The healing weed
Each spring around the end of April beginning of May I harvest dandelions. I mostly use them to make dandelion infused oil and balm which is incredibly useful.
Dandelion oil and balm is extremely nourishing, soothing and a little miracle in your medicine cupboard. It is healing and calming and useful for easing sore muscles, chapped skin, joint pain, and headaches.
It’s also a wonderful base to add healing essential oils to, to create balms for many uses. The balm itself is made from Dandelion infused oil which is made with dandelion flowers which are rich in flavonoids and polyphenols known for their skin healing, pain relieving, and anti-inflammatory, anti-oxidant, anti-tumour properties. It’s also a wonderful base to add healing essential oils to, to create balms for many uses.
Dandelion is a rich source of vitamins A, B complex, C, and D, as well as minerals such as iron, potassium, and zinc.
Here are some interesting facts about the dandelion flower:
🌼 It’s the only flower that represents the 3 celestial bodies of the sun, moon and stars. The yellow flower resembles the sun, the puff ball resembles the moon and the dispersing seeds resemble the stars.
The dandelion flower opens to greet the morning and closes in the evening to go to sleep. –How wonderful is that?
🌼 every part of the dandelion is useful: root, leaves, flower. It can be used for food, medicine and dye for colouring.
🌼 Up until the 1800s people would pull grass out of their lawns to make room for dandelions and other useful “weeds” like chickweed, malva, and chamomile.
🌼 Seeds are often carried as many as 5 miles from their origin
🌼 every part of the plant is safe to eat.
🌼 particularly healing for Detoxification (after rich foods, drug or alcohol abuse, chemotherapy, chemical exposure, breathing smoggy air, pregnancy- basically nine months of being in a highly inflammatory state- etc.)
🌼 Dissolving kidney and gall stones
🌼 Increasing the efficacy of the body’s elimination channels (it has gentle diuretic- increasing urination- and laxative effects)
🌼Clearing up acne, rashes, redness, eczema
🌼Balancing blood sugar (and the accompanying mood swings) and helping to prevent Type II Diabetes
🌼Helping PMS symptoms -(rub on tummy)
🌼Easing a young woman’s transition into her bleeding time (Rub on tummy and pressure points)
🌼Addressing gout, edema, and ulcers
🌼Moving the lymph
🌼Promoting bile production
🌼Increasing appetite when that is what the person’s body needs
🌼Decreasing joint pain
🌼Helping to move viral infections out of the body
🌼Addressing lung issues such as bronchitis, pneumonia, and tuberculosis
🌼Stabilizing high blood pressure
🌼Bringing down cholesterol levels.
How to make Dandelion Infused Oil
Harvest dandelion flowers when yellow, no stems. Make sure they come from a pesticide free, pollution free environment (not the side of the road, all those exhaust fumes get absorbed by the plants). Dandelion flowers have a high water content and can quickly spoil and make the infused oil give off a rotten smell. So they need to be dried first, one or the simple methods is to lay the flowers out on sheets of kitchen towel for at least 48 hours, this dries them but also allows any bugs hidden away to escape.
Once dried fill a jar with them. My usual jar is 500 ml. Fill the jar with a good quality organic oil of your choice, you could use Grapeseed oil or Olive oil (or a mix of different oils) as they tend to be the simplest and safest, very rarely is anyone allergic to either. I also like to use almond oil as my base oil. Make sure that your flowers are completely covered in oil. Place a lid on the jar and leave to infuse for a couple of weeks ideally 4-8 weeks, I leave mine on my kitchen window-sill to infuse. The oil will develop a beautiful golden colour. Once ready strain the oil I use cheese cloth to do this as it perfect to squeeze and press the flowers to get the goodness from them and then store in a clean jar, sealed and keep in a dark place/cupboard.
How to make Dandelion Balm
You will need;
Dandelion Infused oil 500 ml
Organic Beeswax 100g
A saucepan, a metal spoon, a glass bowl, enough clean tins with lids
(I usually get 10 x 100ml from this)
- Create a double boiler with your pan and bowl. Basically half fill the saucepan with boiling water and place on a medium heat with the glass bowl sitting on top. Do not get any water in the bowl.
- Add your beeswax pellets to the bowl and slowly melt them to a clear liquid. If you leave any solid pellets it will make your balm grainy.
- Once the beeswax is liquid carefully add your 500ml of infused oil and heat gently to clear again. It will go cloudy but heat will thin it out.
- If you want to add any essential oils at this point add just before pouring so that the heat doesn’t break down the oils. Use up to 25 drops in total of your chosen oils.
- Pour your liquid balm into your tins carefully and slowly, don’t overfill them.
They will begin to set straight away, leave them to cool thoroughly and then put the lids on and label and date them.
The balms should keep for 2 years if kept in a cool, dark place.
It will soften on contact with skin and you only need a tiny amount, a little goes a long way, massage into affected areas. Plain Dandelion balm is safe to use on babies and small children. If you have added essential oils only use on children over 10.
Let me know how you get on…Yes these will be available in the shala when ready.
