Plantain Comfrey Calendula Salve Recipes

SIMPLE HEALING HERBAL SALVE & DEHYDRATE PLANTAIN

Steps:

• First, you'll make an herb-infused oil: In a crockette, combine crushed Calendula flowers and dried plantain leaves with extra-virgin olive oil. Leave uncovered, and on lowest setting for about 4 hours. After remove the oil from the heat and allow it to cool completely. Strain away the herbs through several layers of cheesecloth and discard.
• Then you make the balm: To make the balm, combine the infused oil with 1 or 2 tablespoon of grated beeswax and put it into a small stainless steel bowl; set the bowl into a pot of water and heat just until the beeswax melts, stirring gently to help the melting. To test the consistency, insert a cool metal spoon into the balm and check the balm that sticks to the spoon; it should be spreadable but firm. If it's too oily, add another few nshavings of beeswax. At this point, add a natural preservative to your balm to prevent spoilage. Vitamin E, squeezed from capsules, works very well. About 1/4 tsp. (two capsules) to preserve this much balm. also add the Rosemary essential oil or Lavender essential oil now.
• After you've blended in the vitamin E, transfer your final product to a sterile glass jar. Use a clean spoon or small spatula to transfer the balm to avoid introducing bacteria to the jar. How to use it: Apply the balm to rashes, scrapes, and other small or superficial abrasions (don't use it on deep cuts). You can also apply it regularly to help heal chronically chapped skin. Stored in a cool, dark place, the balm should keep for up to a year. Discard if it smells rancid.
• To dry plantain in dehydrator or oven: plantains 1/4 cup water with 1 tablespoon lemon juice Thinly slice the plantains using a cheese slicer or cut into 1/8 inch slices with a knife. Combine the lemon juice and water in a shallow bowl, and dip, but do not soak, the plantain slices into the liquid to prevent the fruit from browning. Pat the fruit dry. Lay the prepared plantain slices on the tray in the food dehydrator on 95 degrees F and dry for 24 hours for chewy plantains or for 30 hours for crispy plantains. Alternatively, turn the dehydrator to 140 degrees F for eight to 10 hours. Use the oven to dry the prepared plantains by setting the prepared slices on a wire rack set on a baking sheet. Set the oven to the lowest setting, 150 degrees to 200 degrees F and place the plantains inside with the door slightly ajar to release moisture. Dry overnight, between eight and 12 hours or until the desired texture.

ELEVEN GREAT SALVES

Steps:

