There's also the "ingredients" tab in your inventory. There will definitely be crafting in the final game, but there's been no word for when or if it will appear in EA. Personally I think they'll need to add more crafting to EA just for testing purposes. Right now it's just the staff you get pieces from the owlbear for, and the masterwork weapons that you need sussur bark for. They introduce mending broken items and weapon crafting/modification.
I hadn't paid attention to what the chalkboard said, but that seems like the perfect place to have a quest that's an introduction to potion brewing. There are certainly lots of ingredients around that building, and in the cellar.
