People come to my kitchen expecting an apothecary to look like an old herbalist’s cabinet in a photograph \u2014 amber bottles in rows, a tincture press, a wall of labeled tins. Mine started with four things and a shoebox. Thirty years on it’s grown, but not by much, and not in the direction people expect. The truth I tell every beginner is that a working home apothecary is a handful of honest tools you’ll use over and over, not a shelf of gadgets that make you feel like you’ve arrived.<\/p>\n
So this is the list I’d hand a friend on the Peninsula who’s dried her first batch of nettle and wants to actually do<\/em> something with it. Not the aspirational version. The real one \u2014 the few supplies that earn their place, what each one is for, and the two or three things you can skip without missing them. I’ve bought the wrong versions of most of these at least once, so I’ll tell you which mistakes cost me a batch.<\/p>\n Before anything else, one line I won’t move off of: never eat or prepare any wild plant on a book, an app, or a single source alone. Confirm your identification with multiple reputable guides and, better, an experienced local forager. When in doubt, throw it out. The supplies below don’t matter until the plant in your hand is one you’re certain of.<\/p>\n