Herbal Vinegars, Oxymels & Spring Tonics
In 2021 I offered 3 online classes, hosted by the wonderful River Valley Coop. They recently shared with me the recordings of these classes so I’ll be posting them here on my blog throughout the year!
The first of the series was this class, “Medicine-Making 101: Herbal Vinegars, Oxymels & Spring Tonics”.
Please enjoy the class video below and the accompanying text, which is the handout class participants received!
Medicine-Making 101:
Herbal Vinegars, Oxymels & Spring Tonics
I first became interested in diversifying my apothecary with vinegar and honey-based preparations when, after a certain point, it started to feel like I was just dumping vodka on everything! And the more I began working with bioregionally abundant herbs, the more I wanted to start exploring bioregionally abundant menstruums (herbal vocab word for whatever you’re extracting into). Up until then, I’d mostly thought of vinegar for nutritive herbs only and honey somehow felt daunting, but a little experimentation can go a long way when it comes to herbs, and I soon became enamored with these preparations. Now- don’t get me wrong- I love a good tincture, but what draws me to vinegars and oxymels is that they are living, local medicine. And yes, sometimes that means you have to trouble-shoot when your vinegar unexpectedly grows a mother (more on all of this later!)…..but to me that’s part of the charm and journey when working with this type of medicine.
And then of course there’s the bioregional aspect. What’s the use of being a bioregional herbalist if you’re preserving all your medicine in hard alcohols imported from who-knows-where? I’m not at all dogmatically against using vodka, whiskey, brandy, etc for preserving herbs, and certainly have them in my apothecary, but if I have local access to beautiful raw organic vinegar and honey, why not start working with these bioregionally abundant menstruums in earnest as well? Not to mention they infuse your medicine with the true terroir of the land the herbs are from, resulting in some magical and medicinal preparations!
Burdock (Arctium lappa)
Herbal Infused Vinegars
Nettles Vinegar
Vinegar is wonderful menstruum for many reasons- it has a long shelf-life, is a good extractor of volatile oils and alkaloids, and does a very good job with minerals, is inexpensive, and is a wonderful option for folks wanting to avoid alcohol. Vinegar is also quite versatile and can double as food as medicine and be added to salad dressings, marinades, and so on.
Nettles Vinegar
Energetics/Taste- Cooling and sour; heating in excess
Properties- Apple Cider Vinegar has been touted for every health issue under the sun, however it does have some very real medicinal use on it’s own! It’s an excellent digestive aid and promotes secretion of gastric juices and hydrochloric acid. It promotes circulation, is excellent on burns, and is, of course, probiotic too. It’s rather mineral-rich on its own, too.
Constituents- Calcium, Iron, Magnesium, Phosphorous, Potassium, Zinc, Copper, Manganese, Selenium, Acetic Acid, Water
Basic Herbal Vinegar Recipe
Ingredients:
Plant Material of Choice
Apple Cider Vinegar (raw is best) or vinegar of choice (red wine, balsamic, etc)
Directions:
To make a vinegar with fresh plant material, chop up your plant material as much as you can and put it in a glass jar. Fill the jar loosely (not packing it in), and completely cover the herb with your vinegar, making sure it is all saturated in the vinegar. Give it a little stir to remove air bubbles and top it off. It’s ok if some plant material is floating on the surface; it won’t mold. And it’s also ok if your jar and/or plant material have some moisture on them. Be sure to put a layer of wax or parchment paper between the lid and the jar or use a plastic lid, as the vinegar and even the fumes can corrode the metal lids. Let it steep for 4 weeks then strain. Letting it steep for longer than a month increases the chances of a mother growing (see “troubleshooting” section below). There is no need to refrigerate, as vinegar is shelf-stable, but refrigerating it will increase its lifespan practically indefinitely. Vinegars are generally said to have a shelf-life of a year, but I usually use mine up well before that, although I have seen them last much longer unrefrigerated.
To make an infused vinegar with dried plant material you want to have 1 part plant material to 4 parts of your alcohol or vinegar menstruum, by volume. Visually approximate the ratios, it will come out fine! Then follow the same basic directions as the fresh vinegar.
Use:
Almost any herb can be extracted in vinegar and it makes a reasonable swap for a tincture medicinally, but generally you need higher doses than tinctures to achieve a medicinal dose. I always recommend to folks that they experiment and compare their vinegars and tinctures to get some comparisons. Generally, I’ve found a tbsp to be a medicinal dose for most herbal vinegars.
