Transcription
[Music] foreign [Music] and we're going to talk about how to take your comfrey plant from fresh to dried. And then we're going to talk about how to infuse an oil. And then we're going to talk about how to make a comfrey salve that is just amazing. We're going to share a little bit about the benefits and uses of comfrey when used topically. We're not going to dress and address internal use, that could be for another video.
And I just want to tell you really fast, this video is sponsored by The Confident Herbalist Tribe, which is my herbalism membership. It is amazing. It's full of master classes. Comfrey is one of the master classes. This is a 72-page researched, fully researched look with recipes, a complete Materia Medica. It's longer and more involved than any other herbalism reference I've ever seen on comfrey, and that's how we do our master classes. We definitely put a lot of research and effort into that.
So let's go ahead and start from the very beginning. You've gone out into your garden and you've picked your comfrey leaves and you've dried them. You just, I just hang these to dry. And now what you want to do is you want to garble them. You want to get that leaf or that green leaf off of the stem. The stem is something you can use it if you want to, but you don't need to. So what I like to do is simply take the end of the stem and pull that leaf right off of it. And then you've got this little stem piece, see that? And I'm going to go ahead and put that over here. And now you just crumble up your leaf, and that's going to give you your comfrey.
You know, I have a lot of comfrey, so I end up storing a lot of comfrey for later use for the year. And we have a ton of comfrey, which is wonderful. But I got a little bowl and I put my crumbled comfrey into the bowl. I used about two cups of crumbled comfrey, really crumbled well. And then I went ahead and I added about, I'm going to say an eighth of a cup or so of high proof alcohol. And I used 190 proof. You could also use 150 proof. But using the alcohol really, especially if you're going to do a fast oil infusion, it helps to break down the cell walls of the plant a lot faster. And then you get this gorgeous bright green comfrey to go ahead and put into your infused oil.
So the next step after that, after, and I just let that sit. It ended up sitting for about two days, but I could have just let it sit for eight hours, would have been just fine. And then what I did was I took that comfrey that had absorbed the alcohol and I put it into this half gallon jar. And then I filled this to the shoulder with my olive oil. And then I put it into a double boiler system, which I used my crock pot set on warm. And basically just let it infuse for, I let it go about three days, but you could let it go about eight, eight hours if not eight days. Eight hours or so would be fine. Two days is fine. I ended up getting really busy, I didn't get back to it for a few days, and that was fine. I just checked on the water to make sure that the water didn't evaporate out of the crock pot. I like to put a cloth on the bottom of my crock pot when I do this and then set the jar on top. I also do that when I'm working with a saucepan double boiler system, which I've got going right here, and we're going to get to that in just a moment.
All right, so the straining off part is always fun. And for that, you just need your Pyrex and you need your strainer. And you just go ahead and pour your liquid right through the strainer. And I'm going to stop right there because it's actually pretty full. And there you are. You've got this gorgeous, it looks brown on the camera, I think, but this is bright green. It's bright green comfrey infused oil.
Let's go ahead and quickly talk about how to make the salve. And then I'm going to go ahead and run down the benefits and uses of comfrey because this salve is incredibly wonderful for a number of different issues. Okay, and I can talk about that while my salve is going. So to make your salve, you can use any size jar you want, depending on how much you want to make. I'm going to use a pint jar and I'm going to use one cup of my comfrey infused oil. I like using these jars because the measurements are right on the jar and you can just fill it up to the level that you want it. I want one cup, so voila, we have a cup right here of the comfrey infused oil. And I've got one quarter cup of beeswax. And I have found that ratio works really well for me. I know some herbalists like to use more or less. And your beeswax is what firms up your salve. So if you want a firmer salve, you would just use more beeswax. If you want a more of an ointment-y, oozy salve, you would use less beeswax.
So now I'm going to go ahead and take this and I've got my water at a nice low simmer. And I'm just going to let that heat up until the beeswax is melted. I have a glass stir rod here, so I'm just going to keep it stirred up and we'll get that going and get that melted down. And I'm going to go ahead and put these out of the way so you can see what I'm going to do next. Okay, I wanted to put some essential oil into this salve that we're making. So I'm just going to, just speak very quickly about the essential oils I'm using. Now, depending on what you want to use this salve for, you might want to choose some different oils. But I'm using this salve specifically for pain relief of the joints or muscles, skin rashes, things like that. Well, I'll talk more about the benefits and uses of the salve in a moment. And I'm going to be using two ounce tins. So I've got five of them with my one cup of my comfrey infused oil and my one-quarter cup of beeswax. That together combined is 10 ounces. So here we, hence the, the five tins here.
