My First Herbal Kit

 I have been getting more and more into the whole herbal healing area and loving things the more I read and find about everything. I found a great site to find just about every supply I could ever need for this adventure too and they were selling a herbal medicine beginners kit for around $70 and I really wanted it! I talked the Marine into letting me buy it so I did and was so excited for it to come in, but then I forgot about it in the midst of my Doula school and Photography school! So it was like a fun suprise when it finally came in the mail one day last week!!

As you can see on the box the website where I found this

 So I popped in the dvd like right away to watch the how-to videos and wanted to start the salve and tincture right away. The salve would be done then but the tincture is still 'cooking'! It came with everything I needed to start things:

1.  To make the Echinacea Tincture it has the little bag of Echinacea root, the jar to soak it in, 3 cobalt blue dropper bottles, muslin bag for straining when ready and labels. The only thing missing was the 100proof vodka which I made The Marine go out and buy for me.
   A tincture is an extract of an herb in an alcohol base. Echinacea is an immune system stimulant for when you feel a cold coming on and is an excellent anti-bacterial for first aid situations.
2. For the healing salve it came with a bag filled with: organic comfrey, organic Calendula, organic St John's wort, Wildcrafted Plantain. Then came the four tin jars for the 1oz salve (perfect for packing in a diaper bag or first aid kit), Then it came with a jar about 2oz in size and the 4oz jar, 1oz of beeswax, Lavender essential oil, and labels, missing was the extra virgin olive oil to infuse the herbs. This salve is excellent for cuts, scrapes, bumps, bruises, itches, inflammations, diaper rash, chapped lips and more.
3. A pack of herbs for a  nettle infusion
4. and finally a pack of elderberries for an elderberry syrup

Missing is the herbs to make the salve as it was on the stove!

So I quickly made the salve while The Marine was out buying things and the kids were napping.

SLowly simmering on a very low heat for an hour or longer-waiting is not my favorite part

waiting with everything ready!

Finally a little over an hour later it was time to strain the herbal oil. Now You want to keep the oil and compost the herbs so I used my mesh strainer over a big bowl.

While that sat I cleaned out my pot and started slowly melting the beeswax

Next I measured out exactly one cup of the herb oil. The ratio for making any salve is one cup oil to 1oz wax.

After your beeswax is all melted you mix your one cup of oil into the pot. Now on the dvd it showed the beeswax hardening when the oil was poured into it but mine didn't do that...my oil was still nice and warm so I didn't have to remelt the wax with the oil. I just let them simmer a minute or two together and poured them into the tins and jars that were provided.



My hands are not exactly steady so i did end up spilling a little bit but everything fit nicely into the jars/tins provided and I had the change to use it on Mister pretty quickly after it was ready. He fell off the end of the couch and bruised up around his eye and on his forehead so i rubbed a little into both areas being careful of his eye. The next day his what i thought would turn into big bruises were barely noticeable! Good stuff!!! I also packed a little jar to take with us while we visited The Marine's family to prevent a diaper rash that he normally gets in dispobiable diapers and he didn't get any rash.

Before we left I also started the tincture and that was easy. Empty the herbs into the jar and top off with 100proof vodka:

Just shake daily and in 6 weeks or so it's done!

the two other things I will make as needed. The syrup doesn't have a long life after it's made. I should go shake that....I have forgotten about it... crap...hope I didn't just screw it up...but its only shaking so shouldn't be so bad...right?