Wild Hawthorn Pine Salve

A Little Bit of the Forest

There is something about the scent of pine that brings me immediately back to the woods.

Resin warming on bark. Needles beneath my feet. The clean scent that rises from the trees after rain.

Perhaps that is why I have always loved making pine salve.

It begins simply- with pine resin gathered from the forest, infused slowly into oil, and blended with beeswax until it becomes a soft golden balm.

But what I love most about it isn't what it does.

It's what it remembers.

The forest has always been a place where I feel held. I can wander beneath the trees for hours, noticing moss growing along an old trunk, light filtering through evergreen branches, or the fragrance released when my hand brushes against pine needles.

Making something from the plants and trees around me feels like another form of noticing.

A way of bringing a little of the outside world home.

I keep a small jar of pine salve nearby for dry hands and weather-worn skin, especially after gardening or spending a day outdoors. When I open the jar, that familiar evergreen fragrance rises again.

And just for a moment, the woods don't feel very far away.

Perhaps that is the quiet magic of making things by hand.

Sometimes a little jar can hold an entire forest.

Wild Hawthorn