Making A Healing Salve: My Entry for the Natural Medicine Fortnightly Challenge, PLUS A BONUS PRIZE

A recent home remedy to share for this edition of the Natural Medicine Fortnightly Challenge

I started and finished this process before the challenge was announced. Super glad I took pictures of it all! Here's my salve I've made from yarrow, plantain, and comfrey.

I read a lot leading up to making this one. My goal was to have something for small cuts, burns, bug bites, and general homesteady boo-boos.

The first step was to infuse the oil with the herbs. I read that the best way was to put the herbs in the jar, cover with oil, and let it sit in the sun for two to six weeks. Another option, and the one I went with, was to heat the jar of herbs and oil on low heat (100°-140°F) for four hours to four days. Different sources gave different recommendations.

My friend @burntoblog has a big plantain patch in his yard. He harvested a bunch and gave it to me and I dehydrated it a few days before making the salve. Then I harvested ten yarrow stalls and my two biggest comfrey leaves. After plucking leaves and flowers from the yarrow, I stuck the bare stalks in the A/C vent so the smell could fill the house. What a lovely smell.

I used about half coconut oil and half olive oil. I was going for all coconut oil, but I didn't buy enough. This worked out really well though.

I did a 24 hour test on my back burner on the lowest setting, and it held steady around 140°F. I put the jar in the water and the oil temp range stayed around 105°-110°F the whole time. I let it all steep for about 36 hours total, with a good hearty shake every time I thought about it.

I used my reusable coffee filter to strain out the herbs, and measured out the oil, setting it aside while I melted one ounce of beeswax per cup of infused oil.

The boiling water made the jar bounce, so I used three jar bands in the bottom of the pot and the problem was solved.

The oil was cooler than the wax, so it mixed really neat. Like an herbal medicine lava lamp. After heating it all back up to make sure it all mixed, I added it to the cool little jars I found at Wally World. A four pack was like five bucks, and they were perfect for this purpose, being very short, wide mouth jars to be able to dip out as much of the salve as possible.

This mixture filled all four jars. One for Sam's family, one for another family in our milk co-op, one for a friend at work, and one for us. So far it's been used for little cuts on my hands from work and on the baby's eczema, where it's been really helpful.

I picked these three herbs, Yarrow, Plantain, and Comfrey for their healing properties. Yarrow to help with bleeding and as an antimicrobial. Plantain for healing and removal of toxins. And comfrey for it's nourishment and regenerative strength.

I hope someone can find this interesting or inspiring. If you do, give it a vote and go try it yourself! Add your own twist or use my same recipe! I think next time it would be neat to add a bit of mint for some cooling effect on rashes and bites. Skeeter season is coming

As far as medicines go, this was really beneficial to me. I got to experience the herbs, harvesting them myself and using some harvested by a dear friend. I got to experience them in multiple ways: both as a medicine and as a joyful scent for my home. The medicine is being used in my home almost daily, and I will certainly make it again. It'll be a staple for our family, and a way to ease Melissa into being more comfortable with a natural remedy. If that's not a nice holistic function stack, I don't know what is.

Be blessed.
Be fruitful.
Stay relevant.

Nate.

P.S.
I've added some of my Turkeytail Tincture to the prize pool for this challenge!

This is 2 ounces, or about 60ml of the tincture I made a while back. You'll need a dropper of your own, as I don't have a spare, but the dosage I use is 10-15 drops in a glass of whatever I'm drinking. It'll be available if we get 25 entries in this challenge, so y'all go enter!

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