Community Empowerment Through Herbalism: DIY Tincture Making
Today we put this note out to our community:
“So Much Tulsi (Holy Basil). Tincturing some on this beautiful day 🌿we will have tinctures by the oz for sale in 6 weeks. Also for anyone local, you’re welcome to come over and harvest Tulsi to make your own tinctures (BYO glass jar & alcohol and you can harvest here!) // Tulsi is a great herbal ally with many benefits ranging from anti viral properties to supporting healthy digestion, calming nerves and boosting immunity. Some studies show that Tulsi is as effective as certain pharmaceuticals at relieving anxiety and depression.”
2 years ago we planted Tulsi seeds on our homestead and also received some transplants from a friend. Since then this herbal ally par excellent has made her home here.
Goes to seed so easily! Much of it is already going to seed by the beginning of September.
She is one of our go-tos for anxiety/mood, digestive support and immunity boosting (but Wren will get more into this in a more detailed Tulsi post!) and we love to dry her for tea and tincture her.
We couldn’t possibly tincture all of this medicine we have here which is why we invited our local community in to come and learn to make medicine and harvest holy basil for their own use.
We’re thinking of offering herb walks (both cultivated and wild) next year for our community as well. We’ve long wondered: How can we be more effective, touch the local community and share our skills and what we know?
Sharing the knowledge and use of herbs is one such way!
Community herbalism and the sharing of folk herbalism is a fantastic way to empower our friends and community. Herbalism is great to enhance health and an easy addition to anyone’s diet and wellness practice to give a gentle boost to immunity, nutrition and vibrancy.
We’re hoping we get some takers locally and that we can share the abundance and especially share Tulsi, one of our favorite allies.
Also, the struggle is real trying to do videos when our dog Luci wants to be in every shot! Maybe you’ve noticed her heavy breathing in basically all of our vids? ❤️☺️
▶️ DTube
▶️ IPFS
Luci, Luci...lol too cute! What a fabulous idea! Wow, invite community for wonderful herb walks...teach how to make the tinctures, I love it! Great idea you two! ox
Thanks Ma! Yeah it’s the dream; thanks for confirming it 🌿💚😘❣️
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oh my gosh, Luci is awesome! I am in love. ♥
I think your idea of offering herbal walks is perfect in every way! So many people are looking to learn and have no ideas where to start. I just found someone local-ish doing the same thing here and it looks like she's had a lot of interest. She has a FB page dedicated to just the walks. You would be so good at this - I hope you get a good turn out on your generous offer for the Tulsi. xo
thank you dear! no one has taken us up on it so far! it's one of the main negative aspects of living where we do in a rural area... there just isn't an active engaged mass of people who are into this kind of stuff... hoping at least someone shows up to harvest ;) glad to hear of your local herb walker lady is collecting a following!
also, btw, i was telling ini how inspired i was that you were writing about the benefits of walking and he said, oh of course, - she is -walker-land! had never thought it that way before! the ways our names carry aspects of our essence. blessings walker <3
I should say that I assume she is having good interest based on the number of people that joined her page but I can't find her page anymore so who knows. It's really hard to make a go of things around here. We struggle with the same thing, it is difficult to draw people out this way no matter how enticing the offer. It's causing us a bit of stress lately as we try to make at least one of my many "amazing ideas" actually pay off.
I never thought of that either! I'll confess that the name walkerland is a spin on wonderland and our surname. It seemed clever at the time but I've often thought I'd like a change, ini's comment gives me a bit of a fresh look on things and I appreciate it. ♥
haha i feel you so much on this! the main difficulty with living in a beautiful yet remote area... it's remote and the community pool isn't so big!
i've wondered what walkerland comes from- good to know more :) and happy to provide a fresh look on things <3 XO
Thank you so much for creating this amazing post. I intuitively loved Tulsi and used it a lot since ever when cooking food. Have to read the other Tulsi post as well ...
I would love to go on a herb walk, what a great idea. I hope you will have the chance to offer it one day!
yes! and thanks. tulsi is such a sweet plant. i too intuitively felt drawn to tulsi in the beginning... a great thing! and thanks for your encouragement.
Somebody has to do the job of making sure the videos are done well... :))
Haha too true 👌🏼😂😉
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STOPTo support your work, I also upvoted your post!
Wonderful that you are reaching out to local community. Sometimes social media can be isolating if used to the exclusion of meet ups, conversations, shared meals, etc. And come on... Luci is a star! so much better looking than Ini LOL
She is the true star here !!
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Awesome post had to redeem!
Thanks dear!
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Nice looking plants and tinctures :) I wish I was local to come and see your Tulsi and farm in person!
thank you dear @sagescrub! i wish you were local as well! would love to have you <3
Really Cool.
Thanks ;)
Your tulsi looks very different from the Asian tulsi we grow here in Thailand. I'm very partial to Tulsi Krishna - the purply one - but our leaf shape is quite different from yours. So many varieties....! I'm curious why you don't shred the leaves for tincturing to increase surface area?
yes! so many varieties! we do shred up roots and things for more surface area, but the tulsi (and other leaves) usually tincture strong enough just putting them in :)