i have previously posted about all the calendula in our tiny garden here in norway. we have a couple of thousand flowers and by this time many are going to seed. with about 25 seeds per flower we could end up with about
50 000 seeds.
so i was thinking about posting a couple of weeks ago in the i have far too many theme week but at that time we had flowers and not many seeds. and how can you have too many of these wonderful bright and cheery flowers.
anyway we do pick a few flowers and use them in cooking. they brighten up raw salads, and add color and a little peppery taste to cooked dishes and soups but honestly it's not an herb we eat much of. it is much more of a medicinal herb, famous for treatment of a wide variety of skin conditions including eczema, psoriasis, wounds, sunburn, acne, as a moisturizer and more. but there are more uses than just for skin.
so i make calendula oil. to be clear it's not an extract of calendula but rather an infusion in a coconut oil base which has it's own wonderful properties. we make the coconut oil from coconuts in our garden in india. here is a link about that:
@eolianpariah2/making-coconut-oil
so toward the end of july i picked some of the ones that had gone to seed as well as about 300 flowers with the stems. new flowers will form in their place so instead of most going to seed in august the garden that should look good well into autumn
here's an odd one that is both flower and seeds in one. that's strange. haven't seen that before.
anyway i gathered the picked flowers together and started removing the petals. i also saved some of the brown seeds in hopes of getting early bloomers next year
now these dry quickly. i just cover them with a thin cloth and leave them in the strong sun on the garden table. after three days they are completely dry and ready to use.
when the petals were dry it was time to make the oil. i took a handful of the dry petals in a bowl. but i had noticed many more had finished flowering and if i didn't pick them then they would start spreading seeds, first in the hundreds and soon after in the thousands so i picked as many as i could find first
i filled a handful of the dry calendula petals in the jar and added the coconut oil 3/4 full. we store the oil in a cool place so it is hard and white at first but after a little while in the sun it becomes soft enough to pour
i put another handful of petals in the oil and stirred them in before topping up the jar with more oil. covered tightly it has to be stored in a warm dark place for 6 weeks. shake the jar once a week or so. then after 6 weeks simply strain away the petals. the oil will be ready to use. by that time the temperature will have dropped and autumn storms set in. anybody for a nice massage? great for internal use for digestive issues and gut inflammation. are you familiar with the ayurvedic practice of oil pulling? this is ideal for it. i didn't even use half of the dry petals so i will make more.