All right, so what I did is I made a little mixture of essential oils. This is 240 drops of essential oil. And I used peppermint. I guess I could tell you the number of drops I decided to use, although again, you can mix and match this. So I've got my little, quickly put together recipe right here for my pain relieving drops. I've got 40 drops of peppermint. Peppermint contains menthol, it's very pain relieving. I have got 30 drops of lavender. I love this lavender. Oh, mmm, so good. Lavender is antimicrobial and really helpful if you've got bug bites or stings or things like that. And then I've got copaiba balsam. Copaiba contains a chemical called beta-caryophyllene, and it's nice and it is very helpful for inflammation and helping to reduce pain. Beta-caryophyllene is actually the same chemical that makes CBD so powerful.
All right, next up, we have got 30 drops of eucalyptus globulus. Again, this is antimicrobial, really helpful if you've got some skin conditions and things like that. And then we've got 30 drops of ginger. A very wonderful anti and anti-inflammatory in it. I just want to encourage you to smell your plants like I do. It's fun. It just makes you happy.
All right, next up, we've got black pepper. Black pepper also is very high in the chemical beta-caryophyllene too. So we're power bringing this up. Now, I want to say, even though both of these essential oils, the copaiba and the black pepper, are high in beta-caryophyllene, they each have different constituents they're bringing to the table. And that helps this whole mixture really synergize or come together very well.
Next up, I've got German chamomile. German chamomile is very anti-inflammatory. It contains a chemical called chamazulene, and it turns things into blue oil. And your blue oils are going to be very wonderful for inflammation. And I just love German chamomile. I love the smell of it, and it's calming and soothing. 30 drops of this. And then I have got some rosemary. And this is special rosemary because it's a chemo type of camphor. Camphor comes and soothes pains and also is antimicrobial. Smells wonderful.
Okay, now if you don't have all of these essential oils, because this is a lot of essential oils, we've got what, nine or six, seven, eight different essential oils here. And I actually considered putting in some wintergreen too. Wintergreen contains methyl salicylate and it's very pain relieving topically. But I didn't want to do that just in case we were going to use it on little cuts and bruises and things. I've got these eight oils. Now, if you only have peppermint, lavender, and rosemary, especially if it's a chemo type of camphor, you're good to go. Just go ahead and mix it up with the number of drops you want, although keep in mind your dilution rates. 240 drops in 10 ounces of oil is roughly five percent dilution, so it's pretty powerful. And I've got it in this little, I already measured out the drops so you wouldn't have to watch me count them all, but I've got them in this little bowl.
All righty, let's see how our, oh, it's coming. The beeswax is starting to melt beautifully. Just got a couple more minutes to go. Nice.
So let's go ahead and talk about quickly why you'd want to use this beautiful salve. I'm going to push the essential oils off to the side here, put my tin over here. So this salve is really helpful if you've got conditions like arthritis or rheumatism. It's super helpful for the joints. So I love comfrey infused oil, especially if you're using your essential oils to power it up, to support joint health. So the other thing it can do is to help heal tissue. So tissue or things like your bones, your muscles, your cartilage, tendons, things of that nature. So if you have gotten a sprain, or if you're dealing with even a broken bone or something along those lines, this salve can be very helpful for helping the tissue heal. And it does soak into the skin, it does get into the bloodstream, and it really goes to work to help out. Now, it's not as powerful as if you were drinking the tea or something like that, but we're not talking about internal use today. But this salve used externally may be a wonderful helper for conditions like that. If you hurt your back, if your back goes out, give this a shot. It's really possibly very helpful. Sore muscles. Let's just say you went to the gym and you worked out. So the way your muscles build when you go to the gym and you're working out, you've got little micro tears in your muscles, and that can be pretty painful. And that's just a normal process of building up muscle. So this salve can be super helpful if you are a workout person, or let's just say you just worked out in the garden for too long, then it's really helpful.
Next, skin conditions. Comfrey contains a chemical called allantoin in very high amounts. Allantoin is a cell regenerator. So if you've got skin conditions like rashes or bug bites, things like that, it can be really helpful for conditions of that nature. In fact, this salve used on your face, it's very green, keep that in mind, but it's really would be very helpful. But I would not put these essential oils in anything to do with your face. Okay? Although I have to say, it smells delightful. But no, you don't, you definitely don't want to put a five percent dilution of any essential oil on your face.
All righty, so let's see how we're doing. It is almost melted down, so it's getting there. While it's continuing to melt down, let me just go ahead and share a little bit more about The Confident Herbalist Tribe. So that's my membership. I've got several courses and memberships. I've got short courses that are like workshops, and some of them are not, some of them contain many videos, but they're a little shorter. And then I've got my Ditch the Drugstore course, which is the course where I literally get in the trenches with you three times a year for six weeks, and we go ahead and get your home apothecary built out. It is customized. It is not a generic cold and flu course. It's actually an apothecary you need and is designed to pretty much help you ditch the drugstore because we're making things that you could buy there. All right, it's a wonderful thing if you're into preparedness.
