Yarrow is a volunteer herb growing in my yard. It has many medicinal benefits, so we scooped up some of the volunteers and planted them purposefully in our small herb and flower bed. When taken internally, it's good for menstrual cramps, it's a digestive aid, it can help lower fevers. Externally, it is good for cuts, scrapes, and burns. A woman at my farmer's market was selling yarrow sticks and after buying one from her, I found out that it made an excellent lip balm as well. It was the only thing that was working for my dry lips actually. And since I have quite a bit of experience making herbal oils, salves, tinctures, etc. and I knew yarrow grew in my yard, I thought to myself, I should make that.
So first off, in case you have never seen yarrow, here is my attempt to show you what it looks like. In the first picture, the flowers are a blur, I know, but at least on my computer, you are able to make out the leaves.

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To make the oil, you have to wait until the flowers are in bloom like the ones above. For the oil, you use the flower blooms, the leaves, and the stems. I just read on one site about yarrow that after the early summer blooms are gone, you can cut down the plant for a fall bloom as well. I am just making a small amount here because I know it will be plenty for my needs.

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After gathering the herb, you need to macerate the herb- crush it, so that it is able to release its medicinal properties in the oil. The stem is pretty fibrous. I personally haven't tried using a mortar and pestle for this which would definitely be a nicer way to go about making the oil. I am not sure how the stems would do though. I think with the mortar and pestle I may only try the leaves and blooms. I just load the herb into a food chopper and grind it down and then place the final product into a glass mason jar.

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You then want to cover the herbs with oil, covering them by an inch or two. I am using organic extra virgin olive oil, but nothing fancy- just a store brand.

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And then to compensate for using a food chopper, I use the sun's energy to extract the properties of the fresh yarrow into the oil. It sits in the sun for 2-3 weeks and I shake it every day, sometimes twice. Alternately, you could pour oil over the macerated herb in a shallow baking pan and bake on a very low (like 200 degrees) temperature for a few hours.

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I hope to make a post in the next couple of weeks about the actual making of the yarrow sticks, so stay tuned!
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