Ramblings from our Summer Kitchen

✿🍃 {We have decided to go Palm Free!... } ✿🍃

We have always used organic, fair trade & GMO free ingredients and we are always working to make a good thing better. Palm oil is linked to major environmental & social issues such as deforestation, habitat destruction, climate change, pollution, animal cruelty, and indigenous rights abuses. The forests are being cleared for the development of oil palm plantations.

The World Wildlife Fund reports, an area the size of 300 football fields of rainforest is cleared each hour to make way for palm oil production. This enormous deforestation is pushing many species to the brink of extinction and contributing to environmental damage. These heart breaking consequences are the reasons we are eliminating the use of palm oil and its byproducts in our products.

If in the next few days and weeks you notice our ingredients lists still contain palm oil it is because we are still working on changing the many places our ingredients are listed. Rest assured we have donated all of our palm oil and any product that contained palm oil to a local shelter.

We just thought you would like to know.

Radish is part of our Market Collection- the scent is rich spics and sultry.

Sit a Spell is the dead on scent of fresh ice cold sweet tea...

Pure beeswax candles are a must for everyone’s home. Their beauty and practicality mostly go unnoticed. Here are several important reasons why beeswax is the best choice for candles.

I have been asked quite a bit lately why we offer only unscented beeswax candles and what is so great about them? I had to really stop and think because that’s the way I have always burnt them, how could the natural scent be improved on I thought. My answer to myself was, it can’t be improved, beeswax has such a mellow, honey like natural scent why would I want to change that?

I love burning beeswax candles because they throw a mellow natural light, I truly enjoy!

It is reported that beeswax candles emit negative ions to purify, cleanse, improve air quality, and invigorate the body. A plus in my book.

Beeswax is a true gift from nature; it is both rare and expensive. Beeswax costs about 10 times more than paraffin or even soy. It is estimated that the bees must fly 150,000 miles to collect enough nectar to produce 6 pounds of honey to secrete 1 pound of wax. Did you know for every 100 pounds of honey harvested, the beekeeper can only collect about 1-2 pounds of the beeswax. That’s a lot of work for the bees and their keepers.

“Lovelier with age” they say about many things and beeswax candles are no exception. Over time, beeswax develops a whitish film called a “bloom” (especially in a cooler climate), which is very lovely and adds charm to your candles. In fact older candles burn longer than newer ones.

You will want to look for candles marked as 100% beeswax, since there are no regulations regarding purity some candles can be up to 95% paraffin wax with only a tiny bit of true beeswax. Here at the farm you can be assured our beeswax candles are 100% beeswax, I wouldn’t use an inferior candle and wouldn’t offer one to you either.

One of my favorite features is that beeswax is Hypo-allergenic and can benefit those with environmental allergies, sensitivities & asthma. Another plus of natural scented beeswax (no added fragrances )makes them a great choice for anyone with sensitivities to other candles or fragrances. With allergy sufferers in our home I know first-hand that for us, beeswax candles don’t trigger symptoms where some scented or other wax based candles will.

Candles of pure beeswax are a must for meal time; the natural scent doesn’t compete with the yummy aromas of your meals. I once sat for dinner at a friend’s home where she lit candles for dinner and let me tell you the combined scents of pot roast and roses was not a happy time for me. My favorite candles for the dinner table are our pillar candles. I love the height and shape, but I also have had fun at picnics with our pine cone candles and our snowball candles during the winter season.

A few care tips for your candles

• Store candles in a cool dry location away from sunlight and heat. In the cupboard above the stove is NOT the place to store candles.
• Candles should fit snugly in a heat safe candle holder.
• Burn candles away from drafts and never leave them unattended while burning.
• Mind your wicks- keeping the wicks trimmed to ¼” will prevent over heating of your candle holder, help prevent excessive drips, smoking, soot, and tunneling. Trimming them to short will result in the wick drowning in the melted wax pool and also make it hard to relight later.
• Light your candle from the base of the wick, this allows the wick to be coated with wax and burn properly.
• To extinguish a candle take care not to blow melted wax all over the place or on you. Use a suitable tool to dip the wick into the melted wax or use a candle snuffer.
• Remove particles from the melted wax AFTER it has been extinguished.
• Stop burning a candle when it reaches 1” from its holder or the bottom of your container. This will prevent overheating of the container that may cause it to crack or explode causing a fire danger.
• Save those beeswax candle stubs! Yes, really there are so many great other uses for beeswax, from freeing up a hard to work zipper to helping a draw open and closes easily. Pure beeswax can be re-melted and made into a new candle.