Storing Your Herbal Infusions

What’s easier? Grabbing the bottle of Ibuprofen/tube of diaper rash cream/oragel to suppress symptoms or just researching what the problem is, finding the appropriate herb, making an infusion, waaaaaaiting for it to infuse, filtering it, and using it? Obviously the second option, right? Not really, especially when you are sick, in pain, holding a screaming baby etc.

However it CAN be just as easy to grab the herb as it is to grab the pain medicine or diaper cream. All you need to do is plan ahead (which I know can feel overwhelming.) Just follow my blog 😉 I’ll do the planning and sharing and you do the prep work.

Today I want to share some thoughts on storing infusions so they are ready to go when you or a loved one needs one! What is important to consider when stockpiling your finished herbal infusions for the future?

First, they need to be easy to access.

Sometimes even running downstairs to my basement freezer seems like too much effort, so I keep a small sample of ready herbs upstairs in my kitchen.

Store The Right Size.

Next, you need to be able to store them in the appropriate sized amounts. If you need a spritz of diaper rash spray, having a mason jar in your fridge isn’t going to help you very much. On the other hand, if you need to drink a cup of raspberry tea each day during your pregnancy, storing little bottles is not going to go very far. Think about how you will be using this herb and plan accordingly.

Make Sure They Don’t Mold

Why worry about it & not just make a TON while you’re at it (my usual approach to anything . . . bigger is better) Because big batches of things WILL go bad when you don’t take care of them properly and things do get forgotten in the back of the fridge, pantry, etc. So be smart & store your herbal infusions so they don’t mold or attract bugs. For example, making a gallon of elderberry syrup then realizing you don’t have the lid for the container, or leaving it out on the counter because there is no space in the fridge is not the best idea (ask me how I know.) It will attract fruit flies & ruin the whole batch. Even in the fridge, a whole gallon will likely go bad before you can use it if you have a little family like ours.

Stash a variety of herbs in smaller amounts

Another good reason for not keeping huge batches, unless you use huge amounts, is that you don’t want one infusion taking up too much storage space. As you learn more & get more prepared, you will want a wider variety of remedies at your fingertips. I would rather have four quart jars in my fridge of Elderberry syrup, anti-nausea tea, gripe water, and rash spray rather than one giant gallon of gripe water. So consider keeping a smaller amount of a wider variety of herbs easily accessible and storing the rest elsewhere like the basement, chest freezers, etc.

Label Everything

Another quick note; You will want to be able to label your infusions. Again, ask me how I know! A lot of herbs look very very similar once they are all packaged in jars and smell a lot more similar when frozen.

So how do you store your herbal products?

My first suggestion is to freeze your infusions in ice cube trays. Use a tablespoon to measure how much will fit into your specific tray because I have found that they vary greatly, then write it in permanent marker on the side of the tray so you don’t forget. After your infusion is ready, just fill your trays and set them in the freezer until solid. I then pop them out and stash them in a zippered plastic bag in my freezer until I need to thaw them.

To thaw I put them directly in the container or, if they don’t fit, I put them in a covered bowl on the counter until they thaw. Of course, if you need them quickly you could melt them in a saucepan on the stove too. Just please don’t zap them with the microwave.

Another excellent option for things that you use topically is to fill little spray bottles. I have a stash of spray bottles from some homeopathic medicine I was taking, but you can buy them in bulk relatively inexpensively too. This is great for treating babies & little kids especially because they can’t spill them and the bottles are easy to use while your hands are full.

For things you use in larger servings, you could also freeze cup-sized servings of infusions in muffin trays, yogurt containers, or even fill cups, freeze them, and store the infusion blocks in plastic bags. Imagine how convenient it would be to wake up to a vomiting toddler and be able to quickly run to your fridge and pull out a few servings of stomach soothing infusion? Or grab a cube of elderberry syrup when you are so congested you can’t think straight? Or just thaw the ready-made gripe water when your head is echoing from a baby screaming?

One way I have made life much easier for us is by freezing ice-cube sized blocks of diaper rash spray that fit perfectly in a little spray bottle when thawed. When I see one of my children is getting red, or if a rash pops up overnight, I quickly thaw my infusion and am ready to go in a matter of minutes, compared to at least overnight when making the diaper spray from scratch. This saves us a whole day of my baby being miserable & me having to deal with a cranky baby. It also keeps the rash from progressing and becoming more difficult to treat.

I encourage you to joining me in thinking ahead to problems you & your family may encounter and preparing your treatments ahead of time. You will be a blessing to your family/friends and make serving them more convenient for yourself!