Herbal Prep - The Fall Medicine Chest 1
Getting prepared for winter is so important, and starts now! So I will do a series of posts on what we do here to prepare :)
Sorry it is another long one...
The first things I check over are my list of herbs, waxes and oils, and containers to put remedies in once they are made.
Containers
The containers you find or need could be different than what we use, but here is our list;
- Lip Balm tubes
- Ointment and cream jars (4 oz ball jars work well)
- Dark glass bottles, 1/2, 1, 2, 4 and 8 oz with extra caps, (oil drop lids and glass dropper caps for the smaller)
- 4 oz dark glass wide mouth containers with good lids
- 8 and 16 oz canning jars
- Small pump spray bottles for liniments
- Squeeze bottles for gels, shampoos, light creams etc...
- Ziploc bags
- Brown paper 'lunch bags'
- Waxed paper bags
- Cello bags (I use to put tea blends in for others or to sell)
- Tea bags (I use the brown fold top bags for others or to sell)
- Extra glass eye droppers!! trust me, they break, disappear, and I swear we have brownies who take them!
And of course stickers for labels. I tend to get bulk Avery labels and print them myself...but if you are just making things for home use then masking tape and a sharpie work just fine too.
You can find containers almost anywhere, but since I get them in bulk, I tend to find them at these places;
mountainroseherbs.com - you can get singles or bulk there
bulkapothecary.com
fillmorecontainer.com - my new favorite place, courtesy @alicemarie :)
Herbs
If you can grow your own herbs, or wildcraft, that is the best! But, there are times where we need to buy them...for us, we are full time RVers, so no garden space, and I have not gotten out to find the wild herbs here yet, that will be next summer's mission hopefully. This year we are still focused on revamping our turtle home...so I am buying the herbs.
I tend to stick with mountainroseherbs because I trust their quality, and I know they will most likely have what I need in bulk.
I will give my basic list here, but herbs are just like beads. When you start a project or remedy Murphy dictates there will almost always be one herb you don't have on hand.
- Chamomile
- Lavender
- Peppermint
- Spearmint
- Rose Hips
- Echinacea (both purpurea, and angustifolia root)
- Marshmallow (both leaf and root)
- Osha root
- Willow Bark
- Mullein leaf
- Red Clover
- Cleavers
- Nettle
- Dandelion (flower, leaf and root)
- Horehound
- Hops
- Hibiscus
- Rose (buds and petals)
- Elder (flowers and berries)
- Choke Cherries (have to be wildcrafted, but we will make a two day trip to get them if we have to)
- Prairie Sage (same as choke cherries)
- Slippery Elm
- Wakame Seaweed
- Arnica Flowers
- Angelica root
- Cohosh root (black and blue)
- Burdock root
- Cinnamon
- Nutmeg
- Cloves
- Cayenne
- Garlic Powder
- Basil leaf
- Barley Grass powder
- Beet Root powder
- Raspberry Leaf
- Calendula Flower
- Chickweed
- Chlorella powder (green algae, very good for chlorophyll )
- Lungwort
- Thyme
- Coltsfoot
Okay, well that is about 2/3 of my base list...I guess I use alot of herbs :O I don't usually write them all out, I just eyeball what we have and make a mental list and find or order what comes to mind. Then add on here and there...As I add tea and remedy recipes more will crop up I am sure :)
I also tend to group herbs, like I keep the wildfire tea herbs together, and the cold and flu tea herbs together, etc...So when I look over the herbs, I think in recipes, not lists...
Tools
Just a basic list of tools...
- Soup pot for sterilizing bottles
- Glass or Pyrex mixing bowls (safe for all herbs and oils)
- Pyrex measuring cups (mini for oz, and 1, 2, 4 cup for preparations. 8 cup if you will be making bulk preps)
- Stainless whisk (or hand held stainless mixer)
- Ginger grater
- wooden pepper mills, or manual coffee grinder (for seeds, whole spices etc...they can also be used to powder dried berries and leaves)
- Stainless mixing and measuring spoons
- Stainless small funnels for oils
- Did I mention Extra Glass Eyedroppers??? :)
- Double Boiler (I just use a sauce pan with a pyrex bowl)
- Kitchen scale that measures down to oz
Essential Oils
A friend made my little kitchen witch cabinet for me, and I LOVE it for oils...I will just show what I have in photos. I do need Wintergreen oil. This year I mainly got my oils from mountainrose, but you will see a few other places on the labels. They are all good oils. I do like Now oils too, but don't have any at the moment.
Some of these oils will be for ointments, creams, liniments, diffusers (aroma therapy) etc...and some for adding to lip balms, candles, soaps...
^^ that says Clove not Love Bud, haha
...and in the drawers...
Thumb tacks, very important little tool. I use them to hang tied herbs to dry, pin up recipes, and all sorts of things...And hey, glass eye droppers :)
Okay, that is it for now, I hope you enjoyed...I will be adding a wildfire tea recipe next (since we are in fire season), and I will do a post on the amazing Onion.
