Decanting Balsalm OIl

I've had big jars of Balsalm branches from our no-spray Christmas tree soaking in olive oil for months.

I got an email in January from Heidi (who designed by beautiful label) saying she wanted to make me a price list with some crows in the background.

A price list!
Hmm but that would imply I had a variety of product AND that I was going to sell it.

I sent her a whiny email about never having sold stuff before, not knowing how much to charge and having difficulty making time to pull it all together.

She sent me back:
just do it. :-) -xoh

Perfect.

Then on Friday morning my friend called and asked if she could purchase a bottle of massage oil! She wondered how much they cost. She had used up the one I gave her for Christmas as a gift and wanted more! She asked about my different varieties. I was flabbergasted. I've given things away for years and no one has never asked for a refill. Or offered to pay for it. "We loved it." She said, "We'd like some more. Can I pick it up this weekend?" I had a customer. An eager customer!

My sister was here on Friday so she watched the girls while I pulled out the big bottles from the pantry where they had been steeping. There were little waxy balls all over the needles when I first took them out. They melted as the jars sat out on the warm counter. I don't know if it was the olive oil made solid by the cold cabinet or if that was the actual sap emerging from the needles, but it looked really cool.
As it warmed the oil turned a lovely deep green. I poured all the delicious smelling oil into a saucepan while the pretty blue bottles sterilized on the stove in boiling water.

Then I poured the green oil into the bottles and capped them up. I love looking at them all tidy and filled with good stuff.

Then I put them upstairs on my Reiki crystal grid with my "Language of Light Master crystal" and charged them up with loving healing power, sunshine and light.

Tonight I labeled 8 of them and put on pretty bows. I was trying to figure out what to write on the label so I looked up balsalm on-line and was pleased to discover its wonderful healing attributes.

Here is a blurb from http://therapeuticreiki.com/blog/the-essential-oil-of-idaho-balsam-fir-abies-balsamea/
"There is some evidence now that the “liquid gold” referred to in the Bible was none other than Balsam, an oil fit for kings and royalty. It was one of the three oils found in King Tutankhamun’s grave in 1922 and it is now thought that balsam was the “Balm of Gilead.” Balsam has been used for thousands of years as a medicinal oil for respiratory and muscular and rheumatic pain. Balsam Fir is mentioned 18 times in the Bible. Balsam fir has been used for respiratory and muscular system ailments. Hildegard of Bingen referred to balsam and said it was of royal nature and advised that it ought to be used as a medicine with great caution because it was so powerful. She used it for fevers, for paralysis, and for someone who was insane by making an ointment with it and rubbing it on their temples and around the head to restore their mind and good health.

Modern Use: Balsam fir has proved to be an anticoagulant and an anti-inflammatory. It is used by many massage therapists because it is a relaxant to the nervous system and to muscle spasms. Balsam can lower cortisol levels. Studies have shown that balsam will inhibit MCF7- (Aggressive Breast Cancer cells). Balsam fir is anti-inflammatory."

I'm going to put a little selection of massage oils, dream pillows and therapy pillows together and bring it to a few local shops. Yikes! And I am working on the price list, Heidi.