"Johnjoil" is very easy to make, and the children will enjoy helping you.
- Take a jar out to your St. John’s Wort plant, pick the yellow flowers and drop them in the jar whole. Try to get as many as you can.
- When finished, pour olive oil over the flowers, completely covering them, but not too much more, to maintain strong potency. If you can’t get too many flowers at once, just add enough to cover what you have, and gradually add more flowers and more oil as the season continues. Some people just leave a covered canning jar with oil out in the sun next to the plant and put a few flowers in each day! But remember, stronger is better, so the oil should match the amount of flowers.
- Put it in the sun for several weeks (or by the stove) and shake occasionally. These lovely yellow flowers will turn the oil a beautiful red.
- Strain through a cloth, pressing out the residue to get all the oil you can.
- Afterwards, keep in a dark colored bottle (I have saved old herbal bottles for this purpose.) It should last several years.
(Important Foraging Precautions)