I really appreciate the versatility of vinegars, as they can be taken daily in medicinal doses in place of a tincture but can also go in and on your food! Herbal vinegars can also be used as a base for making shrubs and switchel! I tend to use mine most as a medicinal food and enjoy making dressings with them and also adding 1-2 tbsp to my water or seltzer for a refreshing drink. They are also beneficial topically and a Nettles vinegar is a famous hair rinse, and they can also be used as homemade and natural cleaning products too.
Thieves Vinegar
I like to make a bioregional, New England version of the classic Thieves Vinegar. This is based more on the concept of Thieves Vinegar than the original recipe. My intent is to make a vinegar with lots of antimicrobial and immune-enhancing herbs. I love using the culinary herbs, which are so abundant in our agriculturally-rich region that is bursting with organic CSA’s and farmers markets. The culinary herbs have such a long and rich history of use in herbalism and I love honoring that legacy when I work with them as medicine. This is just my recipe- I encourage you to work with antimicrobial herbs abundant in your bioregion or speak to you.
Ingredients:
Equal parts,
Rosemary (Rosmarinus officinalis)
Thyme (Thymus vulgaris)
Sage (Salvia officinalis)
Basil (Ocimum basilicum)
Garlic (Allium sativa)
Directions & Use:
Make according to fresh vinegar recipe above. This is a powerfully antimicrobial and essential oil-rich preparation. And of course, it makes a delicious salad dressing too. If you think you’re coming down with something, take lots! Try a tbsp every hour, up to 5 tbsp in a day. May also be used like Fire Cider and taken preventatively. Wonderful food as medicine!
Strong Bones Vinegar
Vinegar is perhaps best known in herbalism for its ability to extract minerals, and many versions of Strong Bones Vinegar can be found as this is an herbalism classic.
Ingredients:
Nettles (Urtica dioica) 1 part
Kelp (Laminaria spp) 1 part
Alfalfa (Medicago sativa) 1 part
Organic Egg Shells 1 part
Oatstraw (Avena sativa) 1 part
Horsetail (Equisetum arvense) ½ part
Rose Hips (Rosa spp) ½ part
Directions & Use:
Make 1 part any unit aka 1 cup, ½ cup, 1 tbsp, etc. Mix your herbs and make as the basic vinegar recipe describes above. 3 tbsp/day is a medicinal dose. Take in water, in food, and so on. May be made with fresh or dried herbs.
Sunburn Repair Vinegar
Ingredients:
Equal parts,
Lavender Fls (Lavendula officinalis)
Rose Lf & Fl (Rosa spp)
Directions & Use:
Make with fresh or dried plant material. As painful as it sounds, this actually feels amazing on sunburns, and any kind of mild burn. It stings for a moment, but the after-effect is a cooling and soothing sensation. You will be amazed at the state of your burn after using this, but if you find it to be too intense undiluted you can dilute it at a ratio of 1 part vinegar: 7 parts water, by volume. For easiest application, keep in a spray bottle. Excellent preparation for a first aid kit.
New England Vinegar Bitters
Ingredients:
Dandelion Lf and Rt (Taraxacum officinale) 2 parts
Ground Ivy flowering tops (Glechoma hederacea) 1 part
Mugwort flowering tops (Artemesia vulgaris) 1 part
Bee Balm flowering tops (Monarda didyma or M. fistulosa)- ½ part
Directions & Use:
Vinegar is so good on its own for digestion that it only makes sense to make a bitters with it. May be made with fresh or dried herbs. Make 1 part any unit you want, then make according to basic recipe above or you can make each vinegar separately and combine to make this formula. These are some of my bioregionally abundant favorite bitters, but work with whatever is abundant near you! Other nice bitters common in the northeast include Motherwort (Leonaris cardiaca), Burdock (Artium lappa), Yellow Dock (Rumex crispus, R. obtusifolius), and Yarrow (Achillea millefolium). Take 1 tsp in a small amount of water 5-10 minutes before meals, or after meal if you forget, or anytime you’re experiencing digestive distress.
