5 tools for your herbal kitchen
I'm currently preparing to teach another round of Herbal Pharmacy to the current cohort of clinical herbalism students in David Winston's Two-Year program. This is the second time I'll be teaching for David, and it's both an honor and a huge responsibility.
One of my primary herbal philosophies is this: the best medicine is the medicine you'll actually take. As it applies to medicine making, the philosophy shifts to:
The best medicine is the medicine you'll actually make.
And sometimes the difference between easily fitting herbalism into your daily life and never getting around to it is having the right tools on hand, tools that are simple to use (and easy to clean!) and make the process fun.
As I review my teaching materials to focus on making these classes as actionable as possible, here's what I'm focusing on:
Giving the exact proper measurements and also tricks for how to not measure.
It's good to know the exact measurements, especially for when you're just getting started or when you're making medicine for someone else. But unless you're someone who loves whipping out your graduated cylinder, you're probably not going to want to measure every single time.
Providing options of methods and tools so you can choose the one that fits into your life
There are many different ways to infuse + strain herbs. I want to show you all of them! The more options you have, the more you'll find the ones you'll actually use. In our house, we cycle through all of the different infusing methods constantly. You'll see my favorites below.
Emphasizing versatile tools that are easy to clean.
I would rather have just a few tools that can do many things than a lot of tools that each do one specific thing. I also like tools that are easy to clean because, realistically, ease of cleanup will affect how much you actually use something.
The Tools
1. Stainless Steel Funnel with Strainer
This is, hands-down, the most useful tool in your herbal kitchen. Use it to strain a quart of infusion, tinctures, oils, oxymels -- anything! We set it in our mugs to ladle decoction through, strain our chicken stock, and of course strain our daily infusions. I keep two in the kitchen and two in my classroom.
2. Bombilla
A bombilla is a straw with a filter on the end, typically used for drinking yerba maté. I was introduced to bombillas by my husband John who lived in Paraguay for three years and still loves drinking maté. When I first saw a bombilla, I was amazed -- they are brilliant! I have no idea why they're not more common here. You can just add your herbs to hot water, and you don't even have to strain them -- the bombilla strains the water as you drink it, and you can even stir the herbs with it. Perfect.
Bombillas are also very portable, so if you're someone who likes to bring herbs with you when you travel, a bombilla will be your new favorite tool.
I love grinding spices by hand. I love smelling the fragrance of the herbs and feeling like I'm creating coziness as I make my tea. I have used many types of mortars & pestles, and I've concluded that molcajetes are by far the best. They are textured and heavy and thus do the best job.
I recommend visiting your local Mexican grocer and buying a Molcajete there. Get one with grooves in the bowl if possible.
4. Cotton Tea Strainer aka coffee sock
This is another form of herb-strainer that John introduced me to. He used it to make his morning coffee. I realized that it would also be great for straining herbs very finely. Turns out, Mountain Rose sells them for $2. I now keep a bunch on hand. They're great for when you need something strained perfectly (like when you're feeding herbal tea to your baby or making an herbal eye compress) but I mostly use it when I don't feel like having herby bits floating around in my tea.
5. Funnels in various small sizes
Confession: I am very lazy about refilling my own tincture bottles. I've learned that, if I'm taking a daily tincture, I need to have at least 8 oz. of prepared formula from which to refill my 1 oz. dropper bottle. If not, I'll run out and then simply stop taking it for 3-4 weeks until I refill it again. I have also found that having the perfect-sized funnel facilitates this process. If you're going to fill tiny bottles, you need tiny funnels.
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What are your favorite herbal tools? Leave a comment and let me know.
yours in various straining methods,
Amanda