I hate to say it but cold and flu season is right around the corner … I know, I know, I hate thinking about just as much as you do but sometimes we have to face the music … or in this case, the sniffles. Last year we shared a Gut Healing Veggie Broth to help bring some relief to upset stomachs and help fend off the dreaded cold. Well, this year, now that I’m not pregnant … lol … I decided to get ahead of cold and flu season with something a little STRONGER!
That’s right, I made my very own Echinacea Tincture!! When I told the girls I wanted to make an Echinacea Tincture they had no clue what I was talking about so, what better way to learn about it, then to make it!! So, during one of our photoshoots the girls and I popped down to my garden and grabbed a couple of stems of Echinacea (roots and ALL!) and brought it up to the house to get it prepped for bottling!
For those of you who don’t know, Echinacea is such a magical plant, it has so many amazing health benefits (please do your research on this first, prior to ingesting any as there are some known side-effects!) and the entire plant can be used in things like teas, and, you guessed it, tinctures!
Making a homemade Echinacea Tincture is super easy! Well, this is actually my first time making it … so, if anyone out there has done this before and has tips, PLEASE share them in the comments section below! Echinacea Tincture’s are mainly used to fights many ailments and it also helps stimulate the immune system to fight flu and colds! So, move over Gut Healing Veggie Broth … mama is using echinacea tincture to ward off my colds this season! Ps. Obviously this is not suitable for the kiddos in the family as it contains alcohol so keep it for the adults and store it in a safe place where the kids cannot get to it!
My Homemade Echinacea Tincture
Ingredients
2 Echinacea Stems (flower, stem, and roots!)
A clean glass jar with tight fitting lid
Vodka
Directions
- Rinse the echinacea plant.
- Roughly chop the entire echinacea plant (roots, stems, flower buds).
- Place chopped echinacea into your glass container and cover with vodka. We used Smirnoff vodka for this. Leave some room at the top of the container/jar. Put lid on.
- Let tincture sit in a cool dark place out of reach of kids!
- After one month minimum (two to three months is even better!), strain the tincture and keep the liquid. You may keep this in the same container or transfer to small bottles with dropper lids for easy access.
- To use, place 2-4 drops in water and drink. Caution: Tincture mixture can be pretty potent!
xo
Jilly
It needs more of the plant in the bottle. It should have been at least half full of echinacea, tightly packed. Your bottle is very pretty but it will be weak. It looks good though 🙂
You can make tinctures safe for kiddos by replacing the alcohol with organic vegetable glycerine and water! This makes it alcohol-free and still just as effective. Great post!