A new old herbal hutch

Wow, can't believe it's been 9 months since I posted here. For shame! But as always, it's not that I haven't been doing lots of herbal things. I have. Always am. All the time. Just haven't been taking the extra steps of pausing to pull out the camera, edit photos, write it all out and upload. I think part of the problem is I have this notion that each entry has to be some grand or semi-grand divulgence and exhibition, when it really doesn't have to be. 

So with the aim of keeping it simple, I'll just briefly talk about a recent project. I just brought home an antique wooden hutch from a sake brewery. The height just fit in my basement, where I cleaned and polished it up and started loading tinctures, dried herbs and oils on its shelves. It's starting to look quite professional in an old school sort of way.

I took the opportunity to press out some tinctures that had been macerating for far longer than they needed to, but which only makes them better tinctures. In all, the first tinctures to be placed in the new hutch were seven in number. They are:

* Ephedra, from fresh plant that I harvested on top of a desert mountain in Palm Springs, California.

* Wild morning glory, which has been growing in my yard since before I moved in.

* Usnea, which is probably a combination of Oak moss and beard lichen. I harvested them from tree branches in Strawberry Canyon in the hills of Berkeley, California.

* Valerian root from the garden.

* Echinacea root from the garden.

* Elderflower from Lake Chabot in Castro Valley, Califronia.

* Mexican Tarragon from the garden.

In addition to these freshly squeezed tinctures, I moved other bottled products from the smaller cramped cabinet to the new old hutch. Included so far are:

* Hawthorn berry tincture

* Milk thistle tincture

* Evening primrose tincture

* Horehound tincture

* Gotu kola tincture

* Cotton thistle tincture

* Henbane tincture

* Mullein flower tincture

* Dried evening primrose flowers

* Bermuda grass tincture

* Stinging nettle tinture

* Comfrey root tincture

* Bacopa monieri tincture

* Wild lettuce tincture

* Yarrow tincture

* Hyssop tincture

I think that about covers it. There are more products to be moved to the hutch from various places around the house, but I will spare you that list.

The next task is to to devise a way to prevent everything from crashing to the cement basement floor and breaking in the event of an earthquake. I'm considering some straps or screens fastened with velcro at each end….? Any ideas from others who dance with earthquakes? 

That should do it for this one. I promise (Oh, no. The P word! Hopefully the tech dept will edit that out!). I'll be back with news of my first self-published book (easy, quick read),  a fascinating herbal oil, and my recent pride & joy: herbal wines!!