You can make alcohol from fruit, honey, or grain fairly easily. For example, take crush apples into cider and leave it out for a while until it ferments. If you need it more concentrated you can allow it to freeze and discard the ice leaving the alcohol behind without worrying about distillation.

–
JimFive

You can certainly make alcohol primitively–you really just need to get some plant matter together and give it time to rot properly. I’ve heard of this, but I haven’t done it myself yet. Still on my list.

just for full disclosure on my part, there seems to be some question as to whether non-distilled alcohol is suitable for tinctures. building a primitive still could be quite a challenge.

Right now, we use olive oil, but you could probably use any kind of vegetable oil. Primitive life doesn’t preclude vegetable oil; you just need a press, which could really just mean a fancy word for a big, heavy rock. I’ve seen olive oil made by squeezing olives by hand.

i’ve read that bear fat work very well, but i think you use a slow heat infusion process instead of the process described above. you can find a discussion about this here.

So the alcohol cannot evaporate, and the resulting solution would still be alcoholic ? But what would you use the tincture for ? I thought it was only for skin application - for things like rash, bites/stings or cuts/woulds/burns…

Depends on the tincture. I made a yarrow/plantain tincture that I keep in my First Aid kit. Alcohol all by itself does a good job of disinfecting a cut, but when you add in plantain’s anti-bacterial, anti-viral, anti-fungal and anti-microbial properties, and yarrow’s wound-treating ability to stop bleeding, you’ve got a pretty good treatment for cuts and wounds.

Other tinctures, though, you take internally, usually with a few drops in water or tea. I’ve made good use of an echinacea tincture like that lately, with some kind of cold circulating around the office.

Would you agree on that from you know/read ? Then how long would you boil the plant in order to have an efficient decoction ?

Afraid I don’t know rosemary well enough to say.

thank you very much for your detailled answers to my detailled questions, as usual

erm… I am wondering because you make the tincture by soaking a plant in alcohol, inside a closed pot for 2-3 weeks right ?

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tincture

So the alcohol cannot evaporate, and the resulting solution would still be alcoholic ? But what would you use the tincture for ? I thought it was only for skin application - for things like rash, bites/stings or cuts/woulds/burns…
But reading from the comments, it looks like some of you *drink* the tincture. Ex. : the dandelion tincture which, according to Ben, should efficiently ‘detox the liver’. Or maybe the Echinacea or Elderberry tinctures, which help against the cold.

Then I guess it is a bit like modern cough syrups…

Personnally my father, when he saw me preparing rosemary tea - we have giant patches of wild rosemary somewhere on a hilltop - mentionned that using decoctions made from aromatic mediterranean plants/flowers - lavender, rosemary, thyme - had a tonic effect.
Would you agree on that from you know/read ? Then how long would you boil the plant in order to have an efficient decoction ?

We take an incremental approach to rewilding, generally. Anything that moves us in the right direction, we like. We don’t expect to get the whole way there in one stride. So, we have no problem doing things that might not use 100% primitive, hunted and gathered materials. By the same token, we do try to keep pressing further down the trail, so we always want to know how we can make things a little more primitive later on. Getting down to specifics….

You always talk about “tincture” ? Do you mean the one with alcohol ? Can you get the necessary alcohol from nature as well ?

Yes, with alcohol. You can certainly make alcohol primitively–you really just need to get some plant matter together and give it time to rot properly. I’ve heard of this, but I haven’t done it myself yet. Still on my list.

And Jason, when you mention ‘tincture of blue verbain’, did you actually mean ‘blue vervein’ ?

Well, you didn’t spell it right, either! It should look like, “blue vervain.” But in my defense, I see plenty of places spelling it “blue verbain,” too.

And Giuli, do you cook the burdock root or use it raw to make your tincture ? Maybe in order to prepare the tincture you have to cook the mix alcohol+plant itself ?

We didn’t find any need to cook it–in fact, cooking never came up at all before. Why would you cook it?

By the way, you also mentionned somewhere else in this blog that you prepared essential oils to repel insects. You do this, if my understanding is correct, by having some plant leaves macerate in oil.

What kind of oil would you use then ? Where would you find it in a primitive lifestyle ?

Right now, we use olive oil, but you could probably use any kind of vegetable oil. Primitive life doesn’t preclude vegetable oil; you just need a press, which could really just mean a fancy word for a big, heavy rock. I’ve seen olive oil made by squeezing olives by hand.

By the way, you also mentionned somewhere else in this blog that you prepared essential oils to repel insects. You do this, if my understanding is correct, by having some plant leaves macerate in oil.

What kind of oil would you use then ? Where would you find it in a primitive lifestyle ?

great post, but can I bring my 2-cent question here ?
You always talk about “tincture” ? Do you mean the one with alcohol ? Can you get the necessary alcohol from nature as well ?

And Jason, when you mention ‘tincture of blue verbain’, did you actually mean ‘blue vervein’ ?

Kudos to the tribe…

Ages ago, I remember either you or Giulianna mentioning having learned of three herbs which covered the basics, as far as herbal medicine goes, but you never mentioned what they were… do you still remember?

Clive