Next up is my Family Herbalist Certification Program. And it is Ditch the Drugstore on steroids. Okay, so it's designed to help you dive into it. Basically, it's Ditch the Drugstore plus we dive into 15 different front master classes and the phytochemistry and the formulations and everything you need to know about 15 herbs. Plus, there's the essential oils, which we go into 25 of them in depth that you should know how to use if you're a home or a community herbalist. And there are quizzes, there's a project, it's so much fun. So that is the certification program.
Then there's the Tribe. And the Tribe is, I love all my courses, I love all my students, but my Tribe is where my heart is. This is a group of a few hundred students. Some of them have been with me in the Tribe for almost four years now. And I've got some really experienced people in there, very. So it's for beginning to advanced herbalists. It's go at your own pace, do however you want to do. And I've got payment options, I've got subscription options, I've got everything. So if you are a person who is on a budget, you might want to decide to get into the Tribe. And my student community is helpful. We call it the village, as a matter of fact, that's what I've started calling it because that's what it is. We've got mentors in there. I had a lady write to me the other day saying, "I love the Tribe." She says, "I love learning from you." She says, "But I just wanted to tell you that I'm being mentored," and then she told me by three different names of people who are in there helping her with her wellness and some conditions that she's dealing with. So it's just amazing.
Anyway, let's see how our beeswax is doing. And I think, I don't know if that might be too hot for me to pull it out without a little help. Go ahead and grab these towels. Lift this out of there. Okay, so I've got my, let me turn this off. So I've got my infused oil with my melted beeswax. So it looks lovely. I'm just going to wipe off and be sure there is no moisture. Sometimes you'll get little moisture droplets on your jar, and that's fine as long as they're on the outside. You don't want these on the inside of your jar. So I'm just going to give this a wipe. Yeah, we're good to be sure. The reason is, you don't want to introduce water into your salve because it'll mess it up. It'll just, it'll make it go moldy and bad.
All right, now I'm going to pour my essential oils in. Again, this is 250 drops. Blue oils, or should I get all those out of there? The blue oils are a little on the pricey side. With this boat, I like to make sure I use them as well as possible. Okay, now I'm going to stir this really well. I have, when you, this is one thing I've learned when working with the blue oils is that it takes longer than you think to get your essential oils fully distributed into a carrier like a lotion or in this case, comfrey infused oil. So I am stirring this really well. I'm sorry, I love smelling my herbal and aromatic concoctions. And I hope I didn't just get blue oil on my shirt. Blue oil stains, comfrey infused oil stains. So if you are using this and you're worried about staining or clothing and things like that, just simply, you can put a bandage over it, or you're not going to be using big globs of it, you just use a thin layer. So really, I've never had any trouble with staining.
And now you're just going to very carefully pour your mixture into the tins. And then you're going to let them sit. Oh, wow. These are new tins I bought. And honestly, I'm gonna have to go get another tin because I think these are more than or less than two ounce tins. Interesting. These are, yeah, this is the first time I've bought from this company in a while. Anyway, I've got a little bit left over. I'll always keep pouring and pouring until I have a mishap. Hopefully, I won't. What happens is when the infused oil mixture with the beeswax gets into your tins, it does tend to start setting up pretty quickly, especially if you're in a cold environment. And it's not super cold in here, but okay, look at that. I managed to get rid of all of it, or didn't not get rid of it, but pour it into my five tins. So I'm going to let these tins sit now. And I'm not going to touch them. I'm not going to move them. I'm not doing anything with them for probably two hours or so, because I want them to set up firmly all the way through the center. And at that point, we can go ahead and take a look at this and see how this goes. See how easy it is to make herbal salves. And it smells amazing. Gorgeous. I just, I love this.
Okay, so I'm going to go ahead and set these aside here. So I've got five salves, five two ounce salves from this amount of comfrey. Just two cups of dried comfrey. It's all this is in olive oil. And I went ahead and poured off the rest of the infused oil that was in the half gallon container. And I ended up with five eight ounce bottles of the comfrey infused oil. And I'm going to be adding this to my shop, which is Grace Garden Apothecary, and also using it. I'm going to go ahead and make some more comfrey infused oil. I'm just so impressed by how this turned out this year. The comfrey plants are super healthy, and I just love this.
So there you go. That's how to work with comfrey topically, how it's used, the benefits and uses, how to make the salve, which is gorgeous, smells beautiful. And I hope that you enjoyed this quick video. Don't forget, if you are really wanting to learn herbalism from a real practicing herbalist and certified trained aromatherapist, join us in The Confident Herbalist Tribe. I will put the link down below in the description. Also, consider taking one of our other courses. All right, I'm Heidi Villegas with Elaine Harvest Homestead. It has been so nice to talk with you today. Be sure to get your free herbal remedy guide if you don't have it yet, or your free How to Relax Using Herbs and Oils guide. They are both filled with recipes and fun things to do with your plants. All right, I'll talk with you in the next video. Thank you so much for being here. And please subscribe and share this if you've got friends who you think might like this. All right, I'll see you later. Bye.
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