Medicine Making Supplies

Supply List Do's and Don'ts

When you are first starting out on your medicine making journey, looking from recipe to recipe can give you anxiety looking at the supply list. In this section, I will break down what you need, some household items you may use to replace some items and some fun extras if you want to invest. Remember, you don't need everything at once! Start small and invest as you go along if you find something that may work better for you.
Antique stores and thrift stores are a great place to shop for supplies. Many times old strainers, large bowls and double boiler pans can be purchased there for a fraction of the cost.

Basic Supplies

Herbs- fresh or dried herbs. Many herbs you will be able to find in your yard or on hikes through the woods. Those that you cannot find, you will need to purchase through reputable distributors. Frontier Co-op and Mountain Rose Herbs are great for buying in bulk. If it is an herb that you know you will use a lot of, like Nettles, this can be ideal. However, when you are new to herbal medicine, you may not know how much of something you will need and 4oz of Calendula and 4 oz of wild yam root are going to look very different as they are packaged by weight. For smaller purchases, I like to use Jean's Greens because they allow you to purchase by the ounce.
Glass Jars with lids- It is important that you properly store your herbs. When shipped to you they will come in plastic bags and need to be transferred to glass jars with air-tight lids. But the good news is that any glass jar will do. Empty mayonnaise jars, pickle jars etc. Just thoroughly clean and dry them and they will be ready to use to store herbs.

Labels- You will need to label your dry herbs, your tinctures or oils that are setting and your finished products. I prefer the Avery 8163 labels as they fit well on tincture, spray and 8 oz bottles. If you do not want to invest in labels, a piece of masking tape will work just as well.
Notebook- Every beginning herbalist comes across hundreds of herbal recipes they want to try. Only some will work for you in timing and preference. You will also begin to acquire herbs and the more you do the harder it is to keep track of what you have run out of. Having a small notebook that is dedicated to your herbal journey is so important. Write down what you want to try, herbal shopping and planting lists and notes from classes you attend. This way you will always know where to look for your herbal information.

Getting Started

Saucepan- Go to goodwill and get a saucepan. Can you make your elderberry syrup in a regular saucepan? Absolutely! However, once you start making salves and melting beeswax it will make a mess of your favorite pots and pans. It is best to have a saucepan and/or double boiler that is dedicated to your herbal work.
Double Boiler- This is optional for when you are infusing oils or reducing the alcohol content in a tincture. If you do not want to spend the money right now, you will need two saucepans that can be stacked on top of each other. When you start making more salves, you will want to invest in one.

Wooden Spoons- Again, you can use the same ones that you already have in your kitchen. However, just as with the saucepan, when using wax it can ruin your favorite utensils. It is always ideal to have utensils that are dedicated to your herbal medicine making. Also, wooden and bamboo utensils work better than plastic or metal because when you are trying to squeeze out the last couple drops of infusions, tinctures and infused oils, it needs to be able to take a lot of pressure.
Mesh strainer - even one from the dollar store will work at first. Once you start making your own medicine more regularly, you may want to invest in a higher quality strainer or even a jelly strainer since the pressing and squeezing may start to wear it out.

Cheese Cloth- A good quality cheese cloth could be used as a replacement for many other tools. It can be used to strain herbs instead of a mesh strainer while allowing you to squeeze with your hands. Also while using a tincture press, it makes it easier to keep the herbs all in one place. Additionally, a piece of cheese cloth could be used as a tea bag in place of a tea ball/bag.
Tincture Press- This is a splurge. You do not need this for every day medicine making. However, when you find yourself making more and more tinctures and straining more and more to get every last drop out, it may be time to invest. Tincture presses use additional pressure to get every last drop so that nothing is wasted.

Ricer- This may be a tool you already have laying around. If not, many times you can find these at antique shops or Goodwill. I like to use mine as a small, handheld tincture press. It works great for smaller jars of tincture.
Funnels- Several sizes of funnels are needed when working with natural medicines. A canning funnel will help you when you are putting dried herbs into jars for storage of for tinctures. Additionally, they are needed for pouring salves into jars. Regular size funnels are great for adding liquids to jars for tinctures and glycerites as well as bottling syrups. And a small tincture funnel is needed for adding tinctures and liniments to small bottles. If your regular size funnel has a small enough tip, you may be able to use it instead of a tincture funnel. But that varies from funnel to funnel.

Measuring Cups- Glass heat resistant measuring cups are essential. Not only will it help you measure herbs to help your ratios as well as measuring infused oils and beeswax but because they have a pour spout, it makes pouring your medicines into containers much easier. Many times when I am straining I do so directly into a glass measuring cup.
Bottles- Tincture bottles and spray bottles are really the only specialty bottles you will need. When making syrups and liniments, you can buy the 8 oz glass bottles but you could also recycle bottles that you may have. If you are a kombucha drinker, many times they come in amber bottles with screw tops that can be reused to store your medicine. Additionally, small jelly jar mason jars are inexpensive and can be readily found even at your local grocery store. However, reusing small jelly jars or olive jars work just as well.

Food Processor- This is a luxury and not necessary. As you will see in this month's video, I talk about using the food processor to better incorporate the coconut oil into your salve. However, using a whisk or simply shaking it in the jar will work fine. The only difference will be in whether the salve stays mixed or separates.
Mortar and Pestle- This may be something you already have that you can use to grind up your herbs. You will mostly need to grind herbs if you are making a glycerites, poultices or herbal baths. For the most part, herbs can be kept whole and finely chopped. Mortar and pestles can definitely get up there in price. The best large mortar and pestle I ever found was at Ikea. So, that may be worth checking out if you have one locally.

Tea Ball/Bag- If you are going to mix your own medicinal teas, a tea ball or reusable tea bag are a must. Tea balls are readily available at most department stores and online and can usually be purchased for less that five dollars. Sometimes you can even find some in fun shapes and colors. A reusable tea bag made from natural muslin is another option but could be harder to find. If you are a sewer, this may be a quick easy project you could make on your own.
Teapot with Strainer- If you plan to make an entire pot of tea at once, investing in a teapot with a strainer basket may make more sense for you than the tea ball. There are many out there to choose from. My personal opinion is to get one that can be heated on the stove so that you do not need multiple teapots. Be careful when shopping as some of them cannot go on the stove and require you to add the hot water to the pot off of the heat.

I hope that you learned about some new tools and some tools you may already have that can save you some money in your herbal journey.