Natural Home

Now, this may be something that very few people ever feel the need to do- but I wanted to write it up anyway!

I found my need of pine rosin when I decided to try my hand at making beeswax wraps. The wraps that didn’t contain the rosin were not as sticky, and they definitely need to be to work the way they’re meant to. You can find that post here

I could have easily ordered some off amazon. It’s not hard to find. Or even really expensive. There’s just something about the challenge of making something myself that really appeals to me. So I sat down with my good friend youtube and watched a lot of videos on how to collect and clean the resin. Talk about scary! Most videos showed heating the resin in a tin can over an alcohol burner. Thanks, no thanks. After typing in “How to clean resin without alcohol burner” I found an old post someone had made using a pot of water instead! That was more my speed.

First things first, I had to find some resin. We have plenty of pine trees around the property so that didn’t take long. I really didn’t want to cause any harm to the tree just to make my wraps, so I looked for areas on the tree that were already healing. Places where branches had been broken off or trimmed. There would be a sticky deposit there ranging from amber to dark brown. It was kinda stinky, not gonna lie. I used a butter knife (that will never be used for anything ever again! More on that later) and carefully cut off very small pieces. I collected from 4 different trees, being careful not to take very much from each spot.

After I had collected the resin I put it in a drawstring cotton bag. Then I filled a pot with water (Again, one that will never be used for anything else!) and turned the heat to medium. I lined my counters with newspaper because I anticipated a mess. I was not wrong.

Place the cotton bag in the hot water and let it do it’s thing. As the resin heats up it starts separating from the debris from the tree. It will seep through the fabric and into the water. I filled a bowl with cool water and places that on my newspaper. Using a spoon I scooped up the yellow drops that were seeping from the bag and dropped them in the water. Be careful not to tough the cool water with your spoon or the resin will stick.

The whole process took maybe 15 minutes. I used my spoon to press the bag and release any more melted resin. When I wasn’t getting much out anymore I turned the heat off and questioned my life. Everything was covered in resin. I seriously tried to be careful, but it was everywhere. I had hoped to clean my bowl afterwards (hahahahaha) that resin is stuck for life!

I decided to use a little tin I found to store my resin. I used the spoon to scoop out the droplets from the cool water and put them in my little tin. Next, I set up a double boiler and placed the tin in the top. As it melted down to a more smooth consistency, I checked out the bag of debris. It was pretty cool to see how much of my “resin” had really been bark and dirt.

I used the rosin as I intended- to make beeswax wraps. It worked perfectly for that! Is it something I’d do again? Probably not. But it was a fun experience anyway.

Hey guys! This is a project I was really looking forward to making this year. In my endeavor to produce less waste (especially in the kitchen) I came across these reusable wraps made with beeswax! The biggest question I had was “Can they completely replace Saran Wrap in my home??” So let’s get into it!

