Kitchen Fun, Medicine Making Day 1

This weekend was all about warmth! We received a warm welcome from Bobbi, Alexis,  River and Violet when we arrived. Throughout the weekend I felt the warmth of being surrounded by friends and warmth in the cozy farm house and hanging around the woodstove.

The heart of the weekend was in the kitchen, were we all got our hands oily from making infused oils balms and salves!

We dived right in, spending the morning straining sun-infused oils, and admiring their various colours.

Red St. Johns Wort oil and Yellow Red Clover oil

Straining Calendula Oil

Next we tried our hand at infusing herbs into oil on the stove and used the newly infused oil to make balms and salves

Cayenne oil, for a muscle pain relief salve

Making salve is messy! Alexis shared his helpful practice of having one set of utensils set aside especially for this greasy, waxy work.

We got to work, with some teams making different balms and slaves, a labeling crew and Nicola + Tanya working to prepare Elderberries for cough drops and Elderberry syrup.

 

Here are some of the balm’s and salves we made:

Winter Sun= Calendula infused olive oil, coconut oil, vitiman e oil,  peppermint essential oil, beeswax

Calendulime= Calendula infused oil, Lime essential oil, vitiman E oil and beeswax

Universalve= Plantain, Calenduala and St. John’s Wort infused oil with vitiman E oil and beeswax

Barefoot Fix= Calendula , Oregon Grape, Yarrow infused oil with vitiman E oil and beeswax

Hot! Burn Salve= Lavander and Bergamot infused oil, with coconut oil, vitiman e oil and beeswax

Simultaneously Tamara, Daniella, Maddy and Tim got serious about cough-drop making! It was a collective learning adventure, as it was everyones first time making lozenges. This team really devoted their care and patience to the task! First they simmered a blend of healing herbs (cinnamon, elecampane, calendula, elderberries)  in water .

This mixture was reduced, and honey was added, then slowly heated

It took a while…. lots of testing, tasting, then finally the mixture (now the most stunning gold colour) was ready to cool!

It was all hands on deck to form the small candies before the mixture got too cold and no-longer pliable.

We coated the cough candies in slippery elm powder for extra-soothing action!

Phew! Just in time!

Over dinner the last of the days creations simmered away: 

Elderberry syrup with Rosemary, Cinnamon, Black Pepper, Cloves and Honey, Yum!

Thanks for a bustling day full of so many herbal creations, great conversations and laughs!