Making home remedies becomes a hobby
By Joan Janzen
Selena Edmunds from Kindersley enjoys making home remedies, much like her relatives from generations past would have done. It’s one of the many hobbies she enjoys, as evident by her social media group entitled ‘what is she up to now .’ She’s always up to something, whether taking care of her garden towers or tending to her outdoor plants during the summer.
What she’s up to now is whipping up batches of body butter and salve. The salve is made of natural ingredients, including organic lavender, infused olive oils, local bees wax and topped with a sprinkle of organic lavender buds.
PHOTO: What’s she up to now? Selena Edmunds enjoys making all natural products for friends and family.
“Infusing herbs can take quite a while, depending on the method I use,” Selena said. The end product helps with headaches when the salve is massaged on one’s temples or on the back of the neck. It also provides conditioning for dry skin and relaxes tired muscles.
“I grew up with my mom making a lot of homemade remedies,” Selena explained. For the past two years, she’s been doing a lot of reading about different herbs and products that can be made. She’s also taken some online courses to learn more about the process and how to extract properties from plants.
“I started looking at what was in my yard,” Selena said, explaining how her newfound hobby got started. Like most of us, she discovered an abundance of dandelions in her yard. “I love making dandelion jelly,” she said. She makes the jelly by soaking dandelion blossoms in water overnight, straining them and using the water to make the jelly. The blossoms can also be used to make tea, while the long tap root can be used to detox your liver. And the leaves are edible too. “If you look at the ingredients on spring mix blend salad, you will find dandelion leaves listed,” Selena said.
“I had been looking into the different properties of tallow and decided to make some body butter,” she said. “The first batch I made was from beef fat, which I had rendered.”
Rendering is the process in which the fat is melted and strained to remove the impurities so the water separates from the fat. This is repeated several times. “It’s a tedious process, but the end result is pretty amazing,” Selena said. “I have different herbs that I have infused in oils, which I mix with the tallow, so it has some extra properties.” Selena buys some of the herbs, but she also grows some herbs.
She said the end product, whipped tallow body butter, is light and airy, excellent for dry skin. Its compatibility with the body’s biological composition allows complete absorption and nourishment while repairing damaged skin and its suppleness. Any extra tallow can be cut up into small pieces and frozen for future use.
Although she makes all her remedies for her own use, close friends and family have come to enjoy them as well. “I now have a waiting list; it’s kind of neat,” she said. “I say here ... try this; see if it works for you, and it goes from there.”
And what will Selena be up to next? She’s planning to make some lavender lotion bars, a product people may have made decades ago. “My gramma used to do this kind of stuff. It’s actually kind of neat to watch it come back,” Selena said.