• 1. Healing Herb Salve 1 oz dried comfrey leaves 1 oz dried calendula flowers 2 cups olive oil 1 oz pure beeswax 4 drops tea tree 4 drops lavender essential oils 1 400 vit E Tab Directions: Heat herbs in olive oil over low heat for about 5 hours. Do not let the oil boil or bubble. A Crock-Pot or the lowest temperature setting on a range should be suitable for heating this mixture. (If the lowest setting is too hot, turn off the heat once it has warmed the oil...it should keep warm for at least and hour....then repeat the process twice.) After cooking, strain out the herbs while oil is still warm. Place 1 1/4 cups of the herb oil in a pan, add beeswax and heat just enough to melt the wax. Add essential oil and stir. Finally, pour the salve into wide mouthed jars. Store at room temperature. Use for minor scrapes and cuts, to protect and promote healing.
• 2. scrape, burn and sunburn salve Take equal parts of three or more of the following; Plantain leaves, Pine needles, Comfrey leaves, Elecampaign roots, Baby Oak leaves (not old ones), Wild Sarsaparilla roots, Bee Balm leaves, chopped Horse Chestnuts (the meat of the nut and the shiny brown covering), fresh, chopped green Walnut hulls. Add Calendula blossoms, and Lavender flowers, fresh or dried. Directions: Place the herbs in a non aluminum pot and cover with good quality olive oil. Bring to a simmer and simmer with a tight fitting lid for 20 minutes. In a separate pot bring fresh bees wax to a simmer. When both pots are of equal temperature, add 3 Tablespoons of the hot beeswax for every cup of Olive oil to the pot with the herbs. Stir, strain and seal in a clean jar. This salve is great for diaper rash and if you add the Horse Chestnuts it makes a wonderful remedy for piles.
• 3. Carpenders salve This salve heals and also helps pull wood or metal splinters to the surface of a worker's hands. Ingredients: • 1 part self-heal • 1 part plantain • 1 part comfrey leaf • 1/2 part rosemary • Olive oil • 1/2 part beeswax • 1/4 cup bentonite clay • 1 tablespoon lavender oil Infuse the herbs in olive oil in a ratio of 2 parts of oil to 1 part of the herb combination. Directions: After adding beeswax but before pouring into jars, stir in bentonite clay and lavender oil.
• 4. Pain relief salve Ingredients: 1 tablespoon Chickweed powder 1 tablespoon Wormwood Powder 10 drops Tea Tree oil 2 pints Sweet Olive Oil 3 ounces Beeswax Directions: Mix together chickweed, wormwood powder, add the mixed herbs to sweet olive oil and simmer 3 hours. Strain and add beeswax and Tea Tree Oil. Pour into salve containers.
• 5. Red clover healing salve for ulcers and wounds Here is another easy salve recipe Ingredients: 2 cups olive oil or sunflower oil (olive lasts longer) 3/4 cup red clover flowers. Just throw handfuls in the measuring container until you get 3/4. Directions: Mix together and place in top of double boiler. Simmer over low heat for 2 hours. Remember to replace the water in bottom pot if it gets low. Strain out herbs. In separate pan or bowl if using microwave, melt 2 tsp. beeswax and 1 tsp. cocoa butter or lanolin. Add to the infused oil and stir until cool. If you wanted to make this antibacterial, you would add a few drops of tea tree or thyme eo when it cools. Put into jars and label!!!!! Add the date.....
• 6. Burn salve You can apply this salve to badly burned areas. These two herbs have antiseptic properties, also act as a painkiller and will promote healing Ingredients: 1 2/3 cup olive oil 1/3 cup calenula flowers 1/3 cup St Johnswort Directions: Mix together and place in top of double boiler. Simmer over low heat for 2 hours. Remember to replace the water in bottom pot if it gets low. Strain out herbs. In seperate pan or bowl if using microwave, melt 2 tsp. beeswax and 1 tsp. cocoa butter or lanolin. Add to the infused oil and stir until cool.
• 7. pain and skin ailments salve Here is another easy salve recipe. Lemon Balm contains Eugenol which eases pain and calendula is great for all types of skin conditions, very soothing. Most of you will remember that I don't always weigh my ingredients, so these are approximate. Ingredients: 2 cups olive oil or sunflower oil (olive lasts longer) 3/4 cup lemon balm and calendula. Just throw handfulls in the measuring container until you get 3/4. Try to use equal amounts of each. Directions: Mix together and place in top of double boiler. Simmer over low heat for 2 hours. Remember to replace the water in bottom pot if it gets low. Strain out herbs. In seperate pan or bowl if using microwave, melt 2 tsp. beeswax and 1 tsp. cocoa butter or lanolin. Add to the infused oil and stir until cool. If you wanted to make this antibacterial, you would add a few drops of tea tree or thyme eo when it cools. Put into jars and label!!!!! Add the date.....
• 8. Itchy salve For help with itchies If using fresh herbs, gently spray clean and let wilt overnight in a dry place. Ingredients: 1 handful of chickweed 1/2 handful of chamomile heads 1/2 handful of calendula heads 2 Tbs. of thyme 2 Tbs. comfrey root 2 Tbs. marshmallow root Directions: Cover with olive oil, infuse over low heat (never get above 200) for 3 hours. Strain and add 1-2 oz.cocoa butter and 1-2 oz.beeswax, heat until melted and pour into containers. Just drop a little on a plate and see if it hardens enough, if not add more beeswax only a little bit at a time and re-test.
