Heh heh heh... I knew there was a reason I wasn't going town to P-town on the 23rd.

My friend Danniella called me. I used to live with here in a community of nature loving outdoorsy folk. I moved out of a yurt and into a shelter that I built in the woods, and she moved into my yurt.

Now Danniella is an intern for Margaret Matthewson, a well known ethnobotanist and accomplished expert in basketry. She and three others help harvest materials and keep up the land in the colder parts of the year in exchange for practice and advise in plant technologies. She lives in a cabin with two walls, and enjoys the luxury of having a fireplace and running water and a bathtub indoors and getting to sleep in the open air.

Healing gifts we make. The best kind. We made herb infused lotion, salve, and salad dressing, and bath salts. This I combined with cards I made from my photography, and candles that I bought from the dollar store (for shame!) to make gift baskets for my grandparents, parents, and two sets of aunts and uncles.

The Materials

All of the gifts were made with the following ingredients. Some materials were used for more than one gift.

• Grapeseed oil infused with rose hips and lavender blossoms that I gathered
  
• vinegar infused with jalepenos, onion, garlic, and ginger
• balsamic vinegar that was cooked down and concentrated
• Olive oil that was infused with comfrey leaves
  
• Olive oil that was infused with plantain(Plantago lanceolata and Plantago ?)
  
• Coconut oil
• bees wax
• epsom salts
• rose petals
• chamomile blossoms
• lavender blossoms
• mint fragrance oil
• vitamin E Oil
• Balm of Gilead (Olive oil infused with Black Cottonwood (Populus ?) buds
  
• rosemary that I gathered
• basil
• oregano that I gathered

Bath Salts

I'll start by describing the easiest here.  I bought Epsom salts from Radience Herbs and Massage downtown on 5th near Capitol.  Epsom salts are very relaxing and soothing, good for aches and pains, and general stress and tension. 

Then I combined rose petals that and chamomile blossoms that I did not gather, and lavender blossoms that I did gather, and added them to 2 lbs of epsom salts, and mixed them up.  I did not add much, because too much could be obnoxious in the bath.  

Then I added mint fragrance oil that a friend of the family obtained in Egypt and mixed that in.  I filled the bags, and put in a little bit more fragrance oil at the top, just a drop.  Because this is a fragrance oil and not a medicinal oil, and because I do not specifically know the details of the origins of this oil, I only added a small amount, not overpowering or even medicinal.  Mint is a scent everyone recognizes, even non herbsy relatives however, a bridge if you will.  

Herbal Salve

I made this salve for common external skin complaints.  It is not intended for internal use or for deep cuts or puncture wounds, as it could inhibit the healing process. 

A salve is a simple mixture of oil and wax.  You could heat up olive oil, put in bees wax, melt it, and pour it into jars and you would have salve.  What herbal properties it has depends on what kind of oil you use and what it is infused in it and whether you use herbal essential oils.  What material properties it has in application depends on how much wax you use in relation to how much oil you use, and what type of oil you use.   

I made a salve that had the following properties: for aiding the lealing of cuts and abrasions, scrapes and common rashes, stings and dermatitis, windburn, chapped or extremly dry or cracked skin, and scar prevention.  It was of medium solidity, the goal being that you could get some to warm up with the heat of your fingers for easy application, but not so soft that it would be liquid at room temperature in the summer.   

The ingredients of this preparation were: olive oil infused with comfrey (cuts, burns, scrapes, cell regrowth and healing), olive oil infused with plantain (cuts, burns, scrapes, and especially stings), grapeseed oil infused with rosehips (antioxidant for sun exposed skin, but not for anything more than a very mild sunburn, and also for keeping the salve fresh.  Rosehips is also good for burns and scar prevention), and lavender (burns, scar prevention, and healing), "Balm of Gilead": olive oil infused with cottonwood buds (good for cuts and scrapes and healing), bees wax (solidifying the mixture).  Sadly I did not remember to put in Vitamin E oil, but rosehips, and grapeseed oil and cottonwood oil all have antioxidants so I hope it will be ok.  

I do not remember how much exactly I put of each.  I really just through in the rest of the oils that I had left over from making lotion, and then added wax untill the mixture hardened to the right consistency.  However if you wanted to make a similar salve, all you have to do is to infuse oils with herbs such as these as well as calendula, dock, St. John's Wort, etc... and then warm those oils after they are infused with wax shavings.  An oz of wax to a lb of oil is a good starting place, then keep adding wax shavings (cut small peices or grate with a cheeze grater) to the warm oil and keep testing it till you get what you want.  Test it by dipping a spoon in it, puting the spoon in the freezer till it hardens, then bring it out and let it sit till its at room temperature.  Salves are usually resistent, but will melt when you press upon them.  

Pour your salve into tins or little jars and add a few drops of essential oil for fragrance before they harden.  If you use metal tins or containers that might be hard to open, do not put the lid on until it has hardened, and then wipe the lip dry.  

Lotion

I used all of the same ingredients as before, except I did not use Balm of Gilead, and I did use water and Coconut oil in addition to all the other oils.  

I heated up 3/4 cup of oil in a jar inside a jar of water filled to the level of the oil inside the jar and put this on the stove on medium.  This is a double boil technique and prevents burning.  I added 1/2 of grated bees wax and then when the wax melted I removed the jar from the pot.  When the slightest film of cooled oil/wax started ringing the surface level of the oil, I mixed it with water.  It is important that this is done right.  

I put a funnel over a blender that had the middle section taken out of the lid.  Inside the blender I put one cup of the hotest water I could get from the tap.  I started the blender on high and then slowly added the oil/wax mixture.  Voila: Lotion.  

The temperature of the oils and water is supposed to be the same according to some sources.  Our lotion felt fantastic on the skin and I was very proud of myself, but it separated after a week into oils and water, like bad mustard.  I would like to use a thermometer in the future and experiment.  

I would like to make a lotion out of jajoba oil and/or sesame oil infused with St. John's Wort and Rosehips with coconut oil and Vitamin E-oil added.  I would hope that this would make a good conditioning lotion for sun exposer to help protect the skin against sun damage.  Jajoba is very similar to our own skin oils and feels fantastic, it is also antioxidant and resists becoming rancid.  Sesame oil is perported to be a mild sunscreen.  Rosehips is antioxidant, and St. John's Wort oils is supposed to be conditioning for the skin and also a mild sunscreen.  

Salad Dressing

The salad dressing I made combined a herbal vinegar, balsamic vinegar, grapeseed oil, sesame oil, rosemary, basil and oregano.  

To make the herbal vinegar I infused Bragg's Raw Apple Cider Vinegar with jalepenos, onion, garlic, and ginger: packed in the jar.  I call the resultant marc "HELL YEAH!"-- it is fiery and enhances circulation.  This concoction would also be good for preventing or aiding in infectious diseases such as the cold, influenza or stomach flu prevention.  

The resultant product is georgeous.  The consentrated balsamic vinegar (which was boiled down by a friend Eden), sank to the bottom, and the oil sat on top: greenish.  In the oils floated the rosemary.  It looks like a tree in a green sky.  I cant wait to get some salad fixings and try it.  

Conclusion

So that's about it.  I hope to separate these sections and expand them and get sources and botanical names.  See you soon...

My relatives were very happy to receive the gifts, but I imagine them with stuck salve jar lids, red faces at the spiciness, reluctance to take a bath with flower floaties, and disgust at separted lotion.  I know some of them will enjoy some of the gifts, and I will keep trying.