A Simple Herbal Apothecary Set Up

do [Music] do [Music] there are some basic things you need to get started with your very own home herbal apothecary and today i'm going to walk you through just a few things as well as going through my current apothecary some things i need to add some things i currently have that you might enjoy and some links in the description of nice amazing protocols that you can get started with very easily all right so behind me here is an old hutch that i got a few years ago probably back in 2019 when my second son was born my husband did a job did a barter deal on this amazing piece right here behind me it is my most favorite piece ever that i have if you don't know me very well i collect old antique pieces of furniture like this i love it when it's handmade and just has a unique character so for a while i just use this as a china cabinet but now i'm using it as my herbal apothecary it is one of the best things in my kitchen because my kitchen is very small but it also houses all the stuff that i need very very well so today i'm going to show you a few things that you need to get yourself started with your own herbal apothecary it's so easy don't let it intimidate you at all you don't need crazy crazy over you know complicated things you just need a few things to get started all right so this is not something you have to have but this is a tincture press you can also use a cheese press which is basically what this is you don't have to have it but if you're going to get into a lot of tinctures and tincture making it's something that you really want to consider having otherwise you can just use cheesecloth and mesh and that works just as well now in the bottom here we're going to start here because this is my kind of my working area it's a little bit of a mess i'm a little bit messy but it it it's functional and it works and so this is not all of my my herbal stash i do have these are this is my immediate apothecary and what i mean by immediate apothecary is that this is what i'm currently working on and down in my basement is my more storage type apothecary so anything that i'm going to be making in the next few weeks or months or things that i want to experiment with this is where that is housed everything else is housed downstairs in my basement in a cool dark area and that's really important when you see these mylar bags with herbs in them i try to keep them in there as much as possible if it's something i don't use very often but um when we get up here you'll see stuff that i do use very often i keep in big half gallon mason jar so this is a quart jar but in the herbs i use quite often i use the half gallon mason jars but if it's herbs that need to be stored for quite a while i just keep them in the mylar bags now um when you first get started with herbalism you probably won't have herbs on your own so i highly highly recommend ordering from star west botanicals um i don't know if you can see that or not there you go they have organic options you can see right on that label it says organic if you're buying herbs make sure you're buying organic because otherwise you're wasting your time as you can see in this apothecary i have lots of mason jars and the first thing that you're going to find is you're going to go through a lot of mason jars from pint jars to quart jars to pine and a half jars and even a half gallon of gallon jars depending on what you're making you need mason jars so mason jars are not just something that you want for canning now that you're a homesteader you want them for tincture making and housing um different protocols that you're going to make now i'm going to pull out a lot of this stuff so you can see what's in here and what i'm currently working on so um so this is an android graphics paniculata tincture that i finished but here you can see i have a licorice root tincture and it is about done it's about needed to drain and you can kind of see the root and there and it is covered but it's just barely covered um we've talked about using the folk method on here before and i do not necessarily use the folk method but i do use the weight to volume ratio and i'll link down in there um this is a poke routine sure that's about ready to be done and that is mostly covered there's a little piece sticking out there um i didn't make a lot of that because poke root does have some toxicity i mostly made it for breast health and mastitis and it also works well for boils and skin issues you don't need a lot of that but we're not going over dosage today uh and this now this is a little bit different and this is why we weigh our i weigh my herbs this is a meadow sweet tincture and you can see there's actually some of the herbs sticking out at the top and it has really soaked up that liquid but it's the same weight ratio and we do this so that we know um our dosage is going to be the same every single time all right so it's really important but i'll i'll post a link below and this is my most favorite one right now and i want to talk to you about it real quick um this is osmia however you currently can't see it this is a really fun and funky t-shirt it kind of looks like an old rag in there um and surprisingly it hasn't really lost a lot of its color it has this beautiful light green color and so this is really good for a lot of different things it has antibiotic properties mostly is what it's known for and if you live in the pacific northwest this is a very important and very prevalent herb that grows there so more on that coming soon but i just wanted to show you what i was working on so lots of fun things in here that i've already gotten done i'm not going to go through everything this is the final tincture that um actually i lied it's not the final tincture but it's one of the final ones that i have going right now this is a wild cherry bark tincture it's a beautiful beautiful color and then i have a chamomile tincture that i've been working on so a lot of fun things but let's go over the stuff that you really actually need to get started so we talked about the mason jars lots of mason jars of all different sizes the next thing you're going to use your herbs which we went over make sure you're sourcing if you're not growing your own herbs make sure you're sourcing organic herbs the next thing that you need are jars so specifically eyedropper bottles and if you're not storing your tinctures in glass bottles like this i do have some in a box behind my camera that i haven't opened yet but um they actually make large brown jars bottles like this that you can place your t-shirts in which is normally what i do and then i label it with a nice big label i don't have any in here for you right now um showing what it is and what the dosage is and all that fun jazz now i do always put ting some tincture in a an eyedropper bottle so we can use it very quickly the easiest way to do that and for years i just kind of tried to wing it is to purchase these stainless steel little funnels and they have different sizes and i promise you it makes your life so much easier to just splurge on these and get them and they fit so nicely into the top so you're not having to worry about a lot of mess [Music] and those are honestly get yourself some nice muslin or cheesecloth and i have i just always have extra of this on hand to drain your tinctures and then the other thing that you might want to consider getting is an at-home capsule filler and i have a video coming out on this soon um this particular one is through herb affair and i will link to the bottom i'm not going to show you how it works right now but um it is a capsule maker it's it's pretty incredible and the capsules just go in here um and you just put whatever kind of powder that you want herbal powder um