Making powder from herbs-Equipment

[SUZANNEStudent]

I have a lot of dry herbs and roots I need to pulverize into powders. I am not able to afford a vitamix.

I have spent hours and hours trying to find something that will do a good job for the herbs and especially the roots.

Does anyone have any suggestions on a good quality product that will work for what I want to do? What products are others using to accomplish making powders??

Thank you for your help-

[Greg BoggsStudent]

I see from another post that you have made tinctures already, what is it exactly that you want from a powder that you aren’t getting with your tinctures?

[SUZANNEStudentTopic Author]

I have a lot of herbs and roots that I want to pulverize into powder. I would like to store them in jars, so they are ready to use when I want to make something. The other few tinctures I made took me a long, long time to get into a powder form because I don’t have a decent piece of equipment. I was using a small spice grinder and I had to stop a lot because it would get too hot. It didn’t work too well on licorice root or marshmallow and it certainly won’t do any roots.
Thank you for your inquiry.

[Greg BoggsStudent]

Well I ask because you don’t need to powder the herbs before tincturing them, it does help for getting more of the vodka onto the surface area of the herbs, but you can tincture them in a fresh or dried form as well.

[Rebecca LivermoreStudent]

This is very true. However, if they aren’t powdered as well, I’d plan to let them go more than 2 weeks. I’m in the process of making some pine needle tincture. I dried and then powdered the pine needles, but the powder isn’t nearly as fine as what I get from Homegrown Herbalist. So, I’m waiting about a month before I press them. Whether or not that is necessary, I can’t say for sure, but I figure it doesn’t hurt to wait a bit longer.

[SUZANNEStudentTopic Author]

Hi Rebecca,

Thank you or your reply to my post. I do remember Doc Jones mentioning that you don’t even have to strain the tincture, if you don’t want to.

Letting it sit for a longer period of time is a good idea, just to make sure the good stuff has been taken out by the alcohol. 😛

[SUZANNEStudentTopic Author]

Thank you, Greg for the wise advice. Maybe I was over complicating having to powder them. Since I am a new student here I want to do everything right!I am beginning to understand it can be done a number of ways and they will all get to the same end. 😀

 

[Greg BoggsStudent]

I totally get that! It is all overwhelming at first, but just keep experimenting and you’ll figure things out in no time!

[Dan FlowersStudent]

Suzanne hello.  I think you should try a grater like people use for taking the rind off citrus.  Yes it will be laborious and you better wear a glove to protect the hand holding the root or whatever but I believe it will work.  You could then further process it down into small size with a food processor.  It won’t put too much of a load on the processor since it already a pretty small size.  Hope this helps.

[SUZANNEStudentTopic Author]

Hello Dan,

Now that is a novel idea! I might just give it a try. Yes, gloves would be a definite must in this situation. I will put this to the test. Thank

you for your suggestion. Have a great day!

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