the Magic and Mundane ~ Organizing our Herbal Apothecary

The word Alchemy has been wrongly applied to herbalism many times. And I am going to have to repeat that mis-use here because I like the word so much. Yes I know there is no dissolving or coagulating going on in my apothecary. But, what other word better describes the process of transforming plants into medicine?

I have been engaged in a process of Alchemy in this familiar apothecary for a few weeks now. In this basement apothecary there are jars of herbs that my mother and I have collected over the months and years. They look really pretty in these jars but, sadly are rarely used. We collected these herbs and so carefully stored them for more than decor so I opened them all up with the idea of putting them into a more practical form.

In my last Herbal Hive post I bottled dozens of different tinctures so that the medicine will be always on hand. Today I wanted to make tea mixes for health but also for enjoyment to replace the boxes of store bought teas my mom uses each night.

It is a funny thing. There are jars full of organic, hand-harvested herbs in the basement but still my mom purchases bags of tea. She is a busy lady so, I do understand. A jar full of herbs just isn't as easy to make tea with as a tea bag full herbs. So, I spent an afternoon mixing and bagging teas.

There are many different providers of empty tea bags. Personally I tend to use these tea bags from the Art of Tea. They are quite large and good for people who make whole pots of tea rather than a single cup at a time.

I made two mixes. One caffeinated with the addition of yerba mate (the only herb that I didn't harvest myself). It is my friendly yerba mate mix with orange peel, hawthorn flowers, stevia, and lemon verbena leaves which I used to sell in my Etsy shop. The other is a relaxing tea mix that is also a bit digestive meant to drink in the evenings after diner. This mix contains linden flowers, hawthorn and orange peel.

The last step is to fit all the tea bags in a clean jar, seal it, and label the jar with the ingredients in each bag. This is very important, especially if I actually want people to use these teas even when I am away.