How to Harvest Fresh Aloe + Make Aloe Juice (Video)
This inevitably means more chances of sunburn. It’s a good idea to purchase an aloe plant for personal use because it will come in handy when your little one spends a bit too much time outside or if you forgot to put sunscreen on while you were out in the garden.
Having aloe around for those instances that you burn your hand on the stove or something is a good idea too. Just speaking from personal experience of course. Sure, you can buy aloe gel or juice but dang, it’s expensive and it’s not as pure as harvesting straight from the plant. The good thing is, harvesting fresh aloe and making aloe juice is ridiculously simple.
Since I know I am more of a visual learner, I decided to put a video together and show you just how simple it is to harvest fresh aloe and make fresh aloe juice. You can use the gel straight on your skin or if you have a beauty/personal care recipe that calls for aloe juice, you can take the gel blend it with some water and have it to use in the recipe.
Stay tuned for a soothing sunburn face mist recipe (which uses fresh aloe juice) which will be on the blog tomorrow.
For print out directions of how to harvest fresh aloe and make aloe juice scroll down, past the video.
- Mini cookie cutters (where to buy)
- candy thermometer (where to buy)
- stand mixer (where to buy) or hand mixer (where to buy)
- food processor for homemade "powdered" sugar
- non-bleached parchment paper
- toothpicks
- 2 ½ tsp unflavored grass-fed gelatin (where to buy)
- ⅓ cup cold filtered water plus ¼ cup filtered water
- ¾ cup organic cane sugar (where to buy)
- 1 Tbl vanilla extract
- ½ cup homemade powdered sugar (recipe and directions below)
- 1 Tbl cocoa powder (where to buy)
- ½ - 1 tsp filtered water
- butter or coconut oil to smear on the bottom of a pan so the parchment paper sticks
- In a sauce pan, on medium heat, add ⅓ cup water, sugar, and vanilla; stir continuously until the sugar has dissolved
- Place your candy thermometer in your sauce pan and wait until the mixture reaches the "softball" stage (235ºF)
- Meanwhile, in a large bowl (if you're using a stand mixer, the bowl that comes with it works perfectly) add gelatin and ¼ cup water; let stand
- Once your sugary syrup has reached the softball stage, slowly pour the mixture into the bowl while blending on low speed. Work quickly because the syrup will harden.
- Once you've added all the syrup, blend on high until the mixture becomes marshmallow fluff (make sure to taste test the deliciousness)
- Pour/scoop marshmallow fluff into your parchment lined pan and lightly sprinkle the "powdered" sugar on top
- Place in the refrigerator for a few hours to let it set
- Grab a plate and sprinkle remaining powdered sugar on it -- this will be your sugar coating station
- Grab your mini ghost cookie cutter and "cut" marshmallow. You may have to move it back and forth so it breaks away from the rest of the marshmallow
- Once you have released the ghost from the main marshmallow, take your finger and push the ghost through. It's best to push the side that already has sugar on it (the top) so you minimize the stickiness.
- Coat the marshmallow thoroughly and place to the side; repeat until marshmallow has been exhausted.
- Take one cup of organic cane sugar and 1 Tbl arrowroot powder and blend in a food processor. I blended mine for about 5-7 minutes. Since we're making peeps, we don't necessarily want a powdered sugar -- just a lightly blended sugar so the crystals become small.
The instructions aren’t there for harvesting aloe..Instead it’s a recipe for ghost peeps.