My Echinacea's Got Bling!

Time to Dig Dig Dig!

Man, That's One
Big Bucket to Fill ...

Washing the Echinacea roots (the recipe
didn't call for sand...)

and cutting them into itty bitty pieces.
Turns out we had about 500g of root.
Using a formula, this requires just
under 1.2L of "spirits".

Vodka is the preferred beverage of choice
due to its high alcohol content (40%)
which is very effective at coaxing all the
medicinal goodness out of the roots.

Conveniently enough, it comes in 1.14L bottles,
working out almost perfectly for our formula!

Adding the Echinacea equally to two
Mason jars. Then pouring in
the "secret sauce"

Too bad there won't be enough
to save for "later"...

Some pieces float at first, others sink
right away, dependingn on how dense
each piece is. Eventually, all root
pieces will succumb to their enibriated
deluge and settle to the bottom.

Down to the pantry with our Hallowe'en
witch's brew.

Here the jars will sit for a minimum
of 4 weeks, allowing everything to
marinate nicely.

Goodnight Echinacea.

I'll be down to give you a shake 'n stir
every 2-3 days.

The Echinacea-infused vodka is
starting to turn a nice dark
brown. By the time we're done,
it will be pretty much as
dark as coffee.

We'll pour the tincture into 30mL &
100mL amber tincture bottles.
The dark bottle colour prevents light
degradation of the compounds inside.

We need to separate the tincture from
the pieces of root. To do this, we'll
strain the pieces out and then try
to mash down whatever is left in
the strainer to squeeze out every
last drop of medicinal goodness.

Here we go.

that's all for the first jar.

All that's left are roots...

and they turn out to be so incredibly
hard that our ambitious plan to
squeeze and mash have themselves
been squashed.

In the end, we have just over 1L of tincture.
Sure is a lot of cold and flu-fighting power!

All the tincture bottles are opened and
are set to be filled. Try not to spill any!

I like funnels. They're really helpful.

We ended up spilling a bit here and
there and forego photos of
"The Pour" to focus on successfully
getting the tincture into it's new homes.
Using a bowl under the measuring
cup helped lots.

I decided to sample the last little bit
of tincture in the bottom of the bowl.
Holy guacamole that stuff is potent!

Just a little undiluted sip made my
whole tongue and mouth tingly. It's
kind of like that minty freshness tingly,
only a bit tart in taste. That "tingle"
is the medicinal compounds making
their presence known and is a great
sign of it's awesome immune-boosting
potential.

I almost want someone to sneeze on
me so I can try this stuff out!

An awesome strawbale home.
One of the first in Ontario!

Heat your water with the sun!

Free electricity from the sun, too.

Here chicky chicky...

More chickies...

Turkeys, too...

It's The King!

and a bunch 'o ducks.

We scored an organic bonus of freshly
pulled carrots and dug potatoes
for supper that night.

Visit Hawthorn Farm and
browse their fantastic
online seed collections
for sale at:

www.hawthornfarm.ca