Mugwort Tinctures

On the 11th May I picked a bunch of fresh mugwort and set about experimenting. I've wanted to try tincturing herbs for a while now and felt that this would be an herb useful to practice with. In part because the resultant tinctures would not be used for ingestion.

It had rained so the mugwort was already free of dust and dirt and I just shook it off well and let it dry a bit in the colander. Then I picked the leaves off the stems and distributed the herbs into three eight ounce jelly jars. The jars were full, but not packed tightly.

I used white vinegar, canola oil, and vodka (not mixed together!!). Filled each jar nearly to the rim, and then capped with a lid and ring and shook them well. The oil filled jar I set on my kitchen windowsill and the other two went into the dark pantry in the basement. They've all been giving a gentle daily shake since then.

Today was "straining day"! Using a handy-dandy glass measuring cup and a fine mesh strainer, I set about opening, straining and re-bottling the tinctures.

First one to open was the vegetable oil tincture. PHEW! Did that ever stink like a half-rotted swamp!! Lesson: when tincturing in oil, next time use DRY herbs. That got dumped out. Total loss.

Then I opened the vinegar tincture. After straining the liquid is a very pale color and the scent while strongly vinegary has a hint of something else. (Duh, mugwort, haha). The vodka tincture is darker in hue and has a mugwort-y scent with a whiff of alcohol to it.

The vodka and vinegar Tinctures of Mugwort are tucked away in my supply area and I am sure I'll find plenty of witchy uses for them.

I think I'll try some culinary or medicinal tinctures next.

The vodka tincture is on the left, the vinegar tincture on the right.