Stay Healthy: DIY Echinacea Tincture
With so many benefits of Echinacea, everyone should have a supply of easy to make DIY Echinacea tincture on hand to keep your family healthy! This is one of the herbs I reach for the most; in fact you can read about how I stopped a cold using Echinacea!
I urge you to plan ahead and make your Echinacea tincture now so that when you get that first frustrating hint of a cold you can cut it off quickly and effectively without having to scramble. Especially because tinctures take a few weeks to complete, it pays to be prepared!
Make Your Own Echinacea Tincture:
Supplies . . .
– Dried Echinacea (you can also use fresh, but will need to add more. See my tincture post for more info)
– 80 proof vodka
-Pint sized mason jar
– lid & supplies to label it
– time
Process . . .
– First, fill your pint jar almost half way with dried Echinacea. Don’t pack it in; leave it “fluffed up” so you end up with the proper proportion of Echinacea to vodka.
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Next, fill the remainder of the jar to the shoulder with 80 proof vodka. Plain vodka would work fine, but ours is extra fancy because I used some expensive vanilla vodka! Really though, it was the only thing my husband could find at the store. It smells amazing, but save yourself the money & use cheap plain vodka.
– Wipe the rim of the jar off & tighten the lid on. LABEL IT with the what exactly it is and the date you made it. I know it seems like you will remember these details, but it gets harder when your pantry fills up with little jars of floating plant crumbs!
–Give it a good shake and stash it in a dark spot where you will remember to shake it every day or so. As a side note, most instructions I have read talk about filling the jar and keeping the vodka at least 2 inches about the herbs. They seem to assume that the herbs just sit cooperatively at the bottom. Mine didn’t; they all swirled together with the vodka. As long as they are not sticking out above the vodka where they are exposed to air and grow mold, it should be fine; I have not had a problem yet.
– Wait 3-6 weeks and strain your tincture into a fresh container. It’s ready to use!
Check out my Echinacea post for dosing.
Echinacea tincture is such a quick, easy investment in your family’s health. It is simple to make and will last indefinitely. I have been using my homemade Echinacea tincture for quite a few years by now. One thing that I have noticed is that it gets used up very quickly, especially when more than one person is sick. Definitely consider making multiple batches or using this recipe with a quart sized mason jar so that you have plenty on hand when you need it.
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Please pin, share, and comment if this post has been helpful! I would love to hear of any tips and tricks you use to make your tinctures even better!