My friend, B, has been making tinctures. I had no idea what a tincture was, until a few weeks ago.
This website explained what a
tincture was. Basically, it's a concentrate of herbs soaked in vodka or rum. You use this concentrate to cure whatever the herb is good for.
My friend had tried a cough tincture. She said it worked for her and her family. I was amazed so I started exploring the vast world of herbs. I'd only gotten as far as
The Bulk Herb Store and became so overwhelmed, I quit.
But then a few days later, I tried again. This time I slowly explored with a few minutes here and a few minutes there. I gathered enough information from the website to start a few tincture ideas of my own, running the ideas past a more experienced friend. She gave me several tips and suggestions. I wrote down my shopping list and asked permission from my husband to buy some vodka from the liquor store.
I went shopping. I bought the herbs first at our local co-op. I found most of what I was looking for. I glanced quickly, out of habit, at their "free jars" section. Guess what I found? Praise God, I found three tincture bottles with droppers! For me, that was from God. I was making three different tinctures and there were the bottles for them. Thank you Jesus!
Next stop. The liquor store. This was awkward for me. I walked in and asked the two ladies at the front where the vodka was. They pointed me in the right direction, a wall of vodka. I found the cheapest bottle I could find and noticed all the labels saying, "made from grain." My heart skipped a beat. I realized Rachel might not be able to ingest even one drop of the medicine I was making if it had wheat or rye in it!! But I asked the ladies who worked there what vodka was made from. They were pretty sure it was from corn. But, somehow I had mentioned to the workers that my four year old daughter could not have wheat. One just looked at me and said, "You shouldn't feed your daughter wheat...or vodka!"
I explained my situation, which surprisingly she was interested in and wished me luck with it.
Later, I did a
google search for vodka and gluten. I found that any distilled product does not contain gluten. So even though I found that vodka can be made from a variety of grains, including rye and barley, Rachel can safely ingest the tincture.
So to shorten this story, I have now four tinctures in the making. One for coughs, one immune booster, and two pain relievers: one for the children and one for adults. (Some herbs are more powerful than others and should not be given to children).
So I'll let you know the results! If this works, I'm excited to never buy cough syrup again!
