When preparing your kitchen for a return to home-based medicine — and for making a variety of medicinal herbal remedies — you may be relieved to discover that you already have most of the equipment needed. Simple, common kitchen tools are often all that is required.
These are the supplies that I have found very useful in setting up my own kitchen pharmacy:
1. Non-reactive and non-toxic implements. It is best to prepare herbal remedies with bowls, pots, and utensils that are made from materials that are non-reactive and as non-toxic as possible. Materials such as glass, stainless steel, ceramic, marble, wood, or cast iron are all excellent choices. Please note: Never use aluminum.
2. Cheesecloth. Multiple pieces of cheesecloth, muslin, or hemp fabric are perfect for straining out herbs from your formulations. You can even re-purpose old t-shirts by cutting them into sizeable squares.
3. A grater. Having a grater that you can reserve only for the use of grating beeswax is a wonderful addition to the kitchen pharmacy.
4. Glass jars and tins. Can you ever have too many glass jars? A variety of glass jars (small ones and big ones) and tins are necessary for storing dried herbs, salves, teas, syrups, and tinctures. Although not absolutely necessary — so long as you have a dark place to store your jars (i.e. pantry or kitchen cabinet) — consider saving and collecting colored glass bottles as well. Darker colored glass containers help to protect your products from the light. Note: Click here for medicinal glass jar supplies, click here for medicinal glass bottle supplies, and tins can be found here. Otherwise, check out antique shops, thrift stores, estate sales, and basements…good glass bottles could be anywhere.
5. A fine mesh strainer. Very beneficial when straining a variety of infusions.
6. A grinder. This could be a pestle and mortar or a coffee grinder and it’s purpose is to powder herbs. If you choose to stock a coffee grinder, be sure that it is one dedicated to grinding herbs only…otherwise your herbs will taste like coffee.
7. Measuring utensils. Your standard measuring cups and spoons are sufficient here.
8. A small kitchen scale. Due to the difference in weight and volume of herbs, having a kitchen scale can be very helpful in creating appropriate proportions in recipes.
As you can see, many of the supplies you will need to get started with home-based medicine may easily be found in your kitchen. Assembling a storage box full of herbal remedy specific equipment would make preparing your remedies that much easier; however, it is not vital for success.
So that’s it! Now’s a great time to look in the cabinets and gather your supplies.
What’s missing on this list? Share with us your equipment “must-haves”…the ones that are found in your kitchen pharmacy!
I think I have everything I need,except for some dark jars.I don’t really have a dark place to store my jars,so I will be on the look-out to find some,hopefully free,dark bottles. And to find a place to designate as my “medicine cabinet”.I definately want everything to be in one place for ease of finding and working on!
How about the dark brown bottles that yeast comes in? I use those to store my spices and they work great (plus the labels come off easily, so they don’t look too bad). Also, you could store your bottles in a box to keep them “in the dark” 😉
GREAT idea!
You could use a wire door shelf and make a curtain to go over them or even paint the outside of your jars with paint. http://www.walmart.com/ip/Over-Door-6-Basket-Unit/10975465 this one is from walmart but you can find them cheaper.
Thanks for all the great suggestions!
I love this series on the kitchen pharmacy and can’t wait to try some of the recipes. p.s. I am currently using your tooth powder right now and really like it 🙂
So excited about this series. I am just getting into natural remedies & am jazzed to have found a place where I can learn so much. Thanks!
This is great! I also keep a few small droppers around for various things. Thanks for sharing this, I love this series!
Blessings,
sara
If you tend to prepare a lot of meats, nuts, or other things that people are commonly allergic to, having a dedicated cutting board and/or cutlery for herbs would also be helpful to reduce risk of exposure for people with food allergies.
Hi! I think this is great. Another few items that I use regularly when prepping my natural med’s are:
-empty gelatin capsules (can be purchased very reasonably from any decent health food store)
-coffee filters and a funnel are also great for filtering tisane
-journal/note book and pen for recording what you are taking, the dose you are taking and any side effects that you notice. This is really important for developing an awareness of the efficacy of the products that you are making and using.
Can’t wait to read the rest of this series!
I’m so excited about this series! A truly great resource for beginners, like me 🙂 Thank you Andrea for such an awesome blog!
That is my sincere hope Pam!
I’m so excited about this series too! Just an FYI…Specialty Bottle Company sells the glass bottle and tins for much less than I can find anywhere else. 🙂
Yes! They are a good place to order from too.
I’ve found eye droppers, small funnels, stainless steal condiment cups, and mini glass measuring cups (they look like shot glasses and are from Pyrex) can be really handy to have. I’ve also found it’s good to have a few sets of measuring cups and spoons on hand. I don’t like to mix my stuff with food (especially when I’m making my own make-up) and/or when I’m needing various things in the same measurement and don’t want to keep washing off stuff.
My biggest hurtle is storage right now. We’re looking at a house right now that has a large, dark, unfinished basement. Most people wouldn’t want that, but I’m seeing all the awesome storage potential for supplies, bulk foods, and canned garden veggies!
Morgan, the basement sounds wonderful!
I’m so excited for this series!!! I’ve actually been putting together my equipment and supplies for the last few days. I’ve got a friend who is having a yard sale next weekend, and she is checking her stuff for me for things I could use for this exact purpose 😀
Definitely jealous over the basement!
It’s also handy (but not necessary) to have a small crock-pot with accessory dimmer switch/rheostat and an apple corer for cutting lozenges. A french coffee press is handy for straining infused herbs too.
Yes Heather! Those are excellent supplies…as you said, not necessary to get started, but very nice to have. I make most of our teas with a french press and love it 🙂
Natural Light (beer) now comes in 12oz brown glass bottles with screw top caps, called Fatty Natty’s. I think the caps are aluminum, but could probably find some replacement caps, maybe 2 liters, or just making corks. Thought I would share, since everybody and their moma is a reseller in my area, so the cheap bottles and jars get snatched up pretty quick at thrift stores and yard sales.
Brilliant Christine!
Great post! I learned the hard way that I should reserve a pot that is only used for making salves. I ruined one of my favorites.
Coffee grinder…why did I never think of that? thank you! ~barefoot mama
I have to say the idea I am most excited about- Grating the beeswax! I am taking an at home herbal course through Sage Mountain and one of our projects was creating an herbal salve. So I had to try and “cut” the beeswax I was using and I am sure you can imagine the mess I created. So now I know- I can grate the beeswax instead. Thank you so much. Love your blog!
I’m probably taking that very same herbal course. I’ve been off more than on with it, due to various reasons, but it seems to be a good course. I just wish I didn’t have to travel so far to my nearest herb shop. It’s either that or order from Mountain Sage, which is great, too.
Somehow putting all my supplies in the vary same bin never occurred to me, in a “why I haven’t think of that earlier!?” way. Thanks a lot for the suggestions. I, too, would add the eyedropper to the list.
I am just so grateful you are freely sharing this information with us. I have learned so much since following your blog, so much. This series is so exciting! Thank you!
Thank you for your encouragement Chele 🙂
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