Tag Archives: Oil infusion

calendula and chamomile oil infusion method

thought id share my method for making another batch of herbal oil infusion. This time I’m using Calendula

And a sprinkle of Chamomile

I like this company for the customer service, I did have one issue and they replaced immediately with no problems. They also offer free shipping and 4 bi weekly payments for orders over fifty dollars, and the herbs are fresh and smell amazing.

My house has a wonderful honey scent ATM and I’m enjoying it immensely as these two flowers infuse.

First things first

I’ll set a screen over my crock pot and gently rub the flowers to break them up a bit

The reason I do it over my crockpot, every little bit helps.

Same with the chamomile or any flower herbs actually. bruising them gently makes for a better infusion.

im using jojoba oil, unfortunately I didn’t have quite enough and had to add about six ounces of sweet almond oil to completely cover the herbs. Don’t think it will be an issues, they are both excellent carrier oils.

After the herbs are in the crockpot and covered with oil, I’ll dail in the temperature to as close to 120f as possible. Refer to my previous posts on how I do it.

Now just take a deep breath, stir often, and simmer as close to 120f as possible, it’s a seven day ride.

Day 3 “he did the mash”

Around day 3 I’ll take a potato masher, another dollar store find for us folks on a budget for equipment.

I’ll take the cooking vessel out of the crockpot and place on a hard surface, my countertop is what I use. Please don’t do this in your crockpot.

I’ll apply a gentle downward pressure and a twist at the same time throughout the whole cooking vessel just to break up the herbs a bit more. Give a good stir and place back in the crockpot to continue the infusions. I’ll do this again before the seven day mark, probably day 6.

day 5

Starting to look done, just a few more days to go, keep checking temp and stirring when you can.

day 7

It’s day seven and I’m stoked that it’s finally finished, now just strain through a cheese cloth, press the herbs, and filter again into jars.

I ended up with approximately 1400 ml of some of the nicest oil I’ve made to date. It smells amazing and looks like honey. I filled two oil jars and a pup cup sample for the ladies at work. I plan on incorporating this oil into the pain and skin healing salves I make for family, friends, and myself.

Thank you for visiting and following along. Until next time, happy herbing!

Finishing my oil infusion and pain salve

This is part two of my decarboxylation and oil infusion process. I let the cannabis simmer at around 126f for five days. Just looked done to me, the color of the jojoba oil really took on a rich deep green shade, and felt it was time

First thing to do is strain it. Four hands for this is highly recommend. One person to pour the other holding the cheese cloth and receiving vessel.

Once it’s all strained through the cheese cloth, you need to press the marc, in this case the cannabis. I found a lemon press at the dollar store for five dollars. Works great for us folks on a budget

Just flip the cheese cloth around a few times to get both sides pressed

I’ll filter again, sometimes two or three more times depending on the marc (herb) I’m using

Finally after close to a month of oil infusions and decarboxylation of the cannabis I’m ready to make the pain salve.

The cannabis is the star of the show, and I am using chamomile flowers, rose hip, and elderberry infused in almond oil as supporting actors. The rose hip and elderberry were infused together.

I chose these supporting herbs because of their excellent skin healing properties. The chamomile has soothing and calming effect as well. Not sure if this combo has ever been done before.

One gram of oil equals almost one ml almost one to one but not quite. I just go with the one to one when measuring. Keep in mind I use measurements to fill the jars I use. Making them one at a time. Your process and measurements are for you, this is just my process.

I wasn’t sure to leave them unmixed or mix them all together. Couldn’t find any info one way or the other so I mixed them.

I weighed out 16 grams of bees wax to get the show started

I’m using a double boiler for this step. I usually get the water boiling in the bottom pot then turn down to low. Let it cool off a bit, then set your top pan in. Water level is always below the top pan. I let the steam melt it. Slow and low, don’t rush this step. Low heat and just a slow melt. My stove top is set between two and three on the dail. Once the bees wax is completely melted pour in the oil and mix until completely mixed with the bees wax.

Pour into your waiting jar, not much time to do this, it will set quick. If it does, just reheat the pan and pour the rest.

If you are going to add any essential oils, it should be done after you take your pan off the heat and before you pour. I have a shot glass of carrier oil and the essential oil mixed in the shot glass as well ready for that step. It also gives you the desired scent or how many drops you want. Kind of a test sniff before you add it. Mix it well into your oil and bees wax before you pour into your jar.

I made a bit extra for ginny pig testing. Yes, I’m always the ginny pig and this being something new for me, I wanted to make sure it was safe.

I let the jar sit for a few minutes, then pop in the freezer for ten minutes,remove and let sit for awhile with the lid off, usually over night.

Finished salve, it’s good for six months, eight to nine months keeping it in the refrigerator.

how I decarboxylate cannabis and my oil infusion method

On my earlier post regarding cannabis pain salve I already had the decarboxylation of the cannabis done and promised to share that method the next time.

first starting out, I ran the usual gauntlet of info out there on how to decarb cannabis. You tube videos, Kindle unlimited reads, and Google searches only lead me to conclude that, there’s a lot of ways and theories on decarboxylation. Temperature and duration being the main concerns.

Equipment to decarb range from your oven and a cookie tray to high tech rigs, I chose equipment on the cheaper end and am fine with it.

With this one the timer doesn’t start until the desired temp is registered inside the glass pan. I found if you do a dry run first pull out the pan when the timer starts, put the cannabis in, reset timer and start the process works best. It takes quite awhile to heat up in there possibly baking the cannabis to long.

With some oven gymnastics, opening the door, moving the pan to the front, back to the middle, adjusting oven temp, whatever it takes to maintain that constant temp in your glass pan is recommended. The timer has a beeper when temp gets to high or low, so that’s helpful. After thirty five minutes it’s just a bit crispier. Now the cannabis has been activated, making it ready for infusion.

On to the infusion

For this batch of pain salve and because it’s for the skin I’m going to use jojoba oil. I plan on combining it with rose hip, a bit of elderberry, and chamomile flowers. Those were infused in the exact same way minus the decarb process and I used almond oil instead of the jojoba I’m using for the cannabis.

That’s what I enjoy about this hobby, the possibilities are endless on your creations.

I ended up using roughly half of the 32oz bottle along with 20 grams of cannabis for this batch. I use just enough oil to cover the herbs completely. No set measures for this part

After the cannabis is decarbed and any other herb at this point I infuse the same way.

Steady constant temperature is the most important aspect of this process. Crock pots on low even run to hot. Most carrier oils shouldn’t be heated over 150f . After a lot of research optimal temperature for this process is 120f, but 120f-140f is acceptable, closer to 120f the better. So that’s hard to maintain the temperature you need. Lab equipment is expensive, but could work. Oven I suppose could work as well. But I chose once again the poor man’s way. No choice really. I got to thinking how can I cool this down? It’s already on keep warm and lids off. So I opted for the saucer and sock idea.

After numerous temp checks and miss fit socks piled on a saucer I can dail the temp in fairly close to 120f. I know from experience it’s easier with the keep warm function rather the just low and high.

You can see the cooking vessel sitting up higher with the lid off. I have the cannabis oil dailed in at 130f, with a bit more fiddling, I could drop a few more but I’m fine at 130.

Now for how long?

Once again with time as well, there’s lots of different opinions. So I went old school on this question.

Before modern medicine and everything in pill form, the old timers would simmer their concoctions for seven days, some for fourteen, like saint johns wort, and 120f or there abouts seems to be the golden temperature in recipes I’ve researched. Stirring a few times a day is also necessary as well. Next post I’ll share the final process to making my pain salve.

So one week it is, slow and low like Mama’s roast. Happy stirring