beeswax food wraps

In the summer I have a table at our local farmers market.  It is a small group of vendors and at one of the neighboring tables is a couple who have beehives and they sell their honey and beeswax along with garden produce.

I buy their honey and have bought their beeswax.  Besides cooking with the honey I put it in my honey and oatmeal soap.  I have used their beeswax to make candles and am considering pouring it into chocolate molds to make tree ornaments.

My most recent beeswax project was to make food wraps.  Food wraps are a reusable alternative to plastic wrap.  They can be used to wrap food or cover containers.  There are quite a few etsy sellers offering them for sale but I have not seen them locally in our often behind the times rural community.  When I mentioned them to my much trendier metropolitan daughter she said that she was wanting some and thinking of putting them on her Christmas list as they were a little pricey.  Prior to this they were barely on my radar but I did order the other ingredients and make some.  The farmers market season had ended but I did offer them for sale at a craft fair that I participated in the weekend before Thanksgiving.  Only one customer that stopped by had heard of them, having been given a set last year as a gift.  She said that she was still learning to use them.  There was some curiosity about them but, alas, no purchases.  It seems my kids will be getting some in their stockings this year.  :)  I will be using mine this winter so that I can share personal experiences with the customers at the market next year.

I do understand how they can be pricey.  The ingredients are kind of unusual and not available in stores around here.  Perhaps they could be found in a bigger metro area but I needed to order mine. I also had to purchase a lot more of the ingredients than I would need for a couple of batches of wraps.  The process is not hard but time consuming.  The melting of the ingredients involves the pine gum being melted first and then the beeswax being added to it and allowed to melt.  The jojoba oil goes in last and then when all are combined they are painted onto the fabric squares one at a time with a paintbrush and then since the mixture begins to harden as it cools the sheet is placed in a warm oven for a couple of minutes to soften the hardening beeswax mixture and brushed again.  A second sheet is added as a blotter for the first, they are turned over so the blotter is on the bottom and warmed again.  After another brushing to spread evenly the wax mix the first sheet is hung to dry and the process is repeated again with the blotter becoming the new first sheet and a second sheet becoming the new blotter.

drying on my pasta rack

When making my food wraps I used the instructions found here.

Shared with BNOTP here.