Infusing Wild/homegrown herbs....to make healing balms

Good morning fellow Steemians and @earthtribe ! Today we are infusing and decocting wild herbs and garden herbs we have harvested throughout this season. I LOVE THIS ALCHEMY!!!!! Taking herbs and plants...and blending them with different oils to create..... magical....and deeply medicinal... infusions! You can see the vibrant colors in each jar! Once we have infused the herbs/plants... we are working with....we like to make muscle balms/salves. Been working on a few formulas for about decade now...and have slowly developed a hot and cold version of that feels incredible on our sore musles..aches..etc. We use infused oils...as well as essential oils. I'll list the full ingredients for our hot and cold balms... below. This isn't a how to post. SO many good ones out there on how to make these balms. This is more of an inspiration post!!!! So many of us already make healing balms like this....and it's fun to share in the collective JOY...that we can create our own medicines!

Take a look a the photos below...to see some of our wild herb harvests and garden harvests ....that go into these balms. Finding the colonies of herbs...in the wild...and returning to them every year...is as fun and fulfilling as gardening!!! We love the wild ones...and the garden ones. We harvest and dry them...then jar them...until we are ready for making infusions for balms.

Below you can see local cottonwood buds...we harvest in the early spring.

The smell of these herbs like...cottonwood buds...as they slowly infuse...is soooo wonderful!!!!! We use an electric hot plate so we can control the temperature of the heat better. We use a double boiler as you can see in this image...and a laser temp gun...to monitor temps of the oil. I like to keep the decocting/infusing oils as low of a temp as I can....so as to preserve the goodies in these raw plants...and oils.

Below is local Pinon Pine pitch. We like to gather the pinon pitch because it's so abundant around here. This is my favorite one to infuse. mmmmmmmm! :)

In the food forest we use the spearmint....and mixed mints.....to make and infusion of mint...for use in our cold balm.

Below you can see lemongrass that we transplant around our greenhouse...and as we do...we keep roots and aerial parts for infusion.

One of my favorite herbs to wild harvest is Osha root. THIS ONE.....is my favorite one to go visit...and smell.....and just BE WITH! We infuse this into our heating balm.

Here's Osha Root up close. Powerful ally this one!

Just love the looks of organic menthol crystals!!!!! These beauties are ordered from Mt. Rose Herbs...and goes into our balms. MMMMM!!!!!

COLD VERSION:

all organic/non gmo, wildcrafted and home grown ingredients:

Coconut oil, Cacao butter, Beeswax, Peppermint, Spearmint, Wintergreen, Menthol, Pinon Pine pitch, Scotch pine, Spruce, Juniper, Comfrey, Green tea, Cottonwood buds, Cinnamomum camphora, Lavender, Rosemary, Eucalyptus, Vitamin E, Birch. DMSO. Emu Oil. Raw hemp CBD oil. Decarboxylated hemp CBD oil.

HOT VERSION:

Coconut Oil, Cacao butter, Beeswax, Peppermint, Lemongrass, Menthol, Cayenne, Comfrey, Seabuckthorn, Green tea, Turmeric root, Osha root, Usnea Lichen, (Cinnamonum Cassia, Zeylanicum, Camphora.) Nutmeg, Black pepper, Clove, Lavender, Boswellia serrata, Rosemary, Eucalyptus, Sage, Juniper, Vitamin E, DMSO, Raw hemp CBD oil. Decarboxylated hemp CBD oil.

Below you can see the hot version on the left and cold on the right!

Cheers to our freedoms.... fellow Steemians and @earthtribe !!!!!! Feel so blessed to be among you all at this time sharing....our passions and love!!!!!! Thanks for checking out our post today...and for all your support!!!!!

Jake and the Raw Utah family