Transcription
[Music] Hello, hello. We've got a beautiful spring day here. All the narcissi and the daffodils are coming up, and crocuses, and it's lovely to get that bit of color back in the garden after the winter. So I'm taking advantage of the lovely mild day, um, to sow some onions and garlic. I did a few beds last week and I'm starting again here now.
But, um, you know, all this gardening work can really take its toll, and some of us can end up with back ache. Gardener's back ache, because, you know, when you're doing a lot of repetitive work, hoeing and raking and chopping, I've been chopping things as well, and, um, sometimes I get a little spasm in my back. So I like to have on hand some pain relief. So today I'm going to tell you about a cayenne pepper salve for relieving pain, for relieving aches, for relieving arthritis, for relieving, um, any kind of nerve pain, for headaches, even for migraines. It's a brilliant, brilliant, wonderful remedy to have, and it is so easy and simple to make that you'll never buy a pain-relieving salve again.
So there are two ways to make this pain-relieving salve, and, um, I'm going to show you one way, which is the cold infusion process. But I, this will take four to six weeks. I might need this pain salve this evening when I go back in after all the work. So I'm going to make one, um, which is a hot infusion on the stove. So usually, if I get any back pain from doing, from overdoing it in the garden, I use a salve like this, and, um, it's very effective, but it's very expensive. And look how tiny the jar is, and that's maybe 10, about 12 or 15 these days. So I can make it myself very simply using wonderful cayenne pepper.
So I just say to you, be absolutely sure that it is cayenne pepper and not a chili pepper, because that tends to be a blend of all kinds of chili peppers, whereas cayenne is one particular kind. So cayenne pepper is a spice that many of us have in our kitchen. It's not overly expensive when you consider the size of this to that, um, and it's an analgesic. It's a natural analgesic or painkiller. So this is really effective with your aches and pains after working in the garden, or maybe just overdoing it with some kind of physical work, or if you do a lot of sport. If you have, um, the remains of pain from shingles, if you have any kind of neuropathy anywhere, if you have arthritis, this is going to sort you out.
So a lot of people might think herbal medicine is reasonably okay, but what can you do about pain? Because pain is something that has to be dealt with immediately, and it has to be long-lasting pain relief. So you could use meadowsweet, you could use willow, and you can use cayenne, among other things. And I'm going to put two tablespoons of cayenne pepper into this jar, and I'm just going to pour on some olive oil and fill. Hopefully, this will be enough to fill the jar. Yeah, perfect. And I just measured that by eye. So give this a good stir.
Now, what I'm doing here is I'm infusing a spice into oil. And I would have shown you before how to infuse lavender into oil. Whenever you infuse something into oil, you can use that oil as it is, once it's, once it's infused for four to six weeks, or you can use it as a base for, um, all kinds of body, you know, body treatments and and face creams, depending on which kind of oil you're using and which kind of herb or spice you're using. So this is a cold-infused cayenne pepper into olive oil. Just give it a shake. And now we're going to just keep this somewhere in the kitchen because usually I leave things alone for the four to six weeks. But in the case of this, because it's a ground powder, I don't want it to cake up at the bottom. So I'm going to give this a good shake every day for the next four to six weeks. And that will make me then, when I use it as an infused oil after it's been strained, this will make me a lovely salve which will relieve back pain, aches and pains, arthritis, any kind of neuropathy, and, um, shingles pain. So any kind of nerve pain. But it's going to take four to six weeks. So what will I do this evening? So come inside, and I'll show you how to do a hot infusion.
Right, so I just showed you how to make a cold infusion, um, infused oil. That's the cayenne pepper in oil, and it's going to sit here in the kitchen for about four to six weeks. And I just remember to put a label on now that I've come in. It started to rain, so, so it's a day for doing things in the kitchen. So that's cayenne pepper infused oil. Right, so if you want to do a speedier process so that you can have your lovely pain-relieving salve much more quickly than having to wait four to six weeks, you do a hot infusion. So I have my olive oil here. I'm standing it into a pan of hot water. The water is just coming to a gentle simmer. And just as I did outside, I'm going to add cayenne pepper. So for 4 oz of olive oil, we're looking at two tablespoons of cayenne pepper. I've actually got 8 oz here because I want to make a good batch, so I'm going to put four, four tablespoons of cayenne pepper into the oil. So I'm just going to stir it.
