In the world of farming, it is always important to give everyone and everything their proper appreciation. Everyone has a job and skills to do that job with. Everything has its proper place and proper use. It is always good to know and understand how things work and why you need them. Thus is the case of Black Drawing salve. If you have never used drawing salve, you should look into it. Do not underestimate the value of drawing salve.
Spring is coming, the days are sunny and there are all sorts of things to be done on the farm. We have weeding to do to get the garden ready, weeding to get the herb garden ready, and general weeding all over. With all that weeding, if the rose bush does not get you the thorn bushes and briars vines will.
Along with the spring flowers comes the spring bees and wasps also.
We have an old pheasant pen to “remodel” into a new chicken barn. There is old wood to tear out and pile up. There are all kinds of odd things in the old pheasant pen that need to move out. Somehow, those old boards always have splinters sticking out even if you do not see them, you find them. We will do a talk about that project at a different time.
Overall there are so many ways to get “something” stuck in your finger or hand. If you are really good you can get briar thorns in your knees when you kneel down. If you have ever done yard or fieldwork, you have found some of these stingy, and pokey things for yourself.
Here is where the great value of drawing salve comes in. Drawing salve is a black salve that you cover embedded splinters, thorns, metal shards, and just about anything else that is in your skin. The drawing salve will draw the splinter out of your skin and draw the poison out of bee stings.
Black Drawing salve used to be a common household medical item but has lost popularity over the years. This should not have been lost to “modern medicine”. There are many situations that drawing salve could prevent and issue or fix the issue.
You could at one time, buy black drawing salve from your local pharmacy, I assume you still can. But you can also make your own at home. As you know from our previous talks, we try to be self-sufficient and make many of the things we need rather than buying them. Black drawing salve is not hard to make and the ingredients are fairly inexpensive.
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There are a few special ingrediants and some prep time required to make your own drawing salve so keep that in mind and make it before you need it.
You will need:
2 teaspoons beeswax
1/2 teaspoon vitamin E oil
10 drops tea tree essential oil
1 tablespoon local honey
3 teaspoons activated charcoal
3 teaspoons bentonite clay
8 tablespoons of herb infused olive oil (this is the part that takes some pre-planing).
You can get all the needed herbs and oils from StarWest, they are our usual go-to for essential oils and herbs. You can get the Bentonite clay and charcoal from StarWest also.
If you are planning to use drawing salve, it is best to plan ahead and have the ingrediants ready at hand. We keep a pot of drawing salve and when it starts to get low, we set up the infused oil to be ready when we need it.
Your olive oil must be infused with calendula, comfrey, and plantain (the herb not the banana). You can go one of 2 ways with making your herb-infused oil, the fast and the slow. Either way seems to get the correct results, time is the only difference.
Process one, slow method, for making your herb-infused oil: put all of your herbs into a mason jar, add the olive oil, seal, and wait. You will need to let it sit for 2 to 3 weeks and give it a good shake every day. After 2 to 3 weeks, strain out the herbs and keep the oil. This is what you will use for making your drawing salve.
Process two, fast method, for making herb-infused oil: place your oil and herbs in a mason jar. Using the hot bath method, like with canning, you put the jar into a pot of water and heat it, not to boiling, for 4hrs or so. Let it sit overnight and then strain out herbs. Keep the oil as this is what you will use to make your drawing salve.
Ok, once you have your infused oil finished and other ingrediants together, it is time to make your drawing salve. The infused oil is the part that takes the longest. Putting the salve together is fairly quick and simple.
We start with melting the beeswax, as it takes a bit longer to melt that wax and it must be melted to mix the rest of the ingrediants with.
Put your beeswax into a microwave-safe bowl and heat for 30-second intervals. Stir and heat until totally melted.
You can do all of this on the stovetop if you do not want to use the microwave or if you do not have one. Just follow the steps as with the microwave.
When your beeswax is almost melted, add the infused oil. Heat and stir til completely melted and well mixed.
When you have the was and infused oils well mixed add the vitamin e oil.
If on the stovetop, take the pot off the heat. You will not need to heat it anymore, as long as you do not take too long and let the wax get solid again.
If using the microwave, take the bowl out and continue working on the countertop.
Add honey to the melted wax and oil mix. Be sure to stir well.
Add the Tea Tree oil and always stir well to be sure you have all the ingrediants mixed well before moving to the next step.
We mix the bentonite clay and charcoal powders together.
Then add the powder mix to the warm oil mix.
Be sure to mix well to get all the ingredients well blended. The charcoal has a bad habit of wanting to settle to the bottom of the oil. Mix well so this does not happen.
As you mix, you will notice the mix will start to form up as it cools and mixes.
Once you have your mix well blended, put it into the final container to finish cooling and setting up.
We use recycled baby food jars, 2 jars seem to be the right size for this recipe.
There you have made your first DIY drawing salve. Keep it on hand for splinters to draw the splinter out. Use it on bug bites, cuts, and scrapes as it has anti-bacterial properties. This salve is great on bee and wasp stings also as it will draw the poison out of the sting. One of the teens tried it on their pimple and swears it is magic on acne.
To use, put a small bit on the splinter or affected area. You will want to cover it with a bandage to keep the black salve from staining clothes and such.
And there you have another DIY home medical remedy that you can make for yourself. This drawing salve is a great addition to your home first aid kit. You will like this salve much better than those, expensive, smelly, sticky, chemically, tubes you buy from the pharmacy. You are now one step closer to begin a self-sufficient house.
This is a recipe that kids can help with, just be careful with the hot liquids. We do make a bit of a mess with the charcoal powder but it is good, clean, fun. We want everyone to know how to and be able to make things for themselves, in case the kids find themselves in a situation away from home. There are many ways to be self-sufficient and knowing how to handle yourself when not at home is an important one.
We have found this salve to be very handy and it is one of the household first aid staples.
We hope you have enjoyed this talk. Please do try making your own DIY black drawing salve.
Thank you for visiting and please come again for another edition on Out Standing in the Field.
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