DIY Salve with Plantain

For many reasons, I feel like I come alive in the summer. One part of the season that I do not enjoy, and I know I'm not alone in this regard, is bug bites. Not only do I dislike the itch and sting, but it is compounded by the fact that my daughters hate them and often refuse to go outside because of them. There are many products on the store shelves for bug bites, but in my quest to make my own and avoid unnecessary packaging and potentially harmful ingredients, this summer I have made my own skin salve, with the key ingredient being plantain. I also fits in nicely with my one little word for the year, make.

Plantain is a very hardy plant and grows almost anywhere, especially in lawns along concrete path and driveways. Most people think it as a weed and pull it up, but it is edible and can be used as a topical application for skin irritations like bug bites, stings, rashes and cuts. I have some growing in my raised garden beds and as long as it doesn't take over, I leave it.

Sometimes when I'm watering my garden in the morning I get mosquito bites, so I just grab a leaf of the plantain, crumple it (some people suggest chewing it) to release the moisture inside and directly apply to the itchy spot. Within 5-10 minutes the itch and sting is gone. 

I like to have salve with me when I go out with my daughters, and I want to have some when the growing season is over, so I made some plantain salve. I'm happy to report that it works as well as directly applying the leaf. 

I apologize for the approximations in my recipe below. I just played around different recipes  until I had the consistency I liked. Because I use coconut oil that can be very soft to liquid in warm temperatures, I added a little more beeswax to help keep the salve in more solid form during warm summer weather.

Ingredients and Materials:

• approximately 1 to 1 1/2 cups dry plantain leaves, chopped 
• approximately 1 1/2 cups oil (I like coconut oil for skin care)
• approximately 1-2 tablespoons beeswax 
• essential oil of choice (I like tea tree oil for it's curing properties)
• glass jar (I use mason jars)
• fine strainer or cheese cloth
• containers for the completed salve
• double boiler or pot and stainless steel bowl or crock pot

Method:

• Harvest the plantain leaves. If you must wash them, make sure they are dry so that the salve will last longer. Chop them into small pieces.

• Place oil on the plantain leaves in a glass jar. Completely mix together.

• Place the jar in a pot or crock pot with enough water to come almost to the top of the oil. Gently heat the mixture on very low heat for about 12 hours. I wasn't home long enough to do this in one go so I split the heating over two days. 

I added a cloth under my mason jar in the crock pot
so the glass wouldn't have direct heat on it.

• Strain the plantain leaves from the oil and allow the oil to cool completely. 

• Using a double boiler or pot of water and stainless steel bowl, melt the beeswax and add the plantain oil. Thoroughly mix. Add a few drops of essential oil of choice. 

• Pour into small glass jars or stainless steel jars. Leave it to cool completely and store for future use. 

The salve is cooled and ready for use, which I have already
done with the salve in the mason jar. You can see how
hard my mixture is (had to use my finger to scape it) but
if you like it softer just use less beeswax. 

DIY Holiday Gift Ideas

Every year I try to make at least a few gifts to give to people on my list for Yule. I feel good that I am giving them something made with a little bit of love that is unique. Of course, making presents requires time, which is something that many of us do not have with busy work schedules and families. Realistically, to make everything that I want I should be starting in the summer, which is a goal that never seems to be met.

This year I have made, and hopefully will make, several gifts for work friends and family. The best part is that I have most of the ingredients and materials for the gifts at home already, so I am not engaging in unnecessary consumerism to make them. Below are links to my wish list of homemade gifts.





Natural body care and food presents:

• lip balm: I have made this lip balm for myself and my children and I store it in a small mason jar. I bought plastic tubes to pour the balm into before it cools to gift to other people. This would make a great stocking stuffer.
  
  

  

  It doesn't look pretty here in the mason jar,
  but as you can see my daughters use the
  lip balm frequently.

• beeswax wraps: I have been coveting these beeswax food wraps for some time, and although I love that it is a local company for me, I have not made the leap because of the stiff price. I haven't made these yet but plan on doing so before the big day. Wish me luck!

• infused sugar: This looks like a nice quick homemade present to make as a hostess gift

• vanilla extract: Sadly I did not start my extract in time to gift this to family as I had originally intended, although there is still time to make it, with a caveat that it should not be used until it has had enough time to set. 

Homemade knitted presents:

• cup cozy: I love these cup cozies and I am giving them to several friends on my gift list (and maybe an extra one for myself). These knit up quickly; I can make several in an evening.

  

  Throw in a reusable cup and a gift card
  to make a quick, useful present.

• dish cloth: Who doesn't need another dish cloth in the kitchen to clean up spills and wash counters? I am running a knitting club at my school and I am teaching my students to make basic garter stitch cloths as possible gifts for family. They can be as simple or as fancy as is desired, depending on the stitches used and pattern followed. Paired with a bar of natural castile soap, this would also be a nice quick hostess gift to have on hand for holiday party invitations. 

• easy tree ornament: These little tree ornaments are so easy to knit up (I can make one in about 30 minutes) and with a little added bling I think they will look eye catching hanging on the tree. I have made over a dozen now instead of cards for work colleagues. 

• more challenging tree ornament: With time running out I think I am going to have to add this tree ornament to my list of things to make for next year, but I definitely want to try them. So cute!

What are you making this holiday season?

