

I enjoy a lifelong love affair with books. My collection had grown to a formidable size before my last three moves. Knowing each living situation would be temporary, I culled my library down to its bare bones—the best of the best. I now have another favorite to add to my smaller, more selective collection that will accompany me wherever I go.

A Wilder Life: A Season-by-Season Guide to Getting in Touch with Nature by Celestine Maddy with Abbye Churchill is a beautiful, informative, thoughtful compilation of facts, recipes, DIY instructions, and more – a book designed to put you a little more in touch with nature and a lot more in touch with yourself.

Celestine Maddy takes you on a season-by-season journey under the headings: Growing, Cooking, Home & Self-Reliance, Beauty & Healing, and Wilderness. The Growing sections include a seasonal growing checklist along with plant profiles and numerous educational articles about various aspects of gardening. Do you want to learn how to make cheese or a simple homemade tomato sauce? How about sauerkraut or the basics of canning? If so, check out the Cooking sections. The Home & Self-Reliance Sections, the Beauty & Healing Sections, and the Wilderness sections read like a cross between the Foxfire books, modern prepper guides, and Mother Earth News with a little bit of whimsy thrown in for good measure. You can choose from how to find water in the wilderness and foraging for edible plants to making a tincture, a perfume, or a healing balm. The following is a recipe from the spring Cooking section:

Make a Simple Ricotta

Ricotta is an Italian form of fresh cheese usually made with sheep’s milk. Here we’ve substituted fresh cow’s milk and used vinegar as our acid. Experiment with using lemon juice and citric acid in place of vinegar to see how that affects the flavor.

Makes 1 cup

Ingredients

• 6 cups whole milk (unpasteurized if possible or not processed using ultra-high temperatures)
• 2 cups cream
• 2 tablespoons white vinegar
• 1 tablespoon kosher salt

Equipment

• Strainer
• Cheesecloth
• 4-quart pot

Directions

1. Line a strainer with damp cheesecloth and place over the sink.
2. In a 4-quart pot, combine the milk, cream, vinegar, and salt and bring the ingredients to a simmer (but do not let the mixture come to a boil , as this will burn your milk). After about 3 minutes, you should begin to see curds form and separate from the whey. Turn off the heat and remove the pot from the heat.
3. Pour the curds and the whey into the cheesecloth, allowing the whey to pass through the cloth. Let the mixture drain for 15 minutes.
4. Remove the cheesecloth from the strainer and twist the top closed to capture the curds in one ball. Gently but firmly squeeze the curds. You don’t want to remove all of the whey, just the majority of it.
5. The ricotta is now ready to eat or to incorporate into a recipe and will keep refrigerated for 1 to 2 days.

I highly recommend this book. Buy one for yourself and add it to your list of thoughtful gifts for others.

Find it on Amazon,  Barnes and Noble, and other sites.