Nanna's magic cream

For many years now I have made a range of herbal products including a beautiful green healing ointment. Over the years the formula has changed and the current version contains 11 essential oils, 6 tinctures and extracts of 17 different herbs, chosen for their varying properties, nearly all grown in my garden.

Ointment is a simple way to preserve and concentrate the healing power of herbs. The ingredients are easily sourced from your local chemist and health food shop. The equipment needed is minimal and can be found in most kitchens.

Choose your herbs for the properties you wish to bring to your ointment. I like to always start with comfrey, lavender and rosemary. You will need to make a herb oil and if you like, a tincture, starting at least 10 days before you wish to make the ointment. If you make your oil extraction in advance,  keep it in the refrigerator until needed. Tinctures keep well at room temperature but store out of reach of children.

To make a herb oil extraction:  http://gypsysoul-au.blogspot.com/2009/01/little-bit-of-magic.html.

To make a tincture:  http://frompotionstopesto.blogspot.com/2010/01/summertime.html.   

Equipment:

Stainless steel jug or saucepan

Measuring jug

Plastic or wooden spatula

Scales

Clean jars with tight screw top lids to hold a total of 300gm.

Ingredients

120ml herb oil

20g beeswax, beads or block

120g lanolin

1 Tbsp or 30ml tincture of choice or tincture of benzoin (optional) 

2tsp or 15ml essential oils of choice

Method:

1. 
   
   Very gently melt the beeswax and lanolin together over a gentle heat. If you have a stainless steel jug, this works really well as you can melt and pour in the same container. Use a heat diffuser under the pot if you have one.
2. 
   
   As soon as the mixture is clear, turn off the heat. Remove pot to a heat proof surface and leave for a minute to cool slightly but not harden. The lower the temperatures, the more properties of the herbs are retained.
3. 
   
   Slowly stir in the herb oil, which should be at room temperature. If the mixture starts to look lumpy, sit the pot back on the warm stove but do not reheat.
4. 
   
   Add essential oils and tinctures and mix until incorporated.
5. 
   
   Pour into jars and lid. The ointment is at its best for nine months but I have used older pots on the animals with great results. Unopened will keep for much longer.

 

Any type of ointment can be made by the above method. Please note that wax based ointment is not suitable to use on burns, eczema or psoriasis or any conditions which require the skin to breathe. If any  adverse reaction or sensitivity is noted, discontinue use.

I use my multipurpose ointment on bites, grazes, blisters, cuts, nettle, nappy and reef rash, piles, stinging tree injuries, cracked feet and nipples and to draw boils and splinters. I have used it on chickens’ combs to cure stick fast fleas, on bald guinea pigs and injured dogs and cats with great success knowing it is a safe product  My son swears it cures mouth ulcers and my granddaughter is comforted by a dose of ‘nanna’s magic cream.’

The original formula was originally created by Nerys at Rivendell Farm. To take the lid off a pot and inhale the scent of the essential oil blend is a reminder of soothing words and gentle hands for our families and friends and many clients over the years. It is a wonderful reminder of the skills taught to me by an amazing person.

Green Healer (nanna’s magic cream) will soon be available via my website.

Go well,

nirala

No festival blues

We have just returned from the Fairbridge Folk Festival. Looking through the photos I took, I notice that not one has a picture of any of the performers. Wondering about this, I realised that it is because Fairbridge is much more than music.

Every year since 1993, at Fairbridge Farm School, 100 kms south of Perth, music lovers have come together for a weekend of music, dance, street theatre, good food and heaps of fun.  The 5000 people who camp in the cow paddocks and on the oval or stay in the old school buildings are joined daily by up to 10,000 more day visitors, depending on the weather.

What is special to me is that this is such a safe event for families. From grandma in her deluxe caravan to the kids sleeping in their swags under the stars, all ages are catered for, and the growing number of young adults who have attended since they were tiny now have areas with events that cater for them. 
Each year there is something that doesn’t go quite to plan - it’s often the weather. Two years ago a sudden downpour literally washed a lot of tents down the hillside and filled others with mud. Last year the portaloos were in meltdown, unable to cope with the crowds. This year we had a fierce easterly wind arrive in the middle of the night to cause havoc. Tents were down, awnings flapping; no one got much sleep and woke to everything covered in yet another layer of dust.

Surprisingly, amongst all those tired people, I saw no evidence of bad temper. The evening before, some of the younger crew had been playing some loud music and their neighbours had bribed them with a whole packet of Tim Tams to get them to shut up (which they happily admitted when they wandered over to see what was happening at our camp.) The many small children around the place were watched for by everyone and there was only one child lost its’ parents for a short while. That is the easy camaraderie of camping.

The children who busk around the market stalls, more each day as they proudly show off the new skills they have learnt in workshops; the humility of the Burundi Childrens' Choir, so grateful to be welcomed to Fairbridge and to Australia; the Giant Seagulls, gently pecking the hand of a disabled girl and the men helping to push a wheelchair over the gravel, it is the small acts at Fairbridge restore my faith in human beings.

Oh, the music was amazing too!

Happy camping,

nirala

See more about Fairbridge : www.fairbridgefestival.com.au