Making comfrey salve in the camper. The dark-colored ones, just poured, are still hot; the others have been cooling for just twenty minutes.
I make comfrey salve each June. It couldn’t be much simpler or more enjoyable; there are only three ingredients and they all smell good. I like to make it around the time of the summer solstice, when the comfrey leaves are at their greenest and it is still a week or two before the plants flower. Here is what I do to make a year’s supply.
I get a quart of really good olive oil, fresh and organic. I find some beeswax, which can be fresh or not; old beeswax candles work fine. I cut a big hand full of leaves from the comfrey plant and chop them with a sharp knife on my cutting board as if for salad. Then I lightly stuff a wide-mouthed quart mason jar full of chopped leaves, fill the jar with olive oil to the very brim (to exclude air, which has stuff in it), and screw the lid on tight. I set the jar in the sunniest spot I have for a week or two.
Next I strain the leaves out through a clean cloth, wringing the last of the olive oil out of the leaves through the cloth into a pan, then heating it slowly on low flame. While it heats I grate beeswax with a cheese grater and add it gradually. (I wish I could tell you how much beeswax; it must be only a few ounces, and there must be plenty of recipes on the internet.) As soon as the beeswax is melted I pour it into jars and tins to cool. Then it’s done.
These Days 