When I do an online search for "nourishing herbal infusions," I get a lot of answers. I'm thrilled to see so many people and places getting wise to "The single best thing you can do for yourself and the planet."
Even AI knows about nourishing herbal infusions.
Kinda.

When I ask, I get different answers. Some of which are correct. Others are close, but not really right. It's not a handful of herb. It's an ounce. By weight. It's not a cup of herb. It an ounce. By weight.

 

It's true, back in the beginning, when Robin Rose apprenticed — In 1985, the year before Pam Montgomery apprenticed with me — I did use a "handful." My handful. And I have big hands. Robin Rose, who's done so much to spread the word about nourishing herbal infusions, for which I am most grateful, did teach students to use a "handful" for many years. (They told me so.) But her hands are much smaller than mine. And volume isn't weight.

An ounce of red clover is far greater in volume than an ounce of oatstraw. And the volume of an ounce of home-harvested herb — because it is more coarsely cut — is greater than the volume of "cut and sift" herbs sold commercially. 

 

Exception: Home-harvested linden and red clover are about the same volume as their commercial counterparts, so long as you buy whole red clover and whole linden. Both available from Frontier. Be careful. Other major suppliers often sell these flowers cut, which isn't good for their delicate blossoms.

 

Nourishing herbal infusions use one ounce — by weight — of dried (never fresh) herb. A scale weighs out an ounce of dried herb every time, ignoring volume, ignoring the size of the plant material. After forty years of making nourishing herbal infusions nightly, I still use a scale, every time. Well, on occasion, I have had a pound of herb and no scale. So I repeatedly divide it in half: Two half pounds (8 ounces each) become four quarter pounds (4 ounces each) which are divided into eight 2 ounces portions, half of which is one ounce. (Often, I use 2 ounces and a half gallon jar, so I have enough to share.)

My eternal gratitude to Juliette de Bairacli Levy, whose writing about "Standard Brews" turned me on to long steeping of full ounces of dried herb. My personal relationship with Juliette was focused more on her words (I'm her American publisher) than on her use of herbs, though I certainly absorbed much green wisdom from her.

If you're new to nourishing herbal infusions, there are lots of ways to learn about preparing and using them.
* You can read about them in every one of my books.
* You can join me in the kitchen on YouTube.
* You can go deep at Wisdom Feed: BetterListen
* You can follow along, making infusions with me at my Wise Woman School: Nourishing Herbal Infusions - Drink Your Way to Health.

For exceptional well-being, I drink a quart of nourishing herbal infusion every day. When healing from trauma or illness, when pregnant, when severely stressed, when grieving, I drink two quarts a day. Three quarts a day isn't too much if you are lactating.