Green Beans and Creams

With a busy bee hive comes great bee wax. 

I followed a recipe to make an ointment of dried Calendula flowers.  I like to grow Calendula plants since the flowers are gorgeous as well as useful to us. I have a book on herbs and Calendula quite an array of medicinal uses. Some of those are:

- A standard infusion of flowers can help the body sweat out toxins and help PMS and irregular menstruation  

- The ointment made of the flowers can be used for broken veins, varicose veins and hemorrhoids. Calendula flowers can be used to heal wounds, prevent infection and promote tissue repair.

- Calendula flowers can be added to rice, buns and cakes to make them look yellow.

 Calendula ointment 

First, I needed to make an infusion of camomile, comfrey or elderberry.  I decided to use the dried camomile flowers from last year's harvest.  I used 4 tsp of dried camomile flowers with 1 cup of hot water and I let it stand for 20-30 minutes. 

Second, I poured cold water on a pan (about 1-2 inches) and put a stainless steel bowl in it and a glass jar inside the bowl.  I put some bee wax from our bees (about 2 Tbsps) and 4 tbsp of the camomile infusion in the glass jar.  I stirred it while the pan was on the stove at medium high heat. 

Third, I added 4 Tbsps of sunflower seed oil and kept stirring until the mixture in the jar started to look creamy yellow. I took the jar off the heat and let it cool, but kept stirring until a uniform consistency. I added dried Calendula flowers and camomile. 

Fourth, I put it in a brown glass jar and will keep in the fridge for 4 weeks. 

3 lbs. of Green Beans !

I collected them and blanched them in hot water for two minutes and then dump them in cold water.  I sliced them and put them in quart size bags. They are going in the freezer for now.