Dandelion Salve

Dandelion season is almost over and it's making me kind of sad this year.  I always thought of these annoying plants like most people as a weed that needed to go so we could see our nice green grass.  Well now I am looking at green in a whole new way and I'm seeing the pretty yellow blooms as a wonderful additive to my bathroom medicine cabinet.  An amazing cure for my always dry chapped hands. 

A little over a  month ago I found this site Annie's Aromatherapy   and it has become my herbal go to place for just about everything I would like to make on my own.  There is so much information here about herbs and plants that I am really hooked.

After studying Annie's instructions I decided to make my own infused oils so they could be later made into salves and ointments for a number of different uses.  With all those dandelions staring at me that seemed like the logical place to start. So I went out and picked as many as I could get from my yard.  I knew they hadn't been sprayed with any chemicals so they were safe.

After letting them dry on a screen for a couple of days to remove some of the moisture I chopped them into small pieces and put them in a mason jar and them covered them with extra virgin olive oil.  Any good oil from the grocery store is fine.

Then I put the jar in a sunny window to be warmed every day and allow the wonderful properties of the dandelions to be drawn into the oil.  Only the sun didn't shine. It's been overcast and drizzly here for ages and I  thought I might have to wait forever if my oil was to have any redeeming qualities at all. 

I decided to hurry things along so I put my lovely oils into a warm bath. I put a rack in the bottom of the pan so the jars wouldn't sit directly on the heat.  I kept the water warm, but not to hot (I didn't want to cook anything. I let everything steep for about 3 days.

 

 

I put a mason jar in a pot of warm water as a makeshift double boiler. Place a dish cloth in the pot to keep the jar from getting too hot.

 

To make my salve I added  the dandelion infused oil and grated beeswax to the jar. Once the wax was melted I removed it from the heat and dried off the outside of the jar. I didn't want water dripping  into my salve. 

Then I added a few drops of lavender essential oil to my mixture and poured it into a smaller jar, and stirred it with a wooden skewer to make sure it was well mixed. 

The finished product goes on really well.  It's smooth and silky and absorbs way better than I could have imagined.  And... It gives me a sense of accomplishment knowing I made something from scratch that is beneficial to my well being. 

My recipe:

100 ml Dandelion infused oil.
25 ml of grated beeswax
5 drops of lavender essential oil.

I'd love to hear your comments on this or any other home recipe for salves or oils and what you use them for .