Folkways
by Maya Brown Zniewski
HAND MADE PINE SALVE
I
think among my favorite things as
a kid was to sit among the trees in
the grassy area of the school yard.
Nothing was better. Here in the north
the trees were mostly pine, so that is
what we’ll be concentrating on,
although the procedures and skills are
the same for all trees from which we
can use resin, sap, and pitch. The
abundance and usefulness varies from
species to species.
We all know pine trees. Glorious
pine. You can tap a pine tree for the
sap, though tapping is probably over-
reaching for what we are doing, and
makes it sound far more complicated
than it is. For our purposes here, you
will be basically collecting the sap just
like you would collect the needles or
the cones. Anytime a tree gets injured,
sap (or pitch or resin) oozes out, cov-
ering the wound on the tree and heal-
ing the tree. This sap prevents bugs,
molds or “tree viruses” from further
harming the tree.
You can use Pine sap in much the
same way. To collect sap find a tree,
then find the sap; it’s sticky and thick,
much like molasses. Take a small twig
from the ground around the tree and
scrape off some, but not all, of the sap
from an existing wound, as this is a
band-aid for the tree, so you don’t
want to take it all from one spot.
Smoosh the sap into an old metal cof-
fee can or glass jar, or some other con-
tainer. Just know you will not want to
clean this afterwards and you should
dedicate the can to pine sap. So, fill
the can or jar as much as you want.
You can use the pitch in a few
ways: one is right off the tree, sans
moss, needles and twigs, as a wound
cover and healer, much like a band-
aid. The second way you can use it
after you’ve cleaned it of moss, nee-
dles, twigs, etc., is as pine sap-infused
oil, so add some pine sap to a jar and
cover with olive oil or any other kind
of edible oil. Use what you like. Cover
the pine sap with olive oil and let it set
for six weeks or six months, or double
boil it for a few hours, until the sap
has dissolved into the oil. Strain
through a paper coffee filter or be
willing to clean a fine strainer really
well to get everything back out. You
have just made an infused oil. Be very
careful with flame around sap, it is
really very flammable.
Next, you can make a salve by
adding beeswax to the oil. In a double
boiler, heat the pine oil and beeswax
together until the beeswax has melted.
I use about an ounce of beeswax for
four ounces of oil. I make salves with
more beeswax in the summer because
people don’t want melted salves all
Spruce resin photo courtesy W ikimedia C ommons
over everything.
Pine salves have traditionally been
used as a drawing salve, like for splin-
ters and such. I also use a pine salve
for blisters and it is very good at pre-
venting infection. Pine draws circula-
tion to the wounded area and can help
with boils, and can be used to help
with painful joints and sore muscles.
You really should consider making
pine oil and then salve at least once—
think of the wonderful gifts you could
give in the winter and how useful pine
salve is!
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BEHIND EVERY PROJECT IS A
T HE E PISCOPAL C HURCH
W ELCOMES Y OU !
Our misson is to worship God and to seek
and serve Christ in all people
We offer Eucharist, Morning and Evening Prayer,
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18
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SERVING ALPINE & THE BIG BEND SINCE 1928
ALPINE, TEXAS 79830
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