Troubleshooting Herbal Vinegars
When vinegars are made with pasteurized vinegar, they are virtually foolproof, like tinctures, since it is such a strong preservative. However, once you start using raw vinegar it’s a whole different story! I almost exclusively work with raw vinegars at this point and I have, on occasion, had vinegars that I forgot to strain grow a mother. It looks just like a kombucha scoby. I have only ever seen this happen with a vinegar of fresh raspberry leaf, our local wild Black Raspberry (Rubus occidentalis), and it’s happened at least a few times so there is clearly some mineral combination in there that vinegar mothers love! Cool as it is, unfortunately, when this does occur your vinegar is ruined, so compost it and start again. The mother, however, can be used to inoculate a batch of unpasteurized apple cider to make homemade vinegar, or can be kept in the fridge in a jar of raw apple cider vinegar until you’re ready to use it. I’ve never had the opportunity to try, although I’m eager to see how it goes!
Recently I had another interesting thing happen with one of my vinegars. It was an infused vinegar of fresh dandelion leaf and root, made in October and strained in March (so there you have it- I don’t always follow my own advice for strain times) and when we opened it to strain it is fizzed a bunch and let out a bunch of gas- a sure sign of fermentation. Its bubbly and fizzy and I’m honestly not exactly sure what to call it, as it’s a new experience for me, but one thought I have is that the inulin in the dandelion root (a known pre-biotic) may have fed the bacteria in the raw vinegar was beneficial to promoting some kind of further fermentation process. I was psyched because it tasted sparkly and lovely (a lot like a very sour kombucha) and not at all off, but I’ve been storing it in the fridge just in case. Use your senses if something odd happens with one of your vinegars- if it tastes sparkly and nice then I say go for it, but if it tastes off then I’d say dump it, and a tiny taste is ok! Smell can sometimes be a good indicator too.
Oxymels
Autumn Olive (Eleagnus umbellata) Oxymel
Oxymels are an extremely old herbal preparation. The name comes from the Latin word “oxymeli,” which means “acid and honey” and indeed an oxymel in herbalism today refers to a vinegar and honey mixture! Some folks like to simmer their herbs in the vinegar, but I prefer to steep mine, so that the probiotics and vitality of the living medicine aren’t lost. These days I make oxymels more often than vinegars, as I personally like the additional sweetness to ground-out the shrp sourness of vinegar. My favorite way to use them is in foods (salad dressings especially) and also in some water or sparkling water.
Oxymels are increasingly being sold as “sipping vinegars” or “drinking vinegars,” which refers to a sweetened vinegar extract, however these are sometimes made with cane sugar, so watch out! And shrubs are gaining in popularity too. Generally shrubs are variations of oxymels with the addition of fruit, however I often make oxymels which contain fruit and just call them oxymels. This is folk medicine and none of these are regulated terms. Use the name for your medicine that makes the most sense for you!
Energetics/Taste- An oxymel combines the warming nature of the honey with the cooling nature of vinegars, resulting in a more balanced preparation, energetically, then just vinegar or honey alone.
Properties- I particularly love oxymels for respiratory conditions, since the honey brings the medicine a bit deeper and goes to the lungs. Hippocrates was said to have prescribed vinegar with a bit of honey for coughs and colds. The addition of the honey to the vinegar also seems to ground the more biting flavor/nature of pure vinegar extracts (Fire Cider being such a good example of this effect) and I think allows the medicine to go a bit deeper. It contains the actions of both vinegar (described above) with honey. Honey is of course medicine unto itself. It’s emollient, moistening, an expectorant, anti-septic, a mild laxative, nutritive, and a rejuvenative. In Ayurveda, it is said to be an anupana (a vehicle) to bring herbs to the deepest tissue layer.
Constituents- Oxymels have all the minerals and vitamins contained in vinegar (described above). Honey truly is a nutritive and contains an impressive array of vitamins and minerals. It contains Vitamin C, Riboflavin, Niacin, Vitamin B6, Folate, Pantothenic Acid, Choline, Betaine, Calcium, Iron, Magnesium, Phosphorous, Potassium, Zinc. Copper, Manganese, Selenium, Glucose, Fructose, and enzymes. It is about 20% water.
Basic Oxymel Recipe
Ingredients:
Plant Material (I work with berries, roots, leaves and flowers in oxymels. They all come-out great)
Apple Cider Vinegar (preferably raw)
Raw Honey
Directions:
To make your oxymel with fresh plant material fill your jar to the top with your plant(s) of choice. Next add enough apple cider to fill the jar 2/3 full, and then fill the remaining 1/3rd with honey. Put a cap on it, putting a seal of parchment or wax paper underneath it, and shake it up! It may take a few days, but all the honey eventually will dissolve. It will be ready in about a month and can be strained then, if desired- you can also leave the herbs in! Both honey and vinegar are excellent preservatives and this preparation has a very long shelf-life (2 years at the minimum) and does not need to be refrigerated. To make this preparation with dry plant material.
