Making St Johnswort Tincture using Fresh Herb Flowers and Powdered Herb and Everclear

Ok guys. I was stunned to find out I have St Johnswort growing in my yard all free and beautiful and fresh. I am thrilled each day to understand and learn more about herbs and how they can help us. And to discover a new one on the farm is just amazing. They say that what you needs grows near you. I have family and client who need this herb.

So firstly I took some fresh flowers and some buds that were just about to open and put them in Everclear 190 proof alcohol, just to save what I found and make an easy tincture. I only found a few plants, and as you know, you should never harvest all of anything. Your harvest should look like it never happened.

Sure enough, the tincture from these sweet yellow flowers and green buds turned red. I mean if this isn't science with a heaping scoop of magic, then I don't know what to say.

I only have about 5 plants. I don't have enough to make 11 ounces (which is my favorite amount of tincture for personal use and experiments) so I needed to bolster this. I remembered that I did still have powdered St. Johnswort that I used to make capsules for a client so I thought I would see how that would work. I wonder how much fluid will get soaked up by the powder and how much will come out when it's time to strain. So let's see! I took a sterilized pint jar and added 4 ounces of Everclear 190 proof grain alcohol and 4 ounces of water.

Then I added 4 ounces of powdered St Johnswort.

I mixed it (it looks like mud) and had some room left in the jar so I added the 1/2 cup of red fresh flower St Johnswort Tincture that I had made two weeks ago (that's the stuff in the before and after mini size jar in the photos above) plus one new flower from today. It's mixed and I put a lid on the jar and labels the lid with a sharpy. After all these years, I still stink at labelling. I always seem to think I'll remember which is alcohol a d which is vegetable glycerin. I don't. You eventually won't. Let's just label, guys.

I now have it on top of the fridge (the tops of fridges get warm and see great for fermentation and infusions) and will be shaking it daily for 3 weeks. Then we will strain it and see what happens.

I let flowers and powders brew for 3 weeks because the flowers are fragile and they give up their goodness easily. The powder has so much surface area that it also extracts by 3 weeks.

Here you can see the depleted flower (left flower) after 2 weeks. Only the cells of the flower structure are left. This is a great visual for those who don't believe that anything is actually happening when we tincture herbs.

I'll post the results in a few weeks.