Wormwood (Artenisia absinthium)

[Prairiepiss]

I now have three really strong growing wormwood plants (Artenisia absinthium). Thanks to a friend who sent me home with some cuttings from her plant. She happens to be a medicine women. Just thought I would throw it out there. That wormwood is really easy to grow. And it grows pretty fast. I had more then enough that I was able to feed a few treatments worth to all the goats. And make a large batch of tincture or wormwood. For later treatments of the goats and dogs as they need it. It's actually a dewormer. Lol who knew?

Starting from a cutting was really easy. All I had to do was bury a woody stem with the leaves above ground and water. It took off like crazy. I planted the first cutting in a simi truck tire planter. It has taken over the entire tire. Lol it busted out across the whole tire. Only got about 3 foot tall this year. But I expect it to get tall next season.

So next year I will be looking into making some absinthe with my home grown wormwood. I never really paid much attention to the making threads. Wasn't much interested. Now for medicinal uses they use the leaves. I had always assumed it was the wood that was used for absinthe. I guess I thought that because it's called wormwood. Lol

[NZChris]

The difficult one for me to obtain/grow is the Roman Wormwood.

I've had Artenisia absinthium growing in my garden for many years. I tried it as a worm killer a couple of decades ago. I don't know if it really did kill anything, but my farts did smell like something had crawled up my arse and died.

[Prairiepiss]

Roman wormwood you say?

Ok since I know nothing about it. What would be the best wormwood for make ing absinthe? And why?
I want to grow my medicinal herb garden. As in get as many different plants as possible growing. I just need to know what to look for or ask for. I have many new friends that grow all sorts of good midicimal herbs. So I have a good chance of finding what I need.

[NZChris]

You need both.

One for the steep/distill, the other for the color/flavor in the final maceration.

[T-Pee]

Stuff grows wild here. Don't know which one but it would be interesting to know...for the future...like if I need a good worming.

tp

[Bushman]

PP, getting the plants free is the best (as Cranky would say) but here is a great supplier for herbs.
http://www.absintheherbs.com" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;" rel="nofollow

[sweeps]

For the primary maceration you want the dried flowering tops of A. absinthium.

For the finishing step you want Roman wormwood (A. pontica), which as noted above is less easily obtained. There is a dealer who sells dried pontica on Amazon, but it's a bit pricey and I've no idea what quality it is (I'm guessing it's unlikely to be as good as the stuff from absintheherbs.com, but I don't know).

Pontica is next to impossible to grow from seed, but if you can get a plant to get you started, it's pretty easy to grow and propagate by root division. You can get starts from Sandy Mush herbs.

[skow69]

So next year I will be looking into making some absinthe with my home grown wormwood.

All right, who are you and what have you done with Prariepiss? Har!

I just put in grand wormwood last summer. Also pontica, hyssop, Melissa, Angelica, genepi, and fennel, and Costmary, and coriander and chamomile. Got most of them from Sandymush. I love growing stuff to make liquor out of. If I was still out on the farm I'd have a patch of barley, too.

That's a great deal to have local friends that grow herbs. Mail order can be pretty sketchy. Just having somebody available that knows what they look like would be handy. I had to send photos to sweeps to identify what sprouted. I think I want to try some calamus, too. Fennel and coriander I probably won't bother with next year, just because they are cheap and easy to get. It looks like a plot maybe 80 sq.ft. will grow me enough herbs for a year.

This is way more fun than growing potatoes.