Making Infused Botanical Oils
Lemon Verbena Drying
This year, in addition to feeding us, the garden provided countless bouquets of flowers for birthdays, fall leaves for Thanksgiving, and greenery and berries for Christmas decorations.
Other than food, the most important products of the garden were the flowers and herbs that I picked, dried and infused to make the botanical oils and balms that were my Christmas presents to my family.
Birthday Bouquet
The flowers I used were the most prolific this year: lavender, roses, white heliotrope and lemon verbena.
I picked them on ascending flower days, (leaf days for the verbena) and dried them before infusing them in oil in the following manner.
- Take a clean mason jar and lid and boil it in a pot of water for 10 minutes (or use the sterilizing function of an instant pot if you have one)
- Remove from pot carefully with clean tongs and invert onto a clean paper towel. Let cool and dry.
- Using clean tongs or a clean spoon wiped with alcohol, pack the mason jar with dried flowers or herbs, then fill the jar with a neutral oil such as fractionated coconut oil. Cap and tighten well.
- Immerse the filled jar up to its neck in a barely simmering water bath for a couple of hours, then remove pot and jar from heat and let cool. Alternatively let jar sit in a spot out of direct sunlight for at least two weeks, preferably a month, before using.
- Strain the oil by pouring it slowly through a funnel lined with a small coffee filter (or a piece of cotton cloth that you have previously boiled and dried for this purpose) into a clean sterilized jar.
- Use the infused scented oil as is to moisturize your skin and hair, as aromatherapy oil (you can add a few drops of essential oil to enhance the scent), or incorporate it as I do into soaps, scrubs and body balms. Recipes to follow!
Sterilizing and Simmering
This year I made rose-infused aromatherapy Roll-ons and lavender soaps with my grandson’s class, that the teacher sent home for the holidays. For my Christmas boxes I made three different scents of aromatherapy oils: – Lavender rose – Jasmine rose – Lemon Verbena
I also made body balms, body and face scrubs, hair and beard oil, soaps and lip balms.
Christmas Box
It was a good year in the garden! I am deeply grateful for all of its bounties and blessings, far too many to enumerate.
THANK YOU GOD – THANK YOU GAÏA!
Chantal
The Moon Gardener
dublaj izle
Only wanna say that this is handy , Thanks for taking your time to write this. Camellia William Ladew