Homemade Lemon Balm Salve Really Works - Greeneville, TN

I went through a ton of websites and researched various ways to make lemon balm salve. This way worked best for me but there are various ways....

First you take a whole whole bunch of lemon balm leaves. I'm talking as much as you can fit in a medium sized pot (I used a double boiler). Throw in a cup of olive oil and cook for 2-3 hours. This infuses the oil with the necessary elements from the leaves. So you want a nice sloooooow cooking of oil and leaves. Next, you have to drain the oil from the leaves. You can use a strainer first to remove the leaves and then you need a finer filter. I just used a coffee filter right on top of the mason jar with a rubber band holder the filter in place. So below you will see the oil drained and placed back in the double boiler. The chunky stuff is beeswax...

Note that I did not use a full cup of olive oil on my first batch as I was experimenting. So you reheat the oil and the wax until its liquid. You want a consistency that is thicker than a lotion but not as hard as wax of course. Take a spoon and remove some of the liquid from the pot, let it cool and test the consistency...

If its too runny add more beeswax. Too thick more olive oil....That's it! Let it cool and cover.

I tested it out on poison ivy (of course) and some other skin abrasions and it works really good. Since we have so much lemon balm growing here at Nolichuckey Bluffs I finished making an entire jar of this healing salve - great for your skin!