So now I have the cayenne pepper in the oil. The oil is in the pan of water, or you can use a double boiler, whatever you have. And that's just going to heat up nice and slowly and gently. And when it gets nice and warm, I take it off the heat and we let it cool down for maybe about 20 minutes. Then we put it back onto the heat, let it warm up again, and we repeat the process. We take it off the heat for 20 minutes. So, so it's gently heating it, and it's just keeps gently heating it, but it never gets hot. Too, it's not bubbling too much, it's not simmering, it's not going to get burned, and it's just a nice slow, gentle process, but obviously much, much faster than the cold process, which takes four to six weeks. So that's lovely and warm now, and I'm going to take it off the heat for 20 minutes and come back to it.
[Music] [Applause] [Music]
Okay, so, um, I'm back from town. I went to town hours ago, and this has been on and off and on and off for about three hours or more. So I think it's about ready. So what I'm going to do now is I have a bowl here with a strainer, a sieve. I've got some muslin. I'm using two sheets of muslin because usually I'd only use one, but I'm using two because this is a spice, and, um, it's tiny grains. They may get through one layer of muslin. So I'm just thinking, all this residue, you could use this in, you know, in a plaster if somebody had, for example, a really sore knee, you could put this wrapped in the muslin over the knee and leave it for a little while, um, or across an aching back. It might just help.
So I have the oil in here. I've got an ounce of beeswax, but I'll put the ingredients and the amounts in the box below because, um, it depends on how much you make. So you want to see the quantities written down. So pop that back into the hot water, pop it back on the stove just until the beeswax has melted. That'll only take a few seconds. Okay, so the beeswax has melted. And just a warning, cayenne pepper is an extreme irritant if it gets into your eyes. So be careful with your hands that you don't get any oil on your hands and then touch your eyes. Just be very, very mindful of being careful around your eyes because you don't want cayenne pepper in your eye.
So here's my washed jug, and it's all nice and dry, so there's no trace of water in there. Just to make pouring into the jars more easy, I don't want to spill it everywhere. I'm going to add about 15 drops of peppermint oil. So peppermint oil is also analgesic. It's very, very cooling and anti-inflammatory, as is lavender oil. So I'm going to put some lavender oil in here too. And finally, some clove oil, which is also analgesic. That means it's painkilling. It's going to relieve pain. If anybody ever tried clove oil on a toothache, it works very, very well. It numbs the site of the pain. And that's what the cayenne pepper is doing. It's numbing the site of when you put it onto the site of the pain, it numbs the pain. It stops the nerves sending the message to the brain that you're in pain. But remember, you're only using essential oils, not a fragrance oil, because they're just pure poison.
So I hope to get about four jars. There's a tiny little residue, even though it's been strained and it's gone through two, um, two pieces of muslin, there's still a little residue, but I'll just show you that now when it's, um, started to solidify, and you'll be able to see a lovely red color. So as you can see, this has set. I've put a label on, and I just put on the bottom of the label to wash your hands after applying. So say, like me, you've got a twinge, rub it on, make sure you wash your hands because you don't want to then rub your eye. So there you go, very simple. And I'll have more in four to six weeks. I won't have used all this because you, you use very little, but some of this is for other people, um, and then there'll be more when it's needed again. So it's that simple, and it's so cheap.
So if you have any pain, remember you can use this on headaches, migraines, any muscular ache or pain, arthritis, any weariness after working. Put a little bit of this on, and it's absolutely wonderful. And, um, I hope you give it a try and let me know in the comments. All the details will be underneath the video in the box below, and, um, yeah, I hope you enjoy giving it a try. And, um, it's evening time now. We're about to do a beekeeper's course. So I'll see you next week. Bye. I hope you enjoyed today's film. If you did, subscribe and hit the bell for notifications. And have a look at the website, darnewsirishherb.com, for more information about us and about the herbal medicine courses I offer and the wiseman way training. And if you go to the shop, you can find the books, the weed handbooks, and other herbal goodies. And remember, we put a new film out every Sunday. So looking forward to seeing you next week. [Music]