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| coarse powder with a coffee grinder. Place the powder in a Mason jar. Cover with 16 oz. of 80-proof vodka or with 3/4 cup Everclear and 1 1/4 cups water. Mark the jar with the name of the herb and the date prepared. Let stand for at least two weeks in a dark, cool place, shaking well every day. After two weeks, strain or pour through a coffee filter to eliminate sediment. Store the finished extract in amber bottles away from heat and sunlight. Label and date. Extracts should be good for up to three years. |
| When using fresh plant material, mash it into a pulp with a mortar and pestle, add vodka as above to a blender along with the herb and blend on low speed to a slurry consistency. Pour into a Mason jar, let stand for two weeks covered, shaking it every day; strain and store in dark amber bottles. |
| Making Your Own Glycerite Extract |
| There are two primary ways to prepare a glycerin extract. The first is to soak an appropriate amount of the herb directly in glycerin. The second is to extract the appropriate amount of herb in the appropriate alcohol-water extracting menstruum and then evaporate the alcohol in a rotary evaporator and reconstitute the extract with glycerin to the desired concentration. The advantage to the first procedure, the simple glycerin macerate, is that anyone can do this at home very easily. In my experience, I feel fresh root material makes for a better glycerin extract when prepared via simple maceration. The disadvantage is that glycerin in and of itself is not an ideal extracting solvent, so much less medicine is obtained from the root with this extraction process as com- |
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