The Evolution of a Medicinal Cordial (ala TEH)

 I recently made a tincture that has turned out to be 5 years in the making.  Then I realized upon tasting it that it was a cordial.  The reason for posting this tale is to be publicly imperfect, and to express the real joy that medicine making is for me when making thing for my personal use.  It's assumed that if you're reading this blog, you are also making things (or wanting to) for your own use too. 

Let me start by saying that I stick a lot of stuff in alcohol when I run out of ideas.  Since there's just not much time or energy for drinking alcohol around here, it sits.  If it's fruit, it gets VERY tasty. The longer it sits, the better. If it's roots or herbs, it will eventually be strained.  I've read varying opinions.  For my own stash, again, I do what feels right.

I started with some beautiful Heal-All.  What I grow is Prunella grandiflora.  The vulgaris just couldn't get established here, so I made a spot in the garden and bought some nice plants.

Prunella vulgaris, the common self-heal, heal-all, woundwort, heart-of-the-earth, carpenter's herb, brownwort or blue curls, is a herbaceous plant in the mint family Lamiaceae.  There are lots of reasons to create medicine with this wondrous plant, including these properties:
Astringent
Antioxidant
Anti-viral
Drawing - Draws out infection
Expectorant
Lymphatic stimulant
Styptic
Wound healing
The styptic, wound healing, astringent properties (etc!) may make it very helpful for Inflammatory Bowel Diseases.
... and lots of other things!  I will also be making a salve shortly.

When I came inside with a small basket full of Heal-all, there wasn't any available alcohol.  I located a bottle of "mixed berry blend" which means that I used alcohol for blueberries, gooseberries, and black raspberries.  It was dated 2017.  I poured it all into a new jar, covering the Heal-all.  Perfect.  A couple weeks later I tasted it.  It was sweet and delicious - but there was no reason for it to be sweet.  Found the bottle and on the back there was MORE labeling.  In 2020 I added some kumquat simple syrup!

So the end result is really remarkable.  It tastes wonderful and it would be easy to get most children to take it - not to mention me. 

Still need to add one more bit to this labeling to reflect the simple syrup. 

So that's how it can go around here.
Usually it's pretty straight-forward.  One herb, one menstuum, strained after about 6 weeks, bottled and labeled.  But every so often something magical happens, simply because I am unable to toss extra fruit that just begs to become something else.  Do yourself a favor and make some sour cherry cordial.  You're welcome!