To make an infused vinegar with dried plant material you want to have 1 part plant material to 4 parts of your vinegar-honey menstruum, by volume. Visually approximate the ratios, it will come out fine! Then follow the same basic directions as the fresh oxymel.
Use:
This is a very old preparation, written about in many old herbals. It’s easy to make this with entirely local ingredients, making it very ecologically sustainable. Oxymels are especially good for problems in the respiratory tract and are often make with aromatic and anti-microbial herbs, great for colds and flus. Like vinegars, they cross in the “food as medicine” category and can be used in salad dressings, marinades, and even made into a spritzer splashed in some sparkling water. I have never had any issues with my oxymels so don’t have much to offer in terms of troubleshooting. They are shelf-stable and do not need to be refrigerated.
Spring Tonic Oxymel
I love making this in early spring and try to make this on a gorgeous spring day and harvest these all in one day and combine them to make the oxymel. I let it sit about 2 weeks and then start taking at least 1 tbsp/day in some water to start harmonizing my body with the spring!
Ingredients:
Equal parts:
Nettles (Urtica dioica)
Violet Lf (Viola sororia)
Burdock Rt (Arcticum lappa)
Dandelion Lf + Rt (Taraxacum officinale)
Directions & Use:
Chop-up all your herbs, add to the jar, and make as you would basic herbal oxymel above. This recipe is endlessly adaptable and I honestly never make it the same way twice. I encourage you to add your favorite spring tonic herbs that you have in abundance! A few other abundant spring tonic herbs you can add are Lambs Quarters herb (Chenopdoium album), Chickweed herb (Stellaria media), Garlic Mustard herb (Alliaria petiolata), Chives, Green Garlic, Wild Garlic/Field Garlic/Onion Grass (Allium vineale), Cleavers (Gallium aparine), Ground Ivy (Glechoma hederacea), and Yellow Dock Rt (Rumex crispus, R. obtusifolius).
Spring Allergies Oxymel
Ingredients, equal parts:
Ground Ivy, aerial portions in flower (Glechoma hederacea)- 1 part
Nettles (Urtica dioica)- 1 part
Dandelion lf + root (Taraxacum offinale)- 1 part
Mullein lf (Verbasucm thapsus)-1 part
Pungent, aromatic herb- 1 part
-Choose from Chives, Wild Garlic (Allium vineale), Garlic lf or Green Garlic, Garlic clove, Garlic Mustard (Alliaria petiolata), Ginger, Black Pepper (dried)
Apple Cider Vinegar
Honey (preferably local and raw)
Directions & Use:
Chop the herbs fine and put in a glass jar. Cover the herbs 75% of the way with the vinegar and then cover the herbs the remaining 25% of the way with the honey and it’s ok if your honey is crystallized- it will dissolve overnight! And also don’t worry if your percentages aren’t exact as this is folk medicine-making. Shake well (daily if possible) and let steep for at least 1 month before straining. Take 3-5 tbsp/day, as-needed. Use in food, take straight, mix into warm water or sparkling water, on salad, and so on. This helps with the symptoms of allergies and root-cause work should be done along with it for the best results.
Respiratory Support Oxymel
Ingredients:
1.5 cups apple cider vinegar
1 tbsp dried Elderberry (Sambucus nigra, S. canadensis)
1 tbsp dried Mullein (Verbascum thapsus)
2 tbsp dried Ginger
Pinch Black Pepper (optional)
½ cup honey (preferably raw)
Directions & Use:
Makes 2 cups total. Combine the herbs, apple cider vinegar and honey in a glass jar. Shake well. Put a layer of wax paper between the lid and jar to prevent lid corrosion. Let sit at least 2 weeks before use. It’s also ok if it extracts in the apple cider vinegar- honey mix for months. Strain. Store in a cool, dark place. Does not need to be refrigerated. Will last at least 2 years, and often longer. For respiratory weakness, congestion, coughs, and excess mucous. Take 1-6 tsp/day (Or more if needed) by the spoonful, mixed into sparkling water, in warm water, or in and on food!
