The cost of buying
Olive Leaf Extract products is extremely high. I make extract very cheaply.
I have my own
leaves of course – almost 500 trees full of them. I also offer the leaves for
sale on my website www.oldmcdonaldsolives.com
so anyone interested can make their own extract too if they do not have access
to olive trees. NOTE: DUE TO ADVERTISING THE QUINTA FOR SALE I NO LONGER OFFER LEAVES ON MY WEBSITE.
The method is
simple – 20g of dried leaves, or 40g of fresh ones if you have them, are
whizzed in a kitchen blender with one quarter bottle (strictly 187.5 ml, but
near enough is good enough) of 40% vodka. Other spirits could be used but they
will give their own flavour to the tincture produced. Put the mixture into a
sealable container such as a jam jar. Glass jars with screw on lids are ideal
for the purpose. Keep it somewhere handy, and preferably in the dark –
definitely out of direct sunlight. Give it a good shake or stir (007
notwithstanding) once a day for two weeks. It is now ready to use.
I do not do it,
but the leaves can be strained off the liquid if preferred, remembering to
squeeze as much as possible out of the leaves. I simply take out a spoonful of
liquid as required until there is none left. I also like to keep enough jars
going that the leaves are immersed in the vodka for longer than the minimum two
weeks which are required for the alcohol to extract the “goodies” from the leaves.
How much you
take is entirely up to you. I have a dessertspoonful once a day part way
through breakfast. It is not a good idea to drink even a tiny amount of spirits
on an empty stomach. A dessertspoonful is more than many other people take,
with some suggestions of only a half a teaspoonful. Others suggest even less and taken at more
frequent intervals. You decide.
There have been
many studies on the beneficial effects of olive leaf extract. I make no claims
about whether or not it does you any good, although I tend to think it helps my
aged joints. It certainly does not appear to be doing me any harm. Coming up to
74 I still farm full-time, with a lot of manual work, particularly involving my
olives, 800 almonds and smaller numbers of other fruit trees.
