10th ave. soapworks

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...

Here is a post for all of you who have asked me for a recipe to make your own laundry "detergent."  There are many versions of this recipe, but this is the one I use. Keep in mind that this homemade soap is different from commercial detergents, which contain optical brighteners to make clothes appear whiter and brighter as well as surfactants that provides lots of bubbles and suds.  On the other hand, this is soap, pure and simple, and doesn't contain any scents, colors or common skin irritants.  For me, the choice for homemade is a no-brainer.    The three ingredients: washing soda (not baking soda), borax, and a bar of laundry soap . I grate 1/2 the bar of soap with a cheese grater.  Some people use a food processor, but either way, it doesn't take long. Pour one quart of water into a pot and add the soap shavings.  Heat the water and stir until the soap dissolves. Add 1/2 c. of borax and 1/2...

Well, I'm ahead of the game this week.  My soap challenge soap is made, cut, and looking good!  Pictures to come on Saturday. Anyway, I made this particular batch with yogurt.  If you like the qualities that yogurt gives to soap, you soapmakers can add a bit of wow to your next batch by making your very own yogurt.  (I'm all about the DIY projects!) It is Super Easy, too!  For years I've used my $1 garage sale yogurt maker but it breathed its last a couple of months ago.  (It had lived a good long life....I saw the same yogurt maker on an episode of the Bob Newhart Show , so that puts it at about 40 years old in people years--I don't know the equivalent in electric kitchen gizmo years....)  OK, no more relying on a gadget, I had to learn how to do it myself.  Have you ever searched "making homemade yogurt" on the internet?  There are 2,260,000 results on Google and I would reckon that every one is different.  So that means that ...