Pioneer Woman at Heart

                        (old photo of picked plantain, but I used both broad leaf and narrow-leafed plantain for the salve)   I completely forgot to share our newest addition to the medicine cabinet  - plantain salve.  It's a homemade drawing salve.  Plantain  (a weed that grows wild) is what saved me when I had a very nasty spider bite years ago.  I asked my husband to go outside and pick it, macerate it, and make a poultice.  I used it until I found a decent doctor (which was hard to do at the time). I used 1/2 cup infused oil (used grapeseed oil to infuse it), and 2 Tbsp. of beeswax.  Heat together until the beeswax is melted, pour into jars and cool completely.  You can add essential oils too, but add them after you take the melted oil/beeswax off the heat. By the way, before this was made, and I needed a drawing salve, I used a mix of homemade calendula oil, some store purchased...

  How each container looks before I mix the "water" solution into the oil mixture.  I use a hand held immersion blender (specifically for non-food mixing). I use Rosemary Gladstar's recipe for this, using grapeseed oil/apricot oil and shea butter (vs. cocoa butter or coconut oil).  The recipe is now online (video with Mother Earth News, as whipped face cream) as well as in her book. New to the medicine stash - yarrow salve.  I've already used it for a scraped up arm.  Works great to stop bleeding, but has other uses.  You can find free recipes online for different amounts, and you can add essential oils in the end if you'd like to.  It's a basic melt down and pour type making, and very easy to make (you'll need to infuse an oil with the yarrow first). Both are very easy to make. I do have utensils that I only use for making homemade items such as these, and the face cream requires a blender or hand held immersion blender (which is what I use for an eas...

  I've narrowed down my draft blogposts.  I went from 80-some down to 38.  I have resurrected another draft.  The odd part, is that I made this salve years ago, and never posted this draft.  I have no idea why I didn't.  It was drafted up, but the date is not showing up. All I know is that this was the 2nd version of comfrey salve and I like it much better.   You can make comfrey salve a few different ways.  You can check recipes in library books or on the worldwide web too.  Many vary, but I have been making salves for a while, so I  know how thick I want it.   The first recipe I attempted created a very hard salve.  It was too hard to even use.  I was a beginner salve maker at that point. You can also use an oil of your preference for making the infused comfrey oil prior to your salve making.  I, for the most part, use olive oil, but I have used grapeseed and jojoba oils, depending on what I am making them for....

  I have attempted to try this vegetable more than once (back between 2012 and 2015, but could not find it here locally.  Finally, we have found it at one store recently. I roasted it with olive oil and salt and pepper, to get an idea of the flavor we are working with.  I was told it would taste like a golden potato, by roasting it this way.  It did not, but it was delicious, and creamy in the center. I peeled it, diced it and tossed it in olive oil.  I sprinkled it with salt and pepper both.  I roasted it at 425°F for 40 minutes (stirring half way during roasting time).   A rutabaga is a cross between cabbage and a turnip.  It is a root vegetable.  Do you grow rutabagas in your garden?  We are considering it, as we have a terrible time finding it in our stores (or any farm stand) in our area. I have one more to experiment with, and I hope to return to the same store and get a few more. I did not get any answers about the bee k...