Salves are ideally made in Summer, when herbs are fresh and abundant. During this time the only thing you need do is
wander through the forest until you happen upon the desired ingredients by chance. If you require herbs that cannot be found
locally, you can usually find them at nurseries or even dried herbs at natural food stores or your local grocery store.
Green walnut hulls and whole, smashed horse chestnuts make ideal additives for salves and poultices,
as they possess skin-healing and painkilling virtues.
Get a large pot and add the appropriate herbs. Pour in enough high-quality olive oil to
just cover the herbs. Slowly simmer the herbs in the oil for twenty minutes. In another smaller pot heat three or four
tablespoons of good, fresh beeswax per cup of oil. Pure beeswax can be found at craft stores and candle shoppes.
When both pots reach the same temperature, pour the wax into the oil and herb mixture. Strain
and pour into clean, dry glass jars.
If you intend to keep it for a long time, add one ounce per quart of tincture of benzoin as
a preservative, while the mixture is still liquid. If you live in a hot, damp climate, take care when adding the tincture
of benzoin.
Mold may form on the finished salve after awhile. If it does, immediately discard the salve
and the jar it's kept in. The secret to preventing this from happening is to use totally clean, dry and sanitized jars, pots
and utensils. Think clean. Everything must be surgical-grade sterile. Usually, all you need do is boil and dry everything
the salve touches.
The salve can then be cooled and applied directly to the skin, wherever the affliction exists.
Depending on the herbs, the combination of herbs, and the amount of herbs, you should repeat the application two or three
times every day.
