Birthday Sale!

I rarely write blog posts about my small business. Originally, I wanted to keep them separate. The blog and my shop. Seeing as it’s a part of my life however I felt I could (and should) share more about it. 

You may have read my other blog about it: The Well and Spindle  | The Heathen Homesteader

https://theheathenhomesteader.wordpress.com/2016/03/07/the-well-and-spindle/

Well, I’m back. Sort of. I hope. I’m trying? 

I have planned a shop revamp due to be completed and revealed on the Fall Equinox (aka late September). I am changing up a lot of what I offer. Aka making what my kids let me. Crochet, wood burning when my husband isn’t at sea and can watch littles, et cetera. I don’t want to say too much just yet! Partly, as I’m not sure what I can complete before the opening. I plan to do a big listing drop four times a year. The Solstices and Equinoxes. Thought I’d make it easy to anticipate! Also, this gives me enough time to build up stock without stressing for time and taking away from my family.

In the meantime I’m trying to move out “old” product to fund this. I’m hoping if you’re reading this that you’ll at least take a peek and consider helping this mom out! My shop makes me feel more human and full of worth outside of raising gorgeous kids (if I do say so myself). 

My 29th birthday is in a few days so I’m having a sale to help with everything. Every item sold helps tremendously in growing my small business and supporting my family! Sale ends July 23rd at 11:59pm PST. Use coupon code: “TWENTYNINE” to get…you guessed it! 29% off of your order before shipping charges! 

Thank you for bearing with me and supporting moms like myself! 
http://www.thewellandspindle.com

Turmeric Powder Tincture

When I first met my now husband he introduced me to herbs to help with skin issues. He suffered a skin injury that required almost a year of medical attention but wanted to help his skin in any way he could. So he looked to herbs. The best way to get the herbs he chose to help in his opinion was to ingest them. Now we use many of the herbs he loved in our food and tisanes frequently. Turmeric is one we go through a lot of. It helps with inflammation and many skin issues are the product of other health problems such as this. Check out the link at the end of this post for more in depth information.

When a neighbor/friend asked if I wanted her bag of turmeric she didn’t like (it has a peppery taste that isn’t appetizing to some) I started brewing up ideas for usage. More than putting it in almost everything we eat. Which poses an issue with my toddler who ends up staining her clothes with any food saturated with it. I decided the first thing I wanted to make with it was a tincture. 

Most recipes I found suggested using the root. Fresh or dried in slices to help the alcohol base saturate it more easily. Well, I didn’t have a root. I had powder. So I did a 1:5 concoction to test it out. 1 part turmeric powder to 5 parts alcohol. It worked great! It was also really fun to work with and see the lovely color changes. The powder is a gorgeous yellow color and once it settled it created a red hued liquid. Later I saw it was more orange when not stacked the way it was but still lovely. 

One small pint jar creates a ton of tincture in my opinion. So unless you have a large family using it, are taking the tincture several times a day or are creating to share this should work great to start with. I filled two 2 oz dropper bottles to last me a while and barely made a dent in the tincture. I left the rest to continue brewing until I needed to strain some off again for use. 

This is what I used: 

I filled roughly 1/5 of the jar with powdered turmeric then filled it up with the alcohol.

After mixing gently and being sure to scrape any bits off the bottom I noticed the amount of product went down.

So I topped it off with a bit more alcohol. 

Then I added the lid and shook it up! Making sure to get any clumps out. 

It WILL settle and you will notice that it may look something like this:

It will definitely still brew perfectly fine so no worries! What you need to do though is shake vigorously every day at least once until the day before you decide to strain it. 

Typically, you would leave this for 14 days then let it rest on the 15th day before straining. That’s the bare minimum needed. I let mine brew for almost 3 months. Many saw the longer the better with tinctures. 

When the time came to strain I got out my sterilized bottles, a funnel, a bowl to catch any spillage, a measuring cup and a magic eraser sponge because I’m bound to spill something! 

I poured off some of the liquid from my jar into a measuring cup. Purely for the ease of pouring from it. I made sure to let the jar settle so I would get the least amount of powder in as possible. You can strain your concoction if you wish but I found that powders can be tricky business to work with. So I decided to use just the liquid from the top of the jar. 

Once I filled my bottles I put the leftover tincture back in the jar to save for a future pour. Letting it continue to brew.

I put some in my iced tea to test out immediately. A few drops definitely effects the flavor! If it’s too much to sip a drink with it then use the dropper to squirt directly into your mouth then chase with a drink or food if needed. Or add it to your food. 15-30 drops a day up to four times a day is the highest recommended dosage. Though I am not a doctor or certified herbalist so please do your own research! 

I then labeled my bottles and put the jar back in the dark cupboard. 

For an in depth look at the uses and side effects of turmeric feel free to check out this article: http://www.m.webmd.com/vitamins/ai/ingredientmono-662/turmeric