Homemade Salve
So, I recently discovered that a plant growing in someone's garden here was comfrey - it is eaten in some traditional dishes, even though the internet says that it isn't recommended that you ingest it... Anyway, I dug up a bit of the plant and planted it in my garden too so I could put it to use. First of all, I learned that it can be good to feed animals, so I occasionally feed a leaf or two to my rabbits. Then, I wanted to try making this salve. Comfrey can help to heal wounds and prevent scars. You can read more about that here. So since I now have comfrey, I might as well try doing something with it!
For the salve, I also needed beeswax. One of our students keeps bees and gave me some comb that I could render into clean wax. After the fact, I now realize that it's better to use the nice, clean wax that's left over after harvesting honey, but you take what you can get. I crushed up all the wax in the picture below, wrapped it in cheesecloth, then put the bundle of cheesecloth into hot water so the wax melted out through the cheesecloth and floated on top of the water.
After the wax and water cooled, I had this little chunk of beeswax.
I also had a piece that I brought from the US.
To make the salve, I first infused dried comfrey leaves in warm olive oil.
(2 cups of dried comfrey leaves and 2 cups of olive oil)
You're supposed to put the jars into a pot of water on low heat (with the water not going over the top of the jar). Keep a cloth or something under the jars so they're not sitting directly on the bottom of the pot. Then, keep it in the pot of water on low heat for 12-24 hours. Here's where I maybe went wrong. I didn't want to have a pot of water on my stove all day/night, so I tried putting the pot of hot water with jars in it into the fireless cooker all day and overnight. It was still warm in the morning, but I'm not sure the comfrey infused in there enough. Oh, well.
Next, I grated up my beeswax (3 ounces, which is 85 grams). Grating didn't work all that well - it just stuck to the grater, so I had to break some of it up by hand.
After that, I removed the comfrey leaves from the oil and poured the oil into the pot with the beeswax. I heated it on low until the beeswax melted, then stirred the mixture well and poured it into my glass jars. I don't know if there's enough comfrey extract in there to accomplish great healing, but it at least is certainly like a nice lotion!
For the salve, I also needed beeswax. One of our students keeps bees and gave me some comb that I could render into clean wax. After the fact, I now realize that it's better to use the nice, clean wax that's left over after harvesting honey, but you take what you can get. I crushed up all the wax in the picture below, wrapped it in cheesecloth, then put the bundle of cheesecloth into hot water so the wax melted out through the cheesecloth and floated on top of the water.
After the wax and water cooled, I had this little chunk of beeswax.
I also had a piece that I brought from the US.
To make the salve, I first infused dried comfrey leaves in warm olive oil.
(2 cups of dried comfrey leaves and 2 cups of olive oil)
You're supposed to put the jars into a pot of water on low heat (with the water not going over the top of the jar). Keep a cloth or something under the jars so they're not sitting directly on the bottom of the pot. Then, keep it in the pot of water on low heat for 12-24 hours. Here's where I maybe went wrong. I didn't want to have a pot of water on my stove all day/night, so I tried putting the pot of hot water with jars in it into the fireless cooker all day and overnight. It was still warm in the morning, but I'm not sure the comfrey infused in there enough. Oh, well.
Next, I grated up my beeswax (3 ounces, which is 85 grams). Grating didn't work all that well - it just stuck to the grater, so I had to break some of it up by hand.
After that, I removed the comfrey leaves from the oil and poured the oil into the pot with the beeswax. I heated it on low until the beeswax melted, then stirred the mixture well and poured it into my glass jars. I don't know if there's enough comfrey extract in there to accomplish great healing, but it at least is certainly like a nice lotion!
What an interesting experiment!
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