momma made medicine

The hardest part of making 'medicines'

is figuring out what combinations of herbs you need

and how much you need of 'em.

Once you've done that

the rest is easy.

Fill a clean jar 1/2 full with dry herbs of your choice.

(I like to sterilize the jar first

by putting it in a pot of boiling water for a few minutes)

Boil a bit of water

and use half as much water as you used herbs.

(let's say you've got a pint jar: you used 1 cup of herb

so you'd need 1/2 c. boiling H20)

Fill remaining space in jar with glycerin

Put a lid on the jar and put in crockpot.

Fill crockpot to neck of jar with warm water

(I just use the water left over from sterilizing my jar)

Turn crockpot on low

and

let that glycerin pull all that goodness out of your herbs.

Shake your jar once or twice a day

and smile to yourself

all giddy-like.

~

told you it was easy!

After 'cooking' for 3 days in the crockpot on low

my potions were ready to be strained.

It took me two more days to finally get to it.

no biggie.

I use circles cut out of old t-shirts

as my strainer

liquid gold.

really!

I would have paid hundreds of dollars for all this goodness.

Scratch that

I wouldn't pay that kind of money;

everyone would just suffer through their ailments

like we used to do.

I get real creative and fancy with my labels.

A little bit of time

+

not very much money

and we've got

one to two years worth of

Cold Care

(good for whatever ails ya)

Comfrey Plantain

(works wonders on mouth wounds)

Calm Cool & Collected

(formerly called Restful Sleep)

oil for Green Stuff - I'll make it into a salve later

Muscle Rub oil

I haven't decided if I'll make a salve or use as is

and

Tension Tamer

Thank-you, Lord

for all the goodness that grows on this earth

and for wisdom on how to use it

to benefit my family.