Wednesday, March 7, 2012

Calendula salve

I've been wanting to make up a batch of this healing salve for some time now. What do I use it for? Mostly for cuts and scratches, but also I've been putting it on insect bites too. Might not stop the itching that well but I figure it can help the skin! Actually I found out from researching remedies for insect bites that ice is the best home remedy.

Anyway, back to the salve. Fortunately I had sufficient calendula flowers in the garden:


It was very easy to make. I used my slow cooker to infuse 2 cups of petals with 1 cup of olive oil for a couple of hours. Then I strained this through some muslin into another container. I melted 1/4 cup beeswax pellets using a double boiler, then checked the temperature of the wax and heated the oil up (gently) a wee bit more so they were roughly the same temp. Then I added the oil to the beeswax and whisked it up, added 10 drops of lavender oil and poured into clean, dry pots. This quantity of ingredients made 5 little pots. It sets fairly quickly, putting it in the fridge helps to solidify even more.



I'm storing them in the fridge too, although I guess you could just keep them somewhere cool - has been quite hot here as we are at the end of our Summer and we don't really have anywhere that's very cool!
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4 comments:

  1. BLD in MTMarch 7, 2012 at 2:25 PM

    Great idea!

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  2. Ruth @ Camellia RoseMarch 7, 2012 at 9:06 PM

    Thanks for the recipe. This is one of those things (like cheesemaking) that I've wanted to make for ages. I have lots of self sown calendulas that will be blooming soon so I'll have to remember to harvest some petals!

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  3. Tanya MurrayMarch 7, 2012 at 10:51 PM

    Must get round to this...after the tomatoes maybe...sigh!
    Like the labelling by the way.

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  4. Cabbage Tree FarmMarch 8, 2012 at 9:13 AM

    Hi guys
    Well I can honestly say it's one of those things that takes no time at all yet one puts it off for ages!!
    Tanya, I wish I had all your tomatoes, last year I grew loads and was preserving them like crazy too, but this year I failed to get much going in the garden. We can go out and pick a handful but not the boxloads of big Brandywines last year!

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