• 9. Foot salve Description: A great salve for those aching feet after a day shopping or at work. Ingredients: 10 oz. coconut oil (solid, not fractionated) 2 oz. jojoba 3 oz. olive oil 3 Tbs. candelilla wax 1/2 oz. beeswax ( you can replace this with all candelilla wax if you'd like, I was not happy with the consistency so I added some beeswax) 1 oz. cocoa butter .5 oz. menthol crystals 10 drops peppermint 10 drops eucalyptus 10 drops naouli Directions: Melt all ingredients together except for the menthol and essential oils. Remove from heat, stir in menthol crystals, re-heat until crystals are melted if needed. Remove from heat and let cool before stirring in the essential oils or they will evaporate, pour into containers. If you don't have experience in using menthol crystals, they are quite powerful, so do wear a mask when using them and caution, you don't want to have your head right over the bowl when mixing this item.
• 10. Crack salve It works wonders on those awful cracks you get along your fingernails Ingredients: 1 oz Beeswax 1 oz Calendula infused olive oil 1 oz Plaintain infused olive oil 1 oz St. Johnswort infused olive oil Directions: Melt all together til beeswax is melted then add: 6 drops Vit E 5 drops Pine needle e.o. 5 drops Chamomile (german) e..o. 5 drops Lavendar e.o. 5 drops Tea tree e.o. Cool a bit , then pour into clean jars. .
• 11. Pine Pitch Salve Ask any Reserve local, especially those of Spanish or Indigenous descent, about what to do for a deeply lodged splinter or painfully embedded fragment and they'll point to the nearest Pine tree. Get some of that sticky stuff they'll admonish, and just slap it on there. It'll be better in the morning they say, and nod knowingly. In rural NM local gas station or general store, you're sure to find a selection of locally made Pine Pitch salve, and you'll likely see it being bought up by a variety of people, from loggers to hippies to ranchers. This universal backwoods appeal is a very good testament to its effectiveness. I've personally seen it work time and time again in this application, often far better than Plantain. Plantain is better for pulling out venom and other poisons, but they work together very well for bringing boils to a head. Pine pitch often even works on glass and is great for your average wood splinter. You just rub a generous amount on the area and just wait. Usually, the foreign object will swell to a head and pop its way out within 48 hours.. My understanding of how this works is that Pine is a powerful counter-irritant. Meaning that it stimulates local blood flow and aggravates the local immune response into revving up a noticeable amount. This means that it may cause a temporary increase in discomfort or inflammation in the area in order to speed healing. I also add the Pine oil to most of my muscle salves or general wound care salves. It smells as rich and sweet as the high elevation forests and sometimes I open my jar just to take a deep whiff of the woods. It's warming, stimulating and also seems very antimicrobial, clearing up infections from a variety of sources. Because it's so very warming and potentially irritating, I avoid using it on areas that are already very hot, super red and aggravated. It works better where the immune system just isn't kicking out enough pressure to move the energy in a healing direction. It's fine for splinters with a bit of local redness though, just use your common sense and discontinue if the situation seems to get worse rather than better. One of my wonderful readers requested instructions for making Pine Pitch Salve, so here it is, enjoy! To Make Pine Pitch Salve First you need to find your Pine pitch. Here in the Gila, our Piñon Pine trees often have semi-hard globs of pitch on their trunks or at the base of the tree. Summer seems the best time to harvest, since this is when the trees tend to ooze more and it's easier to pry off the harder chunks. If there's a major wound that the pitch is coming from, I suggest not pulling the whole chunk off as the tree is trying to heal itself and needs that pitch. After you've collected about half a pint jar's worth of pitch, you divide it into three different grades. Rock hard chunks, sticky goo and semi-solid bits. Put the goo and semi-solid stuff in a pint jar with the semi-solid stuff on the bottom, and then break up the hard chunks into smaller pieces. I don't recommend a mortar and pestle for this, it can very messy. The smaller you break up the hard pieces, the quicker they will break down. Sometimes I get lazy and just throw golf ball sized pitch rocks in there, and then it takes damn near forever to properly infuse the oil. Pea sized bits are a lot quicker. If you like, you can wrap the hard bits in some canvas and than hammer the hell out of it, that usually works pretty good. By this point you likely have very sticky hands and are worried about being permanently glued to whatever you touch next. I've seen lots of people try cleaning with rubbing alcohol with less than optimal results. I recommend some nice oil, just rub it into your hands and the stickiness will slide right off. And then your hands smell very nice too! Next you just fill your pint jar to the top with olive oil (or your salve oil of choice). Now, in order for your infused pine oil to be really effective, you have to get a large percentage of that pitch to dissolve into the oil. Heat is the best way I know to do this. Beware that whatever you heat the Pine pitch in will be pretty hard to clean, so you may not want to use your favorite crockpot. Personally, I just take the whole jar and stick it in my wood stover warmer and leave it there for a couple weeks, shaking occasionally to help break up the chunks. The sun might not be hot enough (depending on where you live), although if you half bury it in some hot sand directly in the sun, it'll be a lot hotter. When the chunks are mostly dissolved, strain the oil through a mesh sieve to get out any bark or whatever else was stuck to the pitch. Now you have lovely Pine oil, and can just proceed with your normal salve making process