Make a yarrow leaf or blossom salve - PEP BB medicine.sand.salve.yarrow

I found some yarrow in a garden plot next to mine- abandoned mind you- and realized I could use it for a salve!

My leaf collection


I hung the leaves out to dry for a few days


Then when they were done, I put them in the oven at 170 for 10 minutes to kill any insects or eggs that may have been on them( I also dried some dandelion leaves for a tea, but don't worry about those)


After, I set the leaves into jars and poured olive oil into each( I did this at the same time as my burdock salve- but was experimenting with the oil mixes) I only used yarrow and olive oil with this one.


I followed the same process as the burdock- I let the oil sit for a month and shook it periodically until it started to look more herb colored.
I strained out the oil with cheesecloth and a funnel this time, and weighed the oil


I added 1/2 the weight in beeswax this time, as I wanted a thicker salve than the burdock


As I did this on the same night as the burdock salve, I just reused my same double boiler setup


This time, I wanted a nicer look, so used some candle jars to hold the hot salve


Then I labelled them and let them sit overnight


Here's what the finished salve looks like the next morning!

Salve time! I have mixed my yarrow oil with peppermint before, but I have comfrey this time and am excited to try it. Comfrey is really good at speeding up healing and yarrow kills any bad stuff. Sounds like a good combo to me! I use a 1 to 5 ratio of beeswax and oil in my salves, this makes a really good textured salve.
I also put a few drops of lavender essential oil in the salve once it had cooled a little, but not before it hardened. That will sooth irritations and calm inflammation.

I made yarrow oil in this post: https://permies.com/wiki/167823/pep-natural-medicine/Yarrow-leaf-blossom-infused-oil#1865826. Ingredients - Olive oil, yarrow blossoms and a few leaves, rose petals, and plantain leaves.

I melted beeswax with a crockpot and added the strained oil.

Created yarrow salve today.
Infused the olive oil for 24 hours then mixed with beeswax to make salve.

No other ingredients but yarrow, olive oil, and beeswax. Ratio of 1 cup oil to 1 oz wax.

A nice salve for dry hands in winter

Beeswax pellets and yarrow oil from previous BB (yarrow oil BB)


Simple water bath to prepare balm straight in the final container. Nevermind the dirty stovetop


Final result

Opalyn Rose wrote:
Minimum requirements:
  - Create a healing salve
  - Use yarrow leaf or blossom

To document completion of the BB, provide proof of the following as pictures or a video (< 2 minutes):
  - Harvested plant material (either being harvested or just harvested)
  - Plant material in oil with a description of the oil and other ingredients you used in the oil or added to salve
  - Making the salve
  - Finished salve in a labeled container

I harvested and air dried yarrow over the summer. Then I crushed the dried leaves and flowers, submerged it in 100g of EVOO, and baked at 180degF for 12 hours. I then strained the oil, heated it in a double broiled, and added 15g of beeswax until homogenous. Then I poured some of it into a mold, cooled it and put it in a labeled container.

To document completion of the BB, provide proof of the following as pictures or a video (< 2 minutes):
 - Harvested plant material (either being harvested or just harvested)
 - Plant material in oil with a description of the oil and other ingredients you used in the oil or added to salve
 - Making the salve
 - Finished salve in a labeled container

Harvesting the yarrow


Drying the yarrow


Making the yarrow-infused oil (post here)



I used the yarrow oil and a smidge of nettle oil. One cup total.



I melted two tablespoons of beeswax in one cup of oil.



When I added the room-temperature oil to the melted beeswax it did this. Something about this was fun. I probably could have heated the whole thing up at the same time.


All melted.


The only containers I had available were jars.


This seems like a pretty good consistency. It's like lotion.