Only as a child’s awareness and reverence for the wholeness of life are developed can his humanity to his own kind reach its full development.
– Rachel Carson
So, now your kids are excited about making their own herbal remedies. Perhaps you’ve even made a nice all purpose salve that they love to put on their cuts and scratches that you’ve stashed away in the bathroom cabinet and use all the time when you’re home. But, what about when you’re on the go? Is your car’s first aid kit herbalized yet? I have a post coming up about putting together an all purposed car first aid kit but today, I wanted to share with you how to make your salve portable.
I adapted this idea from a tutorial I saw online several years ago (the original idea included using Neosporin type ointments, something we do not use) . I wrote about it on my other website but since many people don’t know about my other website, I thought it would be something fun to share with my readers at Herbal Roots zine. It’s a great late winter day project to do when it’s still too cold and icy to enjoy too much time outside but gets kids busy making something useful that’s a lot of fun to make. My kids love to help me put these together and when the need arises to use them, they share with pride how they helped making them.
To make them you will need:
-drinking straws (clear are best so you can see inside, though colored or striped work if you are creating several different kinds of salve packets)
-tea light
-needle nosed pliers
-scissors (forgot to photograph but you know what those are!)
-your choice of salves
-optional: sharpie marker (if making more than 1 kind and you don’t have colored straws to color code)
Begin by poking your straw into your salve. Imagine how much is usually needed for a typical wound and fill it to that point. Typically a section about 1/2” – 3/4” is enough.
Pinch the end of the straw with your finger to push the salve further into the straw and create an empty space. Using the pliers, grip that space, leaving a tiny bit of straw sticking out of the side.
Hold the straw over the tea light to melt the end. Slide your pliers to the end and pinch it shut.
Gently squeeze the salve towards the sealed edge to verify your seal.
Turn the straw around and pinch the other edge as close to the salve as you can without squeezing the salve out the other side. Use your scissors to cut off the edge and seal as you did the other side, being sure to squeeze and check for leaks.
All finished! The straws I used gave me 5 individual packs per straw. These are perfect for storing in the first aid kit and will also be great for building a mini first aid kit to put in the kids’ back packs for when they go hiking in the woods. To open, simply use a knife or scissors. Alternatively, you could heat an exacto blade with the flame and melt a score mark in the end for an ‘easy tear’ opening.
Optionally, you can use a sharpie marker to write what type of salve is in the tube. Since I used 3 different types, I wrote down their names on each. Be sure to wash the tubes in soapy water first to remove any salve residue so the marker writing will be permanent.