My Top 11 Uses for Coconut Oil

I realize that the blogging world is buzzing with ways to use coconut oil, and the big natural health bloggers have been extolling the virtues of coconut oil for some time. I probably have dozens of pins on Pinterest for the uses of coconut oil, and I have two ebooks on my Kindle about why it is so beneficial for people to use. I would like to share my journey into the wonders of coconut oil.

There is much debate in the medical and natural health world about whether coconut oil is the new wonder food and can doing everything from curing dementia to weight loss, or that promoting it's health benefits are akin to selling swamp land in Florida. One side says it raises cholesterol and is only healthier when compared to butter, the other says that it actually lowers the bad cholesterol and raises the good cholesterol.

I slowly stared using coconut oil to fry and sauté food when I began turning away from vegetable oils. I researched PUFA oils (poly unsaturated fatty acid), which are in omega-3 and omega-6 rich oils. I read about the dangers of getting oil from some omega-6 rich products like corn, seeds and soy without a heavy manufacturing process that exposes the oil to oxidation and chemical solvents. Then to keep the oil from going rancid, it is treated with more chemicals. To top it off, the oil oxidizes even more when used to cook at high temperatures, which can contribute even more to free radicals. Also, our bodies need less omega-6 oils than omega-3, so we may be eating more of the wrong kind of oil. So while PUFA oils are held up as healthy, low fat oils, they are not. There is also the issue that low fat may not be the healthiest way to eat. (source) In the end, I'm not sure that I want to eat oil that is not possible to obtain without heavy manufacturing. Just grind corn or grape seeds and you can see that there is no visible oil present, compared to the cream rising to the top of whole unhomogenized milk and when squeezing olives.

I still love olive oil (extra virgin oil is easily obtained without heavy chemical manufacturing) but it is not ideal for cooking because of the omega-6 content that can oxidize with heat. I have moved toward butter as a "real food", it also does not do well for cooking at higher temperatures.

Enter coconut oil. It has been used for centuries for nutrition and health by practitioners of ayurvedic medicine. For example, oil pulling involves daily rinsing of the mouth with coconut oil for healthy teeth and gums because coconut oil is naturally anti-bacterial and anti-fungal. It is also used for detoxing and a multitude of other health benefits.

Virgin coconut oil (VCO) is processed by pressing the "meat", which is cold pressed, to obtain the oil, although some heating occurs due to the pressure so cooling is required to keep the oil from heating up and therefore oxidizing. Some coconut oil is processed using extreme heating and chemical processes, but it is not labeled virgin coconut oil and is therefore easy to avoid. Because coconut oil is slow to oxidize it does not go rancid for a long time (two or more years), which is not the case for most oils.

I must admit that at first it took me a while to get used to the taste of food cooked in coconut oil. I have never been a fan of the flavour of coconut. As with anything new, though, once I gave it time I began to enjoy the flavour. I started talking to people about coconut oil and heard how they were using it. Some put it in smoothies, others use it for skin moisturizer.

What? Skin care? This sent me down a whole new rabbit hole. It was at this point that I was also researching ways to detoxify my personal care products like makeup, moisturizer and cleanser, shampoo and conditioner, and the two paths collided. I began using coconut oil for basically anything you could imagine. My bathroom counter now resembles my kitchen counter (because along with coconut oil, I use honey, apple cider vinegar and Himalayan pink salt for personal care products). My daughters have jumped on the coconut oil bandwagon with me and together we are continually trying it for new purposes.


Here are my top 11 uses for coconut oil:

1. Higher temperature cooking, such as stir frys and sautés 
2. Lard substitute in baking: my favourite is using when making homemade flat breads - I substitute butter or lard with coconut oil 1:1
3. Dry feet soother: massage clean feet with generous amounts of coconut oil at night, put on an old pair of socks and leave overnight. Buff the dry areas with a pumice stone to remove the dead skin. Repeat this as often as needed until the dry areas, such as heels, are soft and smooth.
4. Homemade dark chocolate: this is my favourite chocolate treat now and it is very quick and easy to make.
5. Face moisturizer: I rub a very small amount (perhaps a pinky nail's worth) of coconut oil into the palms of my hand to melt it, then I massage it into my face after washing. I prefer doing this at night time so that it has time to be absorbed into my skin (I don't like the oily sheen in the morning when I head out for the day). 
6. Skin conditioner: after a bath or shower, particularly in the evening, I massage the oil into my skin all over my body. 
7. Shaving cream: in the summer when I do shave my legs, I sometimes use coconut oil in place of castille soap for shaving. I can skip the previous step of moisturizing my legs after a shower as the coconut oil "shaving cream" leaves my legs silky soft.
8. Sunburn soother: I try to be careful in the sun, but occasionally I get too much and have a sunburn. Coconut oil not only moisturizes the skin after a burn, it soothes the sting of a burn. Reapply as frequently as needed (several times a day), especially with a bad burn.
9. Hair conditioner: I use the "no 'poo" method to wash my hair (either nothing but water to wash, or baking soda / apple cider vinegar) and but occasionally I need to do a deep condition. I melt a small amount (teaspoon or less) in the palms of my hands and massage into my scalp and hair. I leave it in my hair until the next time I wash it and put my hair in a bun or pony tail for the day. 
10. Mouth canker sore soother: I have found putting coconut oil topically on my canker sores (which I am quite prone to) soothes the pain. After the initial sting, the pain is gone for up to an hour, which is as long as other over the counter remedies work for me.
11. Bug bite soother: my oldest daughter discovered this one - whenever she feels a bug bite itching she applies coconut oil to the area and it relieves the itch and sting. She just reapplies when it returns.