Earlier this week somebody asked about re-using pressings. This is a question i've wondered about. Here is a little about what I know.

#1, I've had at least one somewhat prominent herbalist tell me not to bother with trying to re-use pressings after they've been pressed. In this context, "re-use" meant do not re-use already-tinctured pressings to make new tincture. I did not question this advice but only made note of it for future reference.

Two weeks ago I got around to pressing the "cayenne" that has been tincturing since harvesting last year's crop of Habaneros, Jalapenos, Anaheims and Cayennes. Last September I put up 2 gallons of such and for the record, I favor the Uny method which is also the Richard Schulze method of tincturing; I jamb as much herb into the tincturing bottle as possible, not wanting the menstrum "vodka" to even have a chance of running out of herb to extract goodness from. In other words, two weeks ago I had a big pile of pressed peppers. While trying to main respect to #1 above, I could not resist the desire to do something else useful with these pressings..... call this a sane, realistic and practical approach to 'going green' ;) Here is what I did.

I put a gallon kettle of distilled water on the stove. Meanwhile I put the pressings in a gallon pyrex pot. When the water boiled, I poured it onto the pressings to make "tea", as it were. I also exercised some caution. These pressings were pressed fairly dry but they still moist with soaking in 100 proof alcohol..... in other words, I kept a safe distance between the fire on the stove. This may have been excessive caution, but I'm just saying..... This tea then steeped until the pot cooled....a few hours, after which it was poured off / pressed off into a gallon glass jar. After this 'second pressing' the pressings were then tossed onto the compost pile by the garden outside. The only question remaining at that time was - what to do with this gallon of tea made from already-tinctured cayenne pressings?

While the final verdict is still out, a bit, I can say this. This "tea" looks very much like cayenne tincture. It tastes like it too but clearly is lackign the afterburner kick requisite with genuine 100-proof cayenne tincture. In the man time I've been using this juice to fill up a small squirt bottle that I take with me when walking the dog around the neighbhorhood. There's been a somewhat frequent problem with a few specific local dogs that have a habbit of gettign loose int eh neighbhorhood.... I guess it must be some sort of unspoken code among canines that whenever they seem me an my boy walking near, they are obligated to charge as their way of saying woof "hello"...that is, until they get within squirting range. I don't want to maime these animals, only repel them. It seems likely that since this reclaimed tincture "tea" contains very little alcohol, there is much less chance of permanent injurying, like blindness, to the animal that made the mistake of charging into range.... home made pepper spray!

This is of course a single experiment, so maybe there is not one single one-size-fits-all conclusive answer to this question. If you are talking about relatively small amount of used pressings, my advice is to put it onto a compost pile. If you don't have one, start one. If you are talking about relatively large amounts of pressings, experiment (like I did) and THEN discard them onto a compost pile......or, put them in an old can of lead house paint, tape to a good-sized sky rocket, launch skyward at night and then stand back to see what happens........ I dunno.