I have a little red pot that I only use for brewing. The lovely cooking utensil is hand carved by an Etsy Witchy friend from near Salem. I love sitting with the herbs as they simmer -- mugwort, lemongrass, cinquefoil, rue, Dittany of Crete, poplar buds (balm of Gilead), clary sage, and wormwood (plus benzoin powder and vitamin E oil as preservatives).
The sweet, sticky poplar buds open up in the heat of the salve's base oil as they simmer.
A pound of base salve yields about six 2-oz. tins of flying ointment -- or one of the large jars. Isn't it a lovely olive green? One of the names for flying ointment in the Middle Ages was "green salve." You can see why.