so i'm specifically in the video that's coming up i'm gonna show you how to make a sea kelp capsules which are great for overall health and it's also great um for radiation poisoning if you have that so we're going to talk about that extensively in that video but not in this one and really those are the basic things that you need for your tincture making and your your front line medicine making in your apocalypse now there are other things as well that you might need so let's say you want to make saps then you'll need beeswax and cocoa butter and coconut oil if you want to make something like an ointment you will still need beeswax and for that you might need shea butter instead of coconut or cocoa butter those are things that you can keep on hand but honestly in the world of herbalism let's say tincture tinctures are great frontline cough syrups are great cough syrups you just need your herbs some water some sugar maybe some honey um but when you're making a salve or an ointment really it's all fluff it's all you know beeswax and all that to make it look easy and store better but whenever i'm in a bind i just take the dry herb and mix it with olive oil or coconut oil or even almond oil and it works just as well for your body so you you don't salves and ointments are great they're wonderful to keep on hand but honestly in the long run if all you have is some olive oil and your herbs you're way ahead of yourself already so don't make your herbal apothecary complicated because it doesn't have to be complicated and a lot of people will get into their herbalism journey and think they have to have all of these amazing things to be the best herbalist and it's just not true up here on the top i have quite a few more things i have mortar and pestles i don't use all of these uh some of these are for giveaways i do have my herbs and my half gallon mason jars and these are herbs i use frequently like mullein um this is goldenrod rose hips yarrow and it goes on back here i have a stragalus root over here and while cherry bark as we go into virus season and these are just things that i need to get to very quickly also i have all my blue willow china still in here and just some really fun things because this is also the key i've been looking forward to didn't know it was in there it's a really fun old key um you probably can't see it for this hutch so this is how i set up my apothecary here but you might find that you want to set yours up a little bit differently now there are some other things you can consider for your apothecary we've talked about herbs we've talked about your jars and your bottles and your funnels we've also talked about beeswax and coconut oil and regular oil if you have those bulk things those are all that's really necessary but then you need some basic things as well you need some things like measuring cups you need a kitchen scale and you probably need some good cleaning cloths i like to use microfiber cloths because they can they're very cheap and i can throw them away if i'm ever working with a plant that has a lot of toxicity that i just don't want to intermingle with other things you can certainly get into a world of products when it comes to herbalism but i want to encourage you that you do not need all of the fancy things you do not need all of the crazy things now i will tell you that there are some basic health needs that you might come into contact with as well like say a stethoscope this is something that a lot of people don't think about when it comes to their herbalism journey or as a family herbalist and now a stethoscope is not necessarily something that's cheap or that you would think about adding to your apothecary but it is necessary if you're trying to treat your family at home um and so i'm linking this lipman classic it was on sale recently and so hopefully it'll go on sale again i'm going to link this in the description below so you can try to find something similar to it if they don't have this one anymore you also need an o2 monitor for your family if you're looking for their oxygen levels that's a really great tool for you to have and just basic first aid equipment for your apothecary in your family things like a thermometer a tourniquet band-aids and bandages and all of those things that you should already have on hand already that most people don't think about having an apothecary once you have all of these basics then and only then once you're comfortable with them do you need to venture out into other areas of herbalism like the tincture press or like an essential oil machine or distiller or like a infusion oil machine or anything like that there's a lot of things that you could throw money at but that you don't really need as a home herbalist and i say that because when we think about herbalists from centuries and decades ago they had the basics they treated their communities with the basics they treated their families with the basics and that was good enough then and it's good enough for me now so i encourage you to take this video and set up your simple apothecary in your home a lot of people ask me where do you start what herbs do you get started with i always tell them choose the top five ailments that you either already have or want to keep an apothecary stocked for and a lot of times it goes like this fever headache high blood pressure and multiple other common things that people have and then you have the prepper side of it where people want to know how do you stop bleeding and that's a big one and yarrow is one of those herbs that you can have on hand to stop bleeding in a powder form and it works incredibly well so choose the top five things that you want to learn how to treat at home learn five herbs for each of those five things and then as you master those and fill your apothecary with those things then the next year add five more ailments and five more herbs for each of those five ailments and i promise you as you look at herbalism from this way you will become more and more confident in what you're learning and what you are experiencing hands-on with if you want to learn more information about herbalism and how to get started and even if you're already well into herbalism and wanting to expand on your journey may i highly recommend you check out my website thefuelhomestead.com for more information on herbalism and all of the herbal things but also while you're there check out my monthly membership called the homestead herbalist membership as well as the virus course that i have that has been amazingly amazingly informational and successful for a lot of people there are two separate things or if you get the herbal online membership the virus course is included but only for certain times throughout the year so if you want the virus course in and of itself so you can go through it anytime you want to then certainly buy the course if not then go with the membership you can do it monthly or get a discount to do it yearly all right guys don't forget to check out all the links in the video description and don't forget to subscribe and hit that notification bell i have had a ton of subscribers this month it it's kind of blowing me away to see how many people are subscribing to my channel when i am an absolute nobody but i'm so honored to encourage you and to help you learn and to help empower you it is one of my favorite things to do is to empower and encourage people to take control of their health and their food and their lives in every possible way until next time have a great day and happy homesteading [Music]

Channel: Amy Fewell - The Fewell Homestead

Views: 29,630

Rating: 4.9768562 out of 5

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Id: oMuvln55d-M

Length: 17min 33sec (1053 seconds)

Published: Fri Sep 24 2021