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Showing posts from November, 2014

Minding my Beeswax

I bought some beeswax....awhile ago.  As in a year ago.  A friend of mine in the honey business was learning how to take care of the beeswax and had lots of extra.  Local beeswax?  At a good price with no shipping charges?  I was in.  As it turned out, she had done for the first step in cleaning it, but to get the best quality, cleanest beeswax, it needed a second step.  I finally got around to doing it this fall, as I'd run out of my previous stash and all the cleaner pieces I had. Yellow jackets that died a waxy death. Cleaning beeswax isn't hard, but it does take a lot of waiting.  The first step for me was cutting it into smaller chunks to melt it down.  Wrenching off pieces of beeswax with a butcher knife is a workout like no other.    My "double boiler"--a #10 can in an old saucepan Melting the beeswax down took awhile in my makeshift double boiler.  When melted, the pure beeswax stays on the top while th...