The Herbal Medicine-Maker's Handbook_ A Home Manual - James Green [6]
Place the muslin-lined strainer into a glass or stainless steel receptacle, and slowly and carefully pour your entire extract into this straining apparatus. Allow all the liquid to flow through the cloth. After the liquid has finished flowing through the cloth, join together all four corners of the cloth and hold them above the plant material. Grasp them firmly together with one hand, and with the other hand grasp the ball of plant material and twist it and squeeze it to press out the rest of the liquid thoroughly. Remove as much of the liquid as possible from the depleted plant fiber (the marc). After doing this to your satisfaction, you can discard the marc into the compost.
Now, pour this herbal extract into a bottle that can be tightly capped (brown amber glass bottles are the most ideal) and store it in a cool, dark location. This alcohol/water extract will keep for many years. (A solution like this requires a minimum of 18–20 percent of the total volume of the liquid to be ethyl alcohol in order for the alcohol to adequately preserve it. Pure 100-proof vodka is 50 percent ethyl alcohol, and even when diluted by the juices of this fresh plant will render sufficient preservative action.)
You have handcrafted an herbal medicine; your initiation is complete—welcome to the swiftly growing community of independent lay-herbalists. To conclude this exercise, I would like to also applaud the co-creator of your handcrafted tincture by summarizing for you the personal and ecological health-promoting gifts of the wild Dandelion.
Strainer Lined with Muslin
Squeezing the Liquid Out
An Earth-enriching co-habitant of almost every community, Dandelion promotes healthy local turf everywhere it grows, unless it is foolishly poisoned to death. The particular design of Dandelion’s root system breaks up soil in a unique manner which greatly enhances the condition of any garden soil. In fact Dandelion and its sister compositae, Chamomile, another soil-conditioning plant, have been referred to in farming cultures as “the soil doctors.” Dandelion’s randomly scattered flowers relieve rampant urban-lawn monotony. Its vibrant yellow blossoms are aesthetically and emotionally uplifting. For those who like to play and even giggle the way you did when you were a babe, Dandelion’s mature seed heads are a joyous toy which entice bustling human beings to pause, pick, and blow off its downy hairdo into passing air currents, watching the seeds eject dramatically, scattering in random directions, then parachuting serenely to the ground. I pursue this whimsical ritual as eagerly today as I did when I was a small child, and the spontaneous affair with these little blowballs remains as delightful as it always was.
The predominant use of herbs to beautify your home and health becomes fully affordable as you learn to harvest your own plants and create your own elixirs.
When used to affect our body directly, common Dandelion is one of the finest foods and medicines found in the herbalist’s materia medica. Young springtime Dandelion leaves have a pleasantly bitter aromatic flavor. They blend well with other fresh salad plants, and they carry with them a rich load of bitters and micro-nutrients, especially the minerals potassium and calcium, and vitamins A and C. Eating Dandelion greens and other bitters prior to meals is invaluable for stimulating one’s appetite, digestion, and assimilation. Regular use of Dandelion extracts often relieves the uncomfortable maladies commonly experienced in the upper and lower digestive tract such as poor digestion, gas, nausea, and constipation.
In general, Dandelion carries substances that stimulate the function of many glands and organs, especially the kidneys and liver. It has a tonic affect on the kidneys and encourages kidney function with its diuretic action, while at the