Gardener Heal Thyself: Calendula Poultice

I work with my hands a lot. Household chores, gardening and especially throwing pots are hard on the hands. I don’t use hand salves, lotions or creams. You put that stuff on and a minute later you need to wash something or pull a bush out of the ground. I’m also a little clumsy, only when I’m distracted. I was distracted several days ago when I grabbed a pan that had just come out of the oven at 450 F. No oven glove. Youch!

So first I put the calendula salve  from a tube on the blister. It didn’t help, the blister kept returning. I tried the antibiotic cream, but that just seemed to make it worse.

And there were those flowers, in my very own garden, beautiful yellow and orange calendula blossoms, not totally open yet, so not pollinated yet, and so at their medicinal peak. Sorry, can’t show you a picture of them in their garden setting because I plucked them. But here they are in my kitchen setting:

I simply crushed them, petals and sepals alike, and applied the colorful, juicy mess to the blister as a poultice (from the Latin puls, pultes, meaning porridge).

Then a band aid to keep it from falling into my keyboard.

And blog about it.

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