Well, I had to dump the violet flower oil, went really skunky.  I will stick to using Olive oil, jojoba, or sweet almond oil for infusing.  The violet leaf oil is coming along great and will post a picture soon as the colour is a really nice deep green.

Violet Leaf & Flowers

I woke up today and decided I was going to make oil infusions of both violet leafs and flowers. Violet, Viola can be found wild and in gardens.  The leaves are heart shaped, slightly rounder in the cultivated variety.  The flowers are purple or yellow or white, or combinations of all colours.  The viola found wild has smaller leaves and is also known as "Heartsease".  

The flowers do not have seeds so I have picked lots as I do not have to worry about leaving flowers for the plants to reseed as the seeds come later in the summer.  Both the leaves and flowers are edible, I harvest from my yard and garden as no fertilizers, pestisides etc have been used and I also do not harvest anything closer than 15 feet from the road.  The plants closest to the road are left to look pretty.

This is the first of many infused oils of the season.  Both  the leaf and flower oil I will be making today will be added with other infused oils to make a salve later, most likely toward the end of the summer.

Dirt is brushed and critters are shaken off the plant material.  Flowers and leaves are chopped separately

and then put in stearilized mason jars.

Carrier oil of choice is then added to the mason jars ensuring that all plant material is covered by about one inch of oil.  Using a glass rod the mixture is poked and mixed until air bubbles are removed.  The plant material will settle to the bottom of the jar after a few minutes. 

Jars are then covered in muslin and tied with a label stating date, herb and oil used.  Many books recommend covering the jars with lids but I was taught to use muslin as this allows for any moisture to evaporate.  Moisture in sealed jars can cause mold issues.   Tags are cut from the top of saved LCBO bags.  I use the bags for drying other types of herbs and since the bags are long cutting the tops for tags ensures multipurpose re-purposing.

I chose Olive Oil for the leaves as it has a green base and also is very healing to the skin.  Olive oil is the oil of choice for medicinal salves.  Fractionated Coconut Oil is very good for dry skin and as it is clear the flowers will add a pretty purple tinge to the oil.  Also both oils have a good shelf life, they are slow to go rancid.

The plant/flower material has now started to settle to the bottom of the jars. As you can see some plant material is still suspended in the oil, this too will settle.  

The oil was added approximately 5 minutes before this photo was taken and the oil already the  has a purple hue...pretty.  Note:  I used a blender stick in the oil to chop the flowers, hence the oil is slightly cloudy.

 Morning and evening I will swish the jar around as the oil infuses for approximately 6 weeks before  straining and then filtering the oil into different jars for storing until it is time to make the salve.

Note:  Be sure you know your plants before playing and creating with them.  This is not meant as educational nor with the intent for readers to follow my methods. I blog for entertainment purposes only.

April Showers Bring May Flowers...

Raining and dull, the kind of day that makes colours pop.  Purples, blues and yellows here and there, the wind is making everything shimmy.  The kind of day to sit and read and have hot tea.  Damp enough for a fire...maybe tonight. 

Everything is New...

Lots of budding going on, weeding to be done and I am new to blogging..phew.  I will be posting musing about the garden, creations of and in the garden and possibly a bit of scuttlebutt about the critters that co-habitate.