[Herbalist] REQ: bruise juice recipie or similar tintures or remidies.

Gaylin Walli iasmin at home.com
Sat May 19 08:02:27 PDT 2001


>Should the St John's Wort, Comfrey, and Calendula be fresh or can
>they be dried?

In my recipes, any plant matter fresh or dried is fine. The problem becomes
what happens to the plant when it sits in the oil. Caristiona, who posted the
original recipe, may have had different experiences because she lets her herbs
sit in oil in the sun. I don't do this because I don't like exposing
the plant matter
to the sunlight, just the heat. However, when you put the plants in
the oil, fresh
plant matter can often cook unexpectedly when I've made my bruise balm. If the
oil has a hot spot and the plant matter has a juicy or wet spot, I've found you
have an instant french fry. The way I've gotten around this is to use
either the
oven (making a little herb oil casserole) of to use a crock pot. I
like the crock
pot method best because it doesn't heat up the house, still fits in
the dishwasher,
works faster than sitting out in the sun for weeks (and keeps things out of the
sun), and can make rather large batches.

Iasmin



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