Category: Preserving

Calendula Salve

Sabine1 Reply
Calendula, August 15

This year, I am collecting and drying calendula flowers again to make salve. I am air-drying the flowers on paper plates in a darkened room for about three weeks and then transfer them to a large mason jar for storage.

Making the oil: dried calendula flowers + sweet almond oil (August 7)

I still had dried flowers from last year (about 3 cups, loosely packed) and decided to use them up first. To make the calendula oil, I added 16 oz. of sweet almond oil to these dried flowers, covering them about 3/4 in the jars. I let them extract for seven weeks (six would have been enough), from August 7 though today, September 26.

Calendula flowers in oil

I then strained the oil through a sieve, this time omitting the cheese cloth, as I wanted to try to minimize loss by absorption. The flowers absorb a good amount, as does the cheese cloth. From my initial 16 oz. of oil, I got around 13 oz. The flowers were densely packed in the extraction jars, so I decided to just dilute the calendula oil with pure almond oil to bring the volume back up to 16 oz.

Calendula oil

Over a water bath, I melted 2 oz. of beeswax and 1 oz. of shea butter. Once melted, I slowly added the 16 oz. of calendula oil, making sure to not heat the oil too much. Just enough for it to melt. I then added 16 drops of essential lavender oil and filled the salve into 8 2 oz.-tins. Ready!

Salve, hardening

It’s a “Slow-Roasting Tomatoes” Kind of Day

SabineLeave a Reply
Ready for the oven

This cool and rainy August Sunday was the perfect day for slow-roasting a sheet of (mostly) cherry tomatoes. I convection-roasted tomatoes (plus unpeeled garlic and thyme) at 270F for 2 hours until they had a slightly dry/jammy consistency, then packed them in olive oil and let them cool. They will be stored in the freezer for a few months.

Summer in a jar

Getting the Garlic Ready for Storage

SabineLeave a Reply
Cleaning the hardneck garlic

Last night, after three weeks of curing, I cleaned my garlic and prepped it for storage. For the hardnecks, I just clean off the dirt and the outermost papery skin, cut off the stems and root hairs and placed them in a ceramic crock to live in my pantry for the coming months. I will use those up first as hardnecks do not keep as well as softnecks.

Garlic haul 2026: Softneck braid and cleaned hardnecks

I also braided the softneck garlic and added a few strawflowers for decoration. The braid now hangs in my pantry. As always, I saved the two largest heads of each type (4 heads total) as seed garlic. I will plant those cloves in early November for next year’s harvest.

Pesto

SabineLeave a Reply

First round of pesto in the freezer! Last night I processed the basil I had harvested the day before and made pesto. I still had garlic scapes in the fridge, and used a few of those plus pine nuts, olive oil and salt. To make the pesto more versatile and to be considerate of pesto lovers in my circle who cannot have dairy, I did not add cheese. Cheese can always be added later. I then froze the pesto in ice cube trays and transferred the (ten) frozen cubes to Ziplock bags this morning to freeze for the longer term.

Thai Basil Pesto and Pickles

SabineLeave a Reply
4 cups of Thai basil

This weekend, I made a first (double) batch of Thai basil pesto. I also made my first refrigerator pickles of the summer.

Pesto time!

My cucumbers are doing exceptionally well this year. The pickles are based on this recipe, but I brought the brine to a boil first (and then let it cool down again) before adding it to the cucumbers.

Pickles – some with dill, some without

More Harvesting – Garlic and First Zucchini

Sabine1 Reply
Russian Red hardneck garlic

This morning, I harvested my garlic. The total haul: 18 Russian Red hardnecks and 17 Transylvanian softnecks. On November 8, I had planted 16 hardnecks (some of them split resulting in 18 bulbs) and 18 softnecks (meaning I only lost one over the winter). They will now spend a day or two on the porch airing out before I brush off the dirt and hang them to dry and cure in my hallway for about three weeks.

Hardnecks on the top, smaller softnecks on the bottom
Nice size 🙂

I also harvested my first Cocozelle zucchini (zucchino?). Looking forward to grilling it and the two eggplants I harvested yesterday. After grilling, I will add a tiny bit more olive oil and sprinkle a little chopped mint on the zucchini and chopped basil on the eggplant. Served with fresh mozzarella, tomatoes, olives, prosciutto, crusty bread – perfect summer antipasti!

Garlic update (July 14): This morning, I cleaned the dirt off the garlic – careful to not take off any papery skin – and tied them in bundles of about 8 bulbs each. They now join the shallots in my airy back hallway to cure. It is fine if some dirt stays. It will all be removed after the garlic has been fully cured.

Calendula Salve Part 3 – The Salve

Sabine2 Replies

It was time to make the calendula salve. I gathered the ingredients – homemade calendula oil, beeswax, unrefined shea butter, and essential lavender oil. I also needed a water bath, a spatula and tins for the finished product.

Calendula salve mise-en-place

I started by weighing out the beeswax and the shea butter. The recipe calls for 1 oz. beeswax and 0.5 oz. of shea butter for every 8 oz. of oil. I had 12 oz. of oil and adjusted the amounts of the other ingredients accordingly. I melted the beeswax and the shea butter in a water bath and then added the calendula oil.

Water bath

Once it was all melted – taking care not to heat the oil too much so it would retain its medicinal qualities – I added a few drops (around 8) of lavender oil for fragrance and filled four 4 oz. tins.

Just-filled-tins

I left the tins undisturbed for the salve to harden and settle and added labels.

Finished

Voila! My first-ever batch of calendula salve.