Plantain was the
easiest of all to pick - I just pinched the broad, fleshy leaves off at
the stem with my fingernails. These are my all-time favorite salad green
and, like the other weeds I've mentioned here, are useful medicinal plants
as well. I've heard that plantain doesn't dry well because of its high
moisture content, but it's a perfect candidate for being stored in
tincture form.
My neighbor didn't
have any chickweed - neither, as a matter of fact, do I - but that is
another common weed that invades cultivated soil and is easily stored in
tincture form for medicinal or nutritional use.
Into the
Laboratory
Once I'd secured
enough dandelion, clover and plantain to suit my needs I headed back to
"the laboratory" to begin processing my catch. The clover and plantain,
because they'd been harvested above ground, went right into a sink full of
water and a little food grade hydrogen peroxide to clean them off while I
separated the dandelion greens from the roots and set the greens aside to
receive the same treatment.
The dandelion roots
took a little more work to prepare. I started the cleaning process by
dumping them in a bowl of water and agitating them, changing the water as
it muddied. After going through a few bowls of water the roots each
received a brisk hand-scrubbing on the way into the same diluted hydrogen
peroxide bath the greens endured, then the final crevices were scrubbed
clean of dirt with a clean toothbrush and the roots laid out on clean
paper towels.
The rest of the
jarring process was very simple: I sterilized the jars in batches and then
filled each about a quarter full of edible weeds and/or dandelion root,
chopped into small pieces. I saved a few small jars of individual herbs
for medicinal uses, but for the most part I was very free with my mixing
since, after all, the point was to create a nutritional tonic to fill in
vitamin or mineral gaps in my diet.
Once I'd sorted the
herbs into sterilized jars I filled each jar up to the threads (leaving a
little head space) with my chosen tincture base. I prefer using apple
cider vinegar because it's a natural product made from fermented apples
and is considered by many to be a restorative tonic on its own merits.
Apple cider vinegar also has a lot of acetic acid, which acts as a
powerful solvent to extract the nutritive qualities of the
plants in a
tincture. Acetic acid is also a natural preservative. Other possible
tincture bases include white vinegar (which in many cases is nothing but a
pure chemical-in-water solution) or alcohol, which is the perfect
preservative and a good solvent, but not as good as vinegar. Using apple
cider vinegar, or any other natural vinegar, has the side effect of
creating a new culinary product as well: You can use the herb vinegar you
produce anywhere you'd use vinegar in your usual cooking process; how's
that for a novel way of taking your vitamins and minerals?
Once the tincture
jars were full all I had to do was screw the two-part lids on and put them
in a hot water bath for about five minutes. Once they'd all sealed (as
with all jarring listen for the "ping" or look for the raised dimple on
the lid to get sucked in), I put them away, clearly marking which herbs
each jar contained and when they were harvested. Once you're ready to use
the tincture it's as simple as breaking the seal on a jar and sipping a
few tablespoons each day; exactly how much you take depends on how strong
the mixture you made is, how potent the herbs were, and how much body mass
you have.
