BEESWAX! We get our beeswax from a local fellow - he's super nice, and has GREAT beeswax. And we love to support our local farmers. Here is what it looks like when we get it. It's fairly clean, but there's pollen and bee bits and stuff in it. This is what about 100 lbs of beeswax looks like.


We put it in a biiiiig pot we have (purchased from our local secondhand store, and kept used just for this purpose) and melt it over low heat. Everything smells SOOOOOO good when we do this! The smell of warm beeswax is one of my most favorite scents in the world.

Then we strain out the ooky stuff from the melted beeswax, using very high-tech tools such as cheesecloth and an embroidery hoop. :) We've read that actually used sweatshirts make fabulous straining material - we plan to try that as soon as we get to Goodwill to pick some up.


This is all the stuff we strain out from the beeswax. Aren't you glad that doesn't end up in your lip balms or salves? :)


And here it is cooling in metal loaf pans. The large ones hold 2 lbs of beeswax and the small ones hold 1.