This is a {Steemit Original} All words and photos by Elew
To read my other Medicinal Herb posts...
https://steemit.com/tea/@elew/teas-oils-ointments-and-balms
https://steemit.com/tea/@elew/medicinal-tea-vs-commercial-tea
https://steemit.com/tea/@elew/herbal-prep-infusion-and-decoction
https://steemit.com/prepper/@elew/herbal-prep-oil-infusion
https://steemit.com/prepper/@elew/herbal-prep-on-essential-oils-what-are-they-really
https://steemit.com/prepper/@elew/herbal-prep-know-your-plants-and-methods
https://steemit.com/prepper/@elew/herbal-prep-liniments
https://steemit.com/prepper/@elew/herbal-prep-medicinal-and-soothing-baths
Excellent post. I'm on the starting end of collecting my stash of herbs and oils. What do you think are your top ten most used? It's hard to know where to go next once you have the essential lavender, peppermint, cayenne, etc. And then I have some on hand I don't think I ever use.
We use everything I have listed here, and then some...but I will be posting recipes and things as we go along, so you will see how and why I use them. It is hard to say what the top 10 would be for you, because I don't know which ailments you are prone to.
You might be surprised that you will end up needing the ones you have not used yet though...
English version below
Merci pour ce partage inspirant!! Je suis aussi en train de faire mes préparation pour l'hiver! Je cultive plusieurs plantes médicinales dans mes jardins et j'en cueille plusieurs autres dans la nature. Personnellement je range mes plantes séchées dans des pots masson et je fais mes mélanges de plantes au fur et à mesure des besoins et des maux à soigner. J'ai déjà plusieurs macération et teinture mère en cours ou même terminées dans le cas de certaines plantes à cueillette printanière. Bientôt je vais avoir le temps de faire quelques recettes de baumes et sirop. J'adore votre rangement pour vos huiles essentielles!!!! Et je prends bonnes notes de vos références pour l'achat de contenants, cela va m'être utile l'an prochain! Encore merci et bons préparatifs! Je vais suivre votre série sur le sujet!
Thank you for this inspiring sharing !! I am also doing my preparations for the winter! I cultivate several medicinal plants in my gardens and I collect several others in the wild. Personally I put my dried plants in masson pots and I make my mixtures of plants as needs and ailments to treat. I already have several maceration and mother tincture in progress or even finished in the case of some spring-picking plants. Soon I will have time to make some recipes of balms and syrup. I love your storage for your essential oils !!!! And I take good notes of your references for the purchase of containers, this will be useful to me next year! Thank you again and good preparations! I'll follow your series on this topic!
This is great that you are so well prepared!! You are one step up on me, I have not gotten any tinctures made yet this year, because we are revamping our RV kitchen. I needed to build a good counter space and work bench. Now it is almost finished, and as soon as we replace the fridge I will be making some shelves for storage.
I like to keep my herbs in mason jars too :) They stay nice and fresh this way...though there are some that do better in brown paper bags, as they like to breath like bulbs.
I will probably not get to begin my base tinctures until fall, so far behind, but I will catch up :) I see weeks of solid prep in my future...I hope you post on your preps too!!
Thank you for providing a detailed list and pictures for the medicine chest, especially tips for containers.
For large bulk storage, for things like food and other preps, I'd like to recommend Bayteccontainers.com (I have no affiliation with them), I just purchase my 5 gallon buckets and gamma seal lids from them. They have great bulk prices on large containers.
Upvoting and Resteeming for our followers.
To people reading, in an effort to encourage active community participation, I will randomly choose 1 REAL comment to this article written by @elew for a 100% upvote. To qualify, your comment must be real and must also include a resteem and full upvote to @elew's article.
Oh thanks :) I will check out Bayteccontainers.com too...I am Always up for new info. I think that now it is most important to share what we know. The more people who are properly prepped, the better off everyone will be. This is only a partial list, but I will be expanding it as we go along.
And Thank you for the comment upvote offer, that is really awesome of you!
Just doing what I can to encourage active participation and real comments. I got the idea from this article by @papa-pepper. I do mostly resteems and content curation so I figured I'd offer the full upvotes for people who support the authors. https://steemit.com/community/@papa-pepper/what-is-etiquette
@papa-prepper is a good person to follow. He has some really good advice!
We have a lot of people who do herbal prepping in our newsletter and facebook page, I will share this with them. Thanks!
meep
meep :)
meep
Thank you AP, I hope it is helpful :)
I like your little medicinal chest, its great!
Preparation it continual, living in the moment of Summer, but preparing for the Autumn / Winter.... And the cycle continues on.
You have a great range of Essential oils. I find that i will always got to my essential oil collection in the first instance, then to conventional medicinal aids thereafter.
Looks like you are an essential oil wizz!
I know the basics of oils and their uses, but would ultimately need an Aide sheet in order to help me or others in the future (for their uses etc). I am not really up to speed on mixing them either, maybe this would be a good post you could answer.
Yes, it is a cycle, and becomes a way of life :) I honestly use herbs far more than oils, but as we go along I will be showing the prep of various recipes that will cover everything. I will be sure to cover mixing oils, and how to blend them into various carriers :) Then you can make a personal aide sheet, so it fits your needs and sticks in your mind.
This is a good post to begin with for oils... https://steemit.com/prepper/@elew/herbal-prep-oil-infusion
Great, thanks for your reply...
This is a fantastic post! You had me with the Kitchen Witch Cabinet. ;)
I grow most of my medicine but there are things I do need to buy and you listed my favorite (kudos again) sources.
Thank you.
I am sharing this very useful post.
Isn't it great? It works perfect for the oils, and I love the work she put into it...one of my favorite things!! Thanks for sharing :)
Thank you for the detailed post, its great. I'm going to reread it with my notebook.
You are very welcome :) and it sounds like a plan...I will be posting much more as we go along too, so feel free to ask questions!
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