Lavender Honey

  I tried making Lavender Honey and it was delicious! Honey in and of itself is nourishing, and Lavender is good for calming the nerves and relieving depression. 
Lavender is a very strong smelling herb which is why it's very good for this project.
I used a pint jar and filled it 1/4 full of dried Lavender flowers.
Then I filled the jar with natural honey, up to about where the lid will come down to when you put it on.
Stir it up and put your lid on tight.
It sits for a total of three weeks, the first week stir it every day (but I wouldn't stress over that if I was you) then just let it sit for the next to weeks. And then Strain it at the end of the three weeks.

Don't forget to lable it! There are some unidentified creations at our house that we don't have the heart to get rid of but we can't use them because we don't know what they are.
Fun Fact: Lavenders Latin name- Lavendula Angustifolia

Share this with Wildcrafting Wednesday #43@ The Woodwife's Journal.

Making Chapstick/Lip gloss at Home

I have been taking an herbal basics course for school.  One of the lessons was on how to make chapstick. And it turned out quite well. If you wanted to try it, here's what you'd need.
 Containers (You could by them on line at Mountain Rose Herbs or somewhere else that you might find them).
 1 cup of oil. (Sweet Almond oil is less greasy than other oils.)
 Essential oil. 2 drops of essential oil to every 1/4 ounce of lip balm. Whatever flavor you like (I used grapefruit).
 2 ounces (by weight) of Beeswax.
 I used a double boiler, but you could probably use something else.
 A liquid measuring cup with a pouring spout.

 You put the 1 cup of oil and the beeswax in the double boiler, until the beeswax is all melted. Turn the heat off, then you put in your essential oil (and colouring, such as Alkanet, if you want it to be coloured).  Then pour the lip balm into your measuring cup (you might want to warm the measuring cup first, so that the lip balm doesn't harden when it hits the cold glass.) And then pour it into your containers and let them cool.
 That's how you make lip balm! I hope you have fun!

(My Mom, of course, already had all this stuff on hand. If you'd like to learn about herbal remedies you should really check out her blog. http://www.woodwifesjournal.com/)

I'm sharing this recipe with Wildcrafting Wednesday #42