Lavender first aid oil

NOW! NEW on our Homestead Herbals etsy shop - a new certified organic Lavender First Aid Oil made with certified organic pure lavender essential oil!  Lavender oil is such an important, multi-purpose healer, and versatile oil, that every home remedy cabinet should not be without it.  If you are only going to have one essential oil in your first aid kit it would be lavender oil.

To use, dilute a few drops of the lavender essential oil in a carrier oil (e.g. a light oil that absorbs well into the skin such as apricot oil, sesame oil, almond oil, olive oil, sweet almond oil) and apply as needed.

Lavender is an excellent essential oil for children and babies, as well as adults.  It can make a beautiful aromatic massage oil that soothes a tired, fussing baby.  It can be sprinkled on a pillow at night to help ease congestion and coughs, as well as insomnia and restlessness.  In Ayurvedic tradition lavender oil is thought to be a balancing oil for all constitutions, and helps with congestion of all types (both physical and mental).

Here are just some of the many wonderful benefits of lavender oil (Lavandula angustifolia):

• soothes minor burns (both kitchen stove, or sun burns, or heat rashes)
• aids infections and inflammation
• disinfects and helps heal cuts and scrapes
• eases headaches and migraines
• soothes stress and anxiety
• aids sore tired feet
• helps insomnia, restlessness, sleeplessness
• takes itch out of mosquito bites
• massage for tired sore muscles
• gentle and soothing for infants and children
• eases congestion, coughs and bronchitis 
• eases cold and flu symptoms

(Lavender oil should only be used for external use only.  Information here is based on historical use and for your interest only.)

Plantain first-aid salve

We had a run-in with some wasps yesterday.  There was one nest being created on our back porch, which we thought we had taken care of (knocked down in the middle of the night to disperse the wasps).  A second nest had been made, unnoticed by us, under an old wooden board that acts as one of our garden paths through the kale bed.  When harvesting some kale yesterday I heard a little shriek behind me, and saw my daughter dancing around saying there were wasps on her.  I brushed one from her arm and swatted another from her hair, and we ran from the garden to see what damage had been done.  Four stings, one on the arm, and several on her ankles and feet (one wasp got caught inside her sandal)!  She was brave, saying she felt more sorry for the wasps than for her stings.  We slathered on crushed fresh plantain leaves as a poultice (see below) - not pretty but very effective - after administering the homeopathic remedy "apis".  Since this was the first time our 4-year old had been stung by wasps I decided to have her rest quietly while we read books, so I could watch closely to see if there would be any serious swelling or other reactions.  There was not, and amazingly the plantain took the sting, redness and pain away within less than 15 minutes.  Now plantain is called a "magic" healing herb by her, highly prized right beside comfrey, peppermint, lemon balm, nettle and lavender - and we have a large batch of plantain harvested to make a salve for our herbal first-aid supplies.

Plantain is an easy herb to find - it's growing wild in nearly every yard, park or sidewalk crack.  If you wild harvest make sure to harvest in a non-sprayed area, away from where dogs have been walked (i.e. harvest uncontaminated plantain).  Use broad leaved plantain if at all possible.  Here is the recipe for Plantain Salve - add it to your list of "must-haves" among your herbal remedies.  This salve is a great help for bug bites, bee and wasp stings, mosquito bites, stinging nettle rash, poison ivy, and other skin irritations:

Plantain Salve

You will need:
fresh plantain leaves, slightly wilted and not damp/wet (enough to fill a 1 litre mason jar)
olive oil (enough to cover plantain leaves in 1 litre mason jar)
pure beeswax (aprox. 1 oz per 1 pint/2 cups oil in your recipe)
vitamin E oil (aprox. 1 tsp)
a few drops pure essential oil (e.g. lavender, peppermint)

1. Do not wash the plantain leaves as water on the plant may cause mold to develop during the steeping time.  Roughly chop plantain leaves and pack into 1 litre mason jar.
2. Pour olive oil over plantain leaves and fill jar with oil upto about 1/2 inch over the leaves, to completely cover them.
3. Let steep in a sunny warm window for 6 weeks, shaking jar every few days.  When oil is fully infused it should be a rich dark green colour.  Other methods for infusing include lightly warming plantain and oil in a double boiler or crock pot for a few hours; or blending plantain and oil in food processor and straining this fresh oil into your salve.
4. Strain oil through fine meshed sieve.  Reserve the oil, and add aprox. 1 oz pure beeswax per 2 cups (1 pint) oil.  Heat over low in a stainless steel saucepan, stirring to combine and melt the beeswax.
5.  Test for consistency by dipping a teaspoon into the oil/beeswax mixture and setting this spoon into the freezer for a minute.  Add more oil if consistency is too thick, or more beeswax if consistency is too thin.
6.  Add vitamin E oil, and pure essential oils (optional).  Pour into clean dark glass jars, label and store in cool dark location.

Homeopathic First Aid Workshop

Had an informative intro to homeopathy workshop here on Saturday - the topic specifically being "homeopathic first aid". Rachel Vandenberg of Healing Path Centre for Natural Medicine here in town led the workshop - fortunately we had such fine weather we could have it outdoors - which seemed fitting for a first aid workshop on natural remedies. She gave participants a good understanding of a handful of useful "key" remedies to have on hand, and recommended we keep mini first aid kits with these homeopathics as well as instruction cards, on hand (in our homes, in our backpacks for outdoor excursions, etc). The main remedies she discussed were for common ailments that don't need the indepth constitutional analysis that homeopathic/naturopathic doctors also use when assessing patients. Here's the first aid kit:

Aconite - for sudden onset of shock, anxiety, restlessness or even taking this at the first sign of a flue or cold

Apis - for bee stings, tender, burning, swollen wounds

Arsenicum - food poisoning, vomiting, diarrhea

Arnica - for mechanical injuries, bruises, sore muscles (e.g. overexertion)

Belladonna - sunstroke, sudden fever, burning skin

Calendula - for cuts to the soft tissue, superficial healing of skin

Cantharsis - for blisters and burns

Chamomilla - irritability during teething, common cold with irritability

Hypericum - for deeper wounds to nerve-rich areas, injuries to spine, or falling on tailbone

Ledum - for bruises, puncture wounds, injury to eye area

Nux Vomica - for ailments from too much of anything (food, alcohol, etc)

Rhus Tox - for red swollen itchy blisters, poison ivy, sprained joints

Ruta - for sprains, and pulled tendons

Symphytum - broken bones

Urtica Urens - sunburn, injuries that burn, itch, sting or swell into a raised area