Recipe: Calendula & Goldenrod Salve
Like so much of my gardening, I get a lot of inspiration from folks like Deanna Talerico at Homestead and Chill. Deanna lines her beds with calendula, and they look so vibrant with oranges and yellows. Calendula is in a lot of her apothecary products as well. I had to try in my own garden, of course. My seeds are from Baker’s Creek Heirloom Seeds - their Playtime Mix.
Calendula seeds look like baby seahorses and may just be the cutest seed you will ever encounter. They’re fairly pliable seeds, and by that I mean you can be an amateur gardener like me and not the most attentive to seedlings, and somehow still grow healthy transplants from seed. The past 2 springs I’ve planted calendula seeds in February or March. I start them indoors on a heat mat, and then harden them off as they grow into strong seedlings. By the end of March the seedlings are big enough to be called transplants and I then plant them in the ground. If memory serves me correctly, April is when I start harvesting the flower heads. Once these puppies start cooking, I’m harvesting a basket full every 2 days from April through the end of June. She’s a very giving plant.
Calendula’s medicinal properties are in the resin underneath the flower head. Your fingers get so sticky when you harvest! Calendula is antibacterial, antimicrobial, anti-inflammatory, and full of antioxidants - a true powerhouse in the garden and the perfect plant to honor our Summer Solstice theme of Protection.
To harvest, I clip at the base of the flower head. From there, I dehydrate the heads in my (aka my husband’s, but I commandeer it in the summer)HerbsNow Dryer. To start making the salve once the heads are dehydrated, I macerate the dehydrated heads in jojoba oil for 2-4 weeks. Jojoba oil is a non-comedogenic oil that mimics our skin’s natural sebum, and that makes it the perfect base oil for the calendula salve. For the batch we made at the 2026 Summer Solstice, I completed a similar harvesting, dehydrating, and macerating process with wild goldenrod we have growing on our property because goldenrod is also anti-inflammatory and full of antioxidants for your skin.
Here is the recipe we used for the 2026 Summer Solstice. It is written by Deanna Talerico at Homestead and Chill. My only tips for a great batch of salve - do not deviate from Deanna’s recipe. I strayed from her recipe at the 2026 Spring Equinox and the aloe salve I made was hard as a rock. And, know that any bowl or mixing tool you use for this project will be covered in a greasy salve afterwards. Make sure to set aside ample cleanup time.
The recipe below makes 10 oz. of salve:
1 cup Calendula oil (this is the jojoba infused Calendula, with the dehydrated flowers strained from the oil)
3-4 tbsp beeswax pastilles, or 1 oz. if you're using shaved, block, or other forms of beeswax. Deanna recommends this and I highly recommend following her notes - if you add shea butter, only use 3 tbsp of beeswax pastilles. If you skip the shea butter, use 4 tbsp beeswax.
2 tbsp shea butter (optional, but I always add because shea butter is deeply moisturizing for skin)
30-40 drops essential oils of choice (I’ve strayed from Deanna’s recipe here for those good, good smells)
3 4-oz. mason jars (the recipe makes 10 oz., so each jar will have about 2.5 oz. of salve when all is said and done)
In a double boiler, bring water to boil, and melt the beeswax and shea butter. Once that mixture is an even consistency, add in the Calendula oil. Stir thoroughly. Finally, add in your essential oils. Shut the boiler off, and immediately pour the liquid mixture into each mason jar. The liquid will start the cool and be unworkable if you let it sit for too long - so quick movements here. Let it sit unsealed until hardened, then lid all your jars. Voilà! Medicine from the garden!
-Kelcey
