'What on earth is the crap in this jar?' the husband says, brandishing a gherkin jar of green gloop in solidified olive oil. It's a lemon balm infused olive oil, thanks very much, darling. And it's for you. I'd intended to make a salve for his herpes.

'Oh I don't get that anymore' he says. I choke on my muesli. Of course he does. Every. single. term. As soon as he gets stressed, it breaks out on his hands. I make sure we eat well but sometimes the best of diets and every strategy can't stop this virus reacting to the stresses of teaching. And it hurts - which makes me hurt, literally. I get a psychosomatic response which runs up the back of my thighs whenever I see the blisters.

But there's no sense of urgency in the middle of holidays, so the oil stays in the fridge. And apparently he doesn't get it anymore. Sigh.

The recipe I'd intended to use was this one, or something like it. If you'd like to know more about the science behind this, do read the article as she provides lots of helpful links to studies. L-lysine (which he takes internally if he catches it in time, or if it's super bad and recurring), lemon balm infused oil, beeswax, lemon balm essential oil, and maybe a few other oils as per recipe, or not, because I'd run out of peppermint and wintergreen was just a step too far in the budget. But there was no hurry, right, because he didn't have it.

Until Week 2 of term 1...

Cue wife's smug smile. 'Oh, so you don't get it anymore?'. It's a big blister on the heel of his balm and it's red, swollen, sore and itchy. Painful.

'Have you got anything I can use?' he says, having forgotten all about the green gloop in the gherkin jar. Cue me, brandishing jar. 'Wait one momento', says I, turning on the stove and gathering my ingredients. I'm feeling pretty super woman, to be honest. But it's only because I'd thought about it earlier and had it all to hand. The only problem was time - here's my poor honey in pain, and my parasympathetic nervous response is going crazy.

The thing is with a salve is that you have to wait for the beeswax to set. Cue ice to the rescue! The beeswax started to set easily. The dilemma I had was the L-Lysine, which wasn't dissolving very well at all, and would settle to the bottom of the liquid. However, with some consistent stirring, the beeswax cooled and the L-lysine was more evenly distributed through the mix.

Another five minutes or so in the ice, and it was ready to dab on and apply a bandaid.

Did it work? It absolutely did - in an hour's time, the redness had disappeared, and by the next morning, it had almost cleared up. Whilst he does not like to admit that he gets it, nor that my salve might be so immediately effective, I could certainly rest on my good wife skills in preparing something to sooth and heal.

L-Lysine and Melissa Salve

**Adapted from recipe: Healing Harvest Homestead

1/2 cup lemon balm infused oil (I'd infused mine twice)
1/8 cup beeswax
1 tbsp L-Lysine Powder (I used powder but you can crush tablets - try to make it as fine as possible)
20 drops lemon balm oil (anti-viral and relieving)
20 drops of wintergreen oil (coo
20 drops of peppermint oil (cooling and pain relieving)
15 drops clove oil (pain relief)

I didn't have wintergreen or peppermint oils, so just settled for clove and melissa (lemon balm).

My favourite way to do it is put it in a jar or a tin in some hot or simmering water to melt the beeswax into the oil. Then, bring off the heat and stir in the L-Lysine and essential oils. Keep stirring with the blade of a knife or tines of a fork until the L-Lysine dissolves and the wax evenly cools - it may 'stick' a little as it hardens around the edge first. This is why it's great to do it on ice as this process is a lot quicker.

Apply as needed, and often, until it settles down.