Make this Vanilla Extract recipe to use as a handcrafted herbal gift for family and friends this holiday season.
Vanilla Extract Recipe
• 2 vanilla beans
• 1 ounce alcohol (such as vodka, brandy, rum, or cognac)
1. Slit the vanilla beans lengthwise to expose the inner seeds.
Place the beans in 1 ounce of alcohol in a covered glass jar. Leave
for 2 to 3 weeks.
2. Don’t strain; when the extract is used up, simmer
the beans into milk for pudding. Makes 1 ounce.
Mindy Green is an herbalist, aromatherapist, educator, and writer. She is also an esthetician, a consultant to the
natural products industry, and director of education at the Herb Research Foundation in Boulder, Colorado. She is the author
of Calendula (Keats, 1998), Natural Perfumes (Interweave, 1999), and co-author of
Aromatherapy: A
Complete Guide to the Healing Art (The Crossing Press, 1995).
Read more about making herbal holiday gifts: Homemade Holiday
Gifts: Herb and Aromatherapy Recipes.
