Reply To: Medicine Making | Internal Preparations
Good morning and happy Canada day!
I have been struggling with a couple things while making tinctures and was wondering if you could give me a hand.
I have been having a hard time getting the ratio while imerging all of the dried herb in the alcohol. There is often herb above the liquid. For example I made dandelion root at a 1:4 , motherwort at 1:8 (I ground the leaves quite fine in order to see if I could get a 1:5 but it did not result in all of it being submerged). I had to do 1:10 and still not enough liquid. Dandelion root the same, I ended up with a 1:12. Any tips? What happens if the part of the herb which is sticking out browns? Will that cause an issue with the resulting tincture? I dont want to waste my valuable motherwort and I would have to bring it to 1:12 at least if I add more liquid (I am using 40% alcohol).
The second question is , how do I know when I need to grind the herb or just leave the dried leaves or flowers whole. I made a tincture from milky oats a few weeks ago and now i am wondering if I should have ground them, similarly with my red clover flowers.
Many thanks!
Michele