As we are having some wonderful warm weather at the moment, and the herbs are growing like mad and its forecast to stay that way for a while… around 25 degrees or more… lucky us. I’m going to crack on and get our summer supply of skin salves made and into jars.
Now Rick always gets bitten badly during summer, I’m not always sympathetic as it doesn’t seem to happen to me much, but he does suffer badly at times… anything within a mile seems to make a beeline for him and have a chew…
We’ve always struggled with anti bug stuff… its extremely toxic stuff, which may be okay if you are only wearing it on the odd occasion on holiday … but for people like Rick who has to wear it every day for about 7-8 months of the year while he works on the land… its just too harsh, it burns the skin and you get very sore in all kinds of places…
So this year I’ve made him some homemade salve and he loves it… I’m lucky enough to have found a good source of beeswax at last (our local honey man gives me the odd sheet for free when we buy his honey…) and some kind guests brought a bottle of Citronella essential oil and I warm up some olive oil, and a few small pieces of the wax, drop in some essential oil and stir, take it off the heat, pour into sterile warm jars and leave to set… I’ve also made some with Rosemary oil in, just olive oil I put plenty of Rosemary springs in and left in a warm place for a month to steep… he thinks the Rosemary and citronella is best…
He’s been wearing it for a couple of weeks now during all our planting… and yes he has the odd bite, they will always find a way or a place you missed … but generally its working very well and the olive oil is great for the skin… it doesn’t wash of so quickly when you sweat either…
So I am getting ready to make the skin lotion we use too, spending so much time out in the sun and wind we get here, our skins get very dry, so again we don’t want to use shop bought stuff when Mother Nature gives us the perfect cure for free…
My Calendula salve works very well and feels lovely on the skin. I pick tons of Marigold heads, put in a large jar, cover with olive oil, or veggie oil if that’s what you like, and leave it to steep in a warm place for a month… mines in the seed house at the moment… then strain, and warm gently, add a few small pieces of beeswax and put into warm jars and leave to set… that’s all there is too it… we put it on every night after we come indoors from working it soothes, and moisturises, and nourishes the skin. I also make a similar one with plantain leaves, not the banana type stuff… weeds from the garden… look it up…
I make a really effective skin salve for cuts, scrapes, sores etc from a mixture of plantain leaves, comfrey and lemon balm … all steeped together in oil and made as above… it makes a great lip balm too. Lemon Balm is a’ must have’ if you suffer from cold sores, as it has a compound in that combats them very quickly…
During the high summer when we have the fridge on, I also make plantain liquid mulch stuff, and put in a jar in the fridge, as it’s excellent soothing mulch for sunburn. We often get guests who over do the sun and need a quick ready soother… this is perfect.
Just pick tons of plantain, it’s a garden weed and grows everywhere freely, mulch it up in the blender or if like me you don’t like to use one, I mash it with the pestle and mortar… put in a jar and keep cool, it only keeps a couple of days but its free so making more isn’t a problem…
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