Sunday, February 26, 2012

Sticky Icky and Gooey: Homemade Aloe Vera Gel!

On my last post, about home made sanitizer, one of the ingredients for the recipe is aloe vera gel. As always, the more natural the better! So this post is a quick rundown on how to harvest your own aloe and using it to create awesome stuff for yourself, your friends and other awesome people in your life. It is very easy to do and like most good things in life, it is best when shared with others.



BUT FIRST...

Some interesting facts about Aloe Vera!!! YEIIIII!!!:

*Aloe is a disinfectant, it is great for cuts, bites and scrapes.

*Aloe has been used forever! Well, at least since 1550 B.C, it was used in Egyptian medicine and Ancient Austronaut Theorists say... ( or at least I hope they would say...) it was brought as ancient alien medicinal technology.

*Aloe is a cactus, hence the prickly leaves, and there are around 200 different types of it!

*Aloe is a great moisturizer!

*Aloe is under investigation in the medical community for many different uses, from fighting gingivitis, having compounds that could work against diabetes and having anti-inflammatory characteristics.

* I used to drink it with some honey and lime for bad colds... it worked!

*Aloe makes my friend Luis sick, since he is allergic to it. (A strange allergy indeed.)

So, here  is my rendition of
"Making Aloe Gel on a Sunday Afternoon" represented in pictures, accompanied by my little sis.

Step #1:



Get your hands on an Aloe Vera plant!

My mom recently cut a bunch of her own plants, so this one in the picture is a full grown plant with it's roots. Looks like a cactus octopus hybrid... don't it?







Step #2:

Cut as many leaves as you want. Then make two incisions down the leave, one on each side. Cut the yellow area where the aloe sap has been dripping, you don't want that in your gel. You want it as clear as possible! Separate the leaves.




Step #3:

  Get your little sister to scrape the gooey sticky-icky clear gel with a spoon.  Repeat! She is having FUN.











Step #4:

Save your awesome gooey aloe gel in a bowl in the fridge. Use as soon as possible! Find recipes! Make them! Share them! Hit me up with new ideas!
















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