Home / Homesteading / Dandelion Balm for Aches and Pains

Dandelion Balm for Aches and Pains

Keeping your homestead in working order is bound to give you sore muscles, joint pain, and irritated skin from time to time. Luckily you probably have the cure outside in your lawn. Dandelions can be used in a balm to help treat soreness and skin irritation. All you need other than dandelions are some oil (olive, coconut, almond, or sunflower will work), bee’s wax, and some canning jars.

How to Make Dandelion Balm

Gather up all the dandelions that you have available.
Next, you want to dry them out so that your balm isn’t watered down. Spread them out in a single layer on some cardboard, lay some paper towels over them, and put them somewhere they won’t be disturbed. Preferably where they can get some light from a window to speed the drying.
Once they have dried out (this could take a day or even two depending on the moisture in your environment) you can infuse the oil.
Fill a canning jar no more than ¾ of the way up with your dry dandelions. Then pour your oil over them until it is an inch or two higher, or near the top.
Place the filled jar in a pot with a few inches of water in it, and bring it to a low heat. You will need to continue to heat the oil for several hours. The color of the dandelions should bleed out and change the color of the oil. If you want your balm to be stronger, you can let the infused oil sit for a few days in the dark, or if you have more dandelions you can strain out the used ones and redo the process with new dried dandelions.
Now you need your wax, you will need about 1 part wax for every 7 parts infused oil.
Put the oil and the wax in a container(s) that can hold both of them and be heated, like a canning jar, and put these into a few inches of water to heat just as before. This time, you only need to heat it until all of the mixture has melted together. Then while it is still liquid, pour it into smaller jars. If you leave it in a quart jar you will have a hard time getting it out with your fingers to apply when it gets lower than 20 ounces since it will be out of reach.

Don’t let aches and pains keep you from getting work on your homestead done when the cure is right outside.

If you liked this, you might also enjoy…