Hope this is not too much of a digression . . . but it may help others, so
Miss Lydia,
Comfrey grows in my garden, so I gather a large handful of its leaves. If I used boughten dried comfrey, I reckon I would use a half a cup to a cup of dried chopped leaves.
With fresh comfrey, I hang it for a day to release some of the moisture, and reduce risk of mold.
I warm a couple of cups of good olive oil in a double boiler, and add the comfrey. I keep a lid on it when not stirring. I stir it occasionally for about half an hour, then turn off the heat. It sits, covered, about ten or twelve hours.
Then I warm it back up to about 100 degrees, not real hot. I strain out the comfrey (just use a strainer and gently press the leaves to get all the oil I can out of it). I compost the leaves. The oil is now a deeper green.
At this point I may dip out comfrey oil into colored glass bottles. Sometimes the oil is handy, too.
I start adding small chunks (the size of three of my fingers together and I have short fingers) of beeswax to the mix. I take a spoon and dip it in the salve and set it in the freezer for a minute. This shows me the consistency of the salve. If it is too oily yet, I add more beeswax. For lip balm I like it waxier. If I did not have a freezer I would just have to be more patient
.
When the consistency is right, I take one 1,000 unit vitamin E capsule (the oily gel cap), pierce it, and squeeze the contents into the salve. Vitamin E is good for the skin and helps keep the salve fresh longer. Then I pop the capsule in my mouth and enjoy it while I finish up. I use a steel ladle and dip it out into dry tins or jars and let them cool on the stove top. This can take over an hour, depending on the size of the tins.
Okay, now we have comfrey salve.
To make the Epsom salt poultice with the salve, I scoop about two tablespoons of salve into a custard cup (so scientific) and begin adding salts by sprinkling them in and stirring. When the mixture begins to look like very sugary cookie dough, I consider it done.
I put a big dab of poultice covered with a steri-pad and taped on the first time, and since then I am using a dime-sized dab under two criss-crossed bandaids. I can still wear my work shoes, or clogs, and get around fine (except for a little limp at first).
Hope that covers it! No pun intended. I often think the drawback with adding the Epsom salts, from a duck mom point of view, is that ducks are so good at slipping out of bandages, at least my ducks are, and I can just see them swallowing the poultice and getting the trots. Which would not be horrible, but I wouldn't want to deal with a duck with bumblefoot AND the trots.
Still, if someone could come up with an escape-proof, fairly comfortable duck foot bandage (the world would beat a path to her door), that would make this poultice worth considering.
