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The Natural Choice: Why You Should Make a Herbal Balm.
We live in a fast paced world where multi national companies dictate our behaviour. Most of the lotions, potions, balms and salves that we put on our skin are synthetic, produced in factories, marketed stoutly at our insecurities.
Yet one of the most effective things that we can put on our skin is a simple herbal balm - a straightforward mix of herbs, oil and beeswax - that has been proven over millennia of use.
Here is why I think that everyone should have a go at making their own herbal balm.
There's nothing better than nature's healing touch:
Herbal balms are crafted from plant-based ingredients known for their therapeutic properties. From calendula and rose to comfrey and chamomile, plants have been used for thousands of years, in various cultures, to address a wide range of health concerns, handed down from generation to generation. What else has that kind of pedigree.
Mindfulness:
The best way to make a herbal balm is to take your time, to soak the plants in the oil for weeks before straining them out and mixing the oil with wax. During those weeks you gently tend the mixture, stirring it, checking it every few days. It is a slow though very simple process that makes you pay attention.
Gentle and safe:
Unlike many synthetic products, herbal balms are kind to your skin. They contain no harsh chemicals, artificial fragrances, or preservatives that can irritate or harm your skin. Balms made from gentle plants like calendula are suitable for all skin types, even babies.
You can customise your balm:
Herbal balms are really versatile. Obviously you can change about the plants you are using for different benefits but, if you make your own balms you can also vary the consistency by changing ratio of wax to oil. Technically a balm is quite thick - think lip balm - and a salve (from the Old English sealf) is thinner, like an ointment. You can decide exactly what kind of texture you would like. Balms can be used to soothe chapped skin, treat insect bites, bumps and bruises; salves are useful for massaging sore muscles and moisturising skin. You can also play about with the oils - something like jojoba oil has fine particles and can be used on your face, almond oil is a lovely neutral base, olive oil feels much more medicinal as though it must be doing you good!
Sustainable and Eco-Friendly:
Homemade herbal balms are really sustainable, there are only three ingredients and they can be made in the kitchen, reusing existing packaging. You can make whatever quantity you need, you can tweak it if it doesn't come out the way you wanted, and any left overs can be stored to make a new batch.
Revolution and Resistance:
Learning to make your own balms from plants is a kick against consumerism, especially in the world of skincare, wellbeing and cosmetics. Building skills, reconnecting to traditional methods, pausing to make something, rather than simply clicking BUY NOW.
I have a tutorial about how to make balm here
If you would prefer to have a kit with all the supplies you need, along with a written guide and video instructions you can buy that here.
Dyeing a silk camisole with fresh indigo leaves
Last month, heading clockwise around Killearn's Open Gardens I met a friend who was going anti-clockwise.
We stood and chatted on the pavement, about gardens and textiles and how she had grown indigo last year but hadn't done anything with it. It seemed complicated to build a vat and, by the time she had done the reading and got all the bits together, the frost had come and her indigo plants were mushed and spoiled.
She had decided to give it a miss this year.
I have a lot of indigo growing in the garden and poly tunnel - it was much easier than I had anticipated and all the seedlings germinated and grew happily.
I know that if I decide to process them into a vat I will dither and lose time and then head off on holiday knowing that there is a high chance of frost while we are away.
So instead I have been buying up pre-loved silk camisoles, scarves and blouses and using the salt rub method to turn them into clothes fit for a mermaid.
I'm sharing a step by step tutorial here on how to dye a silk camisole with fresh leaf indigo.
I took a lot of what I do here from this video of a Japanese woman dyeing a silk scarf with indigo.
Other excellent online resources are produced by Liz Spencer The Dogwood Dyer.
Harvesting dyer's chamomile from the dye garden
As I walk down to the Studio in the morning the grass is wet, the sweet scent of damp earth hovers between the hedges, small orange brackets fungi sprout from the sides of the raised beds.
The apples on the feral apple trees that surround The Studio are red and ripening.
These trees, carefully chosen heritage varieties, were planted the month we moved in and immediately eaten to the ground by the deer who live by the river. Then, a decade later, they rose out of the sprawling brambles, mature trees nursemaided back to health by prickly stems that kept the deer away.
Yet another example of how the natural world works so much better without my interference.
The flowers in the dye garden catch the tune of harvest time and all open at once - dyer's chamomile, french marigolds, sulphur cosmos, dahlias, tansy - every day there are new flowers to pick and preserve.
How to create colour with fresh leaf indigo
This year I have been growing indigo in my garden and in an upcycled polystyrene fish box in the greenhouse.
Indigo refers to a number of plants and the actual variety that I am growing is called Persicaria tinctorial or Japanese indigo. It is a tender perennial and will not survive the frost. Here in the middle of Scotland we have frosts up until the middle of May so I am growing indigo as a half hardy annual - exactly the same way that I grow amaranthus or cosmos.
I started by sowing seeds in February and March - using a heated mat to germinate them and then growing them on in the greenhouse, covering them with fleece on cold nights. They went out into the garden in May and I began cropping last week.
The amount of indigo that I am growing is relatively small and a lot of leaves are needed to create pigment, so, rather than make a vat, I have decided to use the fresh leaves, along with salt, to colour fabric.
You can see how I get on and learn more about the technique in this Studio Vlog
Make a knitted loop scarf from your stash
This year I am intending to be much more intentional about my winter wardrobe.
Last year, despite the fact that I was often layered up to the point of immobility, I kept getting cold in The Studio where the only heat is a small wood burner. It was rather miserable and I ended up working in the house a lot of the time. I think that the problem was that I simply didn't have enough really cosy clothes and that once I was cold it was really difficult to get warm again.
So this year I am building up a good pile of woolly socks, mitts, hats and scarves.
This is my favourite kind of scarf - a soft mobius loop that twists in two and stays on. No trailing ends, no falling off into the dye pot. I used scraps from my stash - it is a very flexible pattern so you can tailor it to what you have.
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