Hi! I’m Meg Jordan of Restore Earth Connections. I’m delighted to share this fun and fabulous experience with you.
These lengthy information pages give you an overview of identifying and wildcrafting the main ingredients. It gives you information on additional ingredients you may want to add. It lets you know a bit of the process of making winter tonic.
BEFORE you begin gathering anything please read through the whole document
You are going to need the following:
1. Time:
- To review this information
- To gather and prepare ingredients
Then you’ll need Time while watching the video and preparing the tonic:
- To simmer and reduce the volume of liquid (approximately 2-3+ hours)To strain out plant material, add honey (and if desired, alcohol), bottle up, label, sample, and share.
2. Equipment:
- Paper bags or basket to gather wildcrafted ingredients
- Strong scissors or hand pruners
- A large cooking pot (able to hold up to 10-20 cups of liquid plus lots of plant material)
- Measuring cup (4-8 cup size is great, but any size will do)
- A heat source for cooking (yes, you could make this over an open fire, but then you add smoke flavour!)
- Strainer (and you’ll be composting the strained plant material)
- Bottles (any size you’d like). This needs to be refrigerated after it cools.
- Labels, a necessary step to record all your ingredients, so both you and those you gift this to, know what’s in it!
- Optional notebook to record your experience (recording amounts and ingredients you used; observations, etc.)
3. Ability to clearly identify Evergreen conifer trees in your area. This tonic includes twigs and needles of four common Evergreen Conifer trees (local to the Fraser Valley, southern and northern BC, Pacific Northwest). The trees are:
- Douglas-Fir (Pseudotsuga menziesii)
- Sitka Spruce (Picea sitchensis)
- Western Hemlock (Tsuga heterophylla)
- Western White Pine (Pinus monticola)
It is vital that you do NOT use either Western Red Cedar (Thuja plicata), Yellow Cedar (Chamaecyparis nootkatensis) or Yew (Taxus brevifolia) in this tonic. I have not received teachings on the use of the Cedars and recognize that they are sacred trees to Coastal First Nations peoples. The Yew is poisonous.
4. Willingness to respectfully “wildcraft” or gather the ingredients from living trees and bushes. Wildcrafting allows us to get to know plant allies that grow in your area. Wildcrafting fosters beneficial relationships between plants and humans as we get to know the plants in all seasons and their growth habits. We can certainly benefit from the time spent in nature, as well as from the generous gifts the plants offer. Gratitude, care, and responsible harvesting are all part of the ethic of wildcrafting. See the book, Wild Remedies, How to Forage Healing Food and Craft Your Own Herbal Medicine by Rosalee de la Foret and Emily Han (2020, Hay House Inc.) for several informative chapters on wildcrafting. There are also lots of resources online regarding wildcrafting ethics.
5. Ingredients (the only ingredient you actually measure is water!)
There are lots of approximate amounts listed for the other ingredients. The amount of other ingredients you use depends on the size batch you are making and that is dependent on the amount of water!
- Measure water into a large pot. You will be reducing the water by half as it simmers with the plant material. If you begin with 10 cups of water, you’ll have 5 after simmering for a few hours. Then you’ll add some honey and possibly some alcohol if you choose (Vodka or Brandy). So, you’ll end up with about 6-6 ½ cups of tonic after those additions.
I start with 20 – 24 cups of water, because I make it to share and I like to have some on hand too. So I reduce it to 10-12 cups. You may want to start with only 10 cups of water to try it out. That would reduce to 5 cups as mentioned above.
- Evergreen conifer twigs & needles from a variety of local trees as referred to above. I will repeat: No Yew or Cedar.
You will need ‘some’! No need to measure exactly. If you are wildcrafting all four, gather approximately 1-2 handfuls of each kind. You can use all of one kind, or mix and match as you choose. I find that I will always over estimate how much I’ll need. I like to gather into a basket or paper bag. But if you have more than you need, you can always make Forest Tea or dry for later Forest Tea! At Roots to Grow Nature Learning outdoor school we love to make Forest tea with these conifers!
- Hawthorn berries from the Hawthorn tree (Native species: Crataegus douglasii; or Common hawthorn: C. monogyna) There are hundreds of species of Hawthorn! The berries are bright dark red at this time of year. Be aware that hawthorn trees have the word ‘thorn’ in their name for a reason! Watch your eyes!!
- Approximately 1 cup of Hawthorn berries.
- An orange, quartered. I always use a certified organic orange.
- An apple, quartered and cored; or whole Crab Apples (1 cup ish)
- Any frozen or dried berries you may have: frozen blueberries and white currents are my favorites. But you may use whatever you have on hand. 1-2 cups total of one or various kinds.
- A large sprig of fresh Rosemary or use dried (approximately 10-15 grams dried).
- A bunch of fresh Sage or use dried (approximately 10-15 grams dried).
- Rose hips, fresh or dried; about ½ cup. FYI, Pick Eco Refills Chilliwack (https://pickeco.ca/shop/) or Forage and Faire Abbotsford https://forageandfaire.com/(carries dried Rose Hips if you don’t have access to any.
- 1-2 Cinnamon sticks (Pick Eco Refills and Forage and Faire carries these too!)
After you simmer, reduce, and strain the plant material from the liquid, add:
- Honey, about ½ -1 cup local honey to 10 cups reduced tonic liquid (to taste).
- Alcohol if you choose. I often make Winter Tonic without alcohol. But if I want to have some with a bit of brandy, I’ll split up the batch after adding the honey; and reserve some without alcohol and measure the amount remaining and add about ½ -1 cup of brandy or vodka to 5 cups of tonic.
Feel free to email with questions. It’s important that you to have all the information that you need to succeed!
Meg
Restore Earth Connections
meg@restorearthconnections.ca
https://restorearthconnections.ca
unceded territories of the Sto:lo. Yarrow, BC