Projects

Lately our house has been overtaken by the many projects we have going on. Yet somehow I still manage to keep it pretty clean. One ongoing project I didn't think to mention is the start of a personalized garden book filled with information about our garden, various tips I happen to find along the way, information about herbs and a lot more.

I am still collecting seeds and keeping a good inventory on them and one thing I have started learning is how to make herbal salves. This will be a long slow process for me, but I started doing it because I have a friend who has an issue with shoulder pain. It is so bad for her sometimes that she will spend a day or two in bed and despite everything the doctors are doing she still has issues with it. I figured that it certainly can't hurt to try and find a way to help her with herbs and if I happen to find something that works, great. If not I just keep trying. 

So tonight was my second attempt at making a salve. The first one I found out was much too greasy but that was because I used only Olive Oil. This time around I used half Olive Oil and half coconut oil and it seems to have cut down on the greasiness. I have discovered that I don't have a problem getting the consistency of beeswax to oil correct, so far I am two for two on that one and both times the salve has set up perfectly.

Here is how I did this one.

I let the herbs infuse with the oil for about four hours.

Use a strainer and funnel to strain out all the herbs then put the oil back in the slow cooker.

The average ratio of beeswax to oil is about two cups of oil to about two ounces of beeswax.

Let the beeswax melt completely.

Then put a little in a jar and either put in in the freezer for a few seconds or let it set at room temperature. This is what not enough beeswax looks like, it's too oily.

 

Have your jars ready before you pour. The oil will be hot and you don't want to be messing around at this stage in the process.

 You can see here how they are starting to set up on the bottom.

This is what it looks like when it is completely set and ready to use.

 After it cools down you can put your lids on and label the side of it. I used half pint mason jars for these.

We have turned one of our little used bookshelves into a space for herbs that we bought in 2012 and some that I have gotten from our garden. This is what it looks like.

And that's it. I really wanted to get two different salves done up today but this was the only one that happened. There is always tomorrow.

Until next time.