How to Make an Herbal Salve

Fill a jar halfway with herbs. For a great all-purpose salve for cuts, burns, insect bites and rashes, I recommend using the following herbs:

2 parts dried plantain

2 parts comfrey

1 part yarrow

1 part echinacea

1 part chamomile

1 part rosemary

 

Cover the herbs with good quality olive oil (I recommend using organic extra virgin olive oil, which I buy in bulk from Azure Standard). Put a lid on the jar; it should be snug but not tight.

 

Place a rag on the bottom of your crock pot and set the jar on top of the rag. Fill the crock pot with water, put the lid on and keep on the lowest setting for three days. If the water evaporates, turn the crock pot off and let it cool down before adding more water. NEVER pour water over a hot jar!

 

If you do not have access to a crock pot, you can alternately fasten a rag or paper towel over the mouth of the jar with a rubber band and set in a sunny window sill for two weeks or longer.

 

After three days in the crock pot, cool the jar down, then strain out and discard the herbs. At this point, you have an herbal oil full of healing properties. You can use it as is, or proceed to the next step for salve!

 

To make your herbal oil into a salve, slowly warm the oil in a saucepan with about 2 oz of beeswax for every cup of oil. When the beeswax is melted, remove from heat.

At this point, you can add a few drops of vitamin E oil or grapeseed oil, which both act as natural preservatives and add even more awesome healing properties to your salve! Pour the salve into tins or shallow containers and leave the lids off until set.

The salve will keep for years. I carry a small tin in my purse and keep jars all over the house and in the horse trailer. It makes a fantastic gift, and it is so much fun to see the surprise on friend’s faces when they try them and discover that my “herbal concoctions” really do work 🙂