This is the spruce in grape seed oil that I put up around the full moon in February. I usually would leave it til the next full moon but life circumstances changed that and here we are two moons later. I checked it several times because you need to make sure that the plant material stays under the oil. And that there is no room or conditions for condensation to happen or that would make for mold growth and other nasties.
Depending on the plant material, I sometimes use cheesecloth as a filter when squeezing the oil out. I didn't find it necessary for the spruce.
After squeezing what I could, I left the spruce in a sieve over-top of a measuring cup and let it drip what was left while I had a cup of tea.
I filtered the oil again, through a smaller strainer this time to get rid of any debris that went through the first one.
I put the bottle of the grapeseed oil next to the infused oil. You can't make it out too well but there is quite a difference.
Next I measured out small chunks of beeswax. I had about 1 1/3 cup infused oil so I weighed out an ounce of beeswax.
Some people will say use more and some people will say use less.
I think it is one of those things that is based a lot on your experience, a what you are trying to achieve and plain old personal preference
Also some people grate the wax. Some have it chunked. I usually just break it up as small as I can with my hands..
I use a double boiler to make salves.
Here the infused oil in in the pan and the beeswax has been added.
It looks like I grated it myself, but in truth those are the crumblies from the bottom of my beeswax container.
You can't see the beeswax in there once it melts. But it's there and will be doing it's job shortly.
The salve pour into the jars.
And the salve no longer a liquid and after it cools some more I will lid and label.
Spruce salve is good for sore muscles and stiff joints.
You can also make the same salve with a pine needles(I have heard that pine is actually more potent). We have spruce here and pine are scarce so spruce salve it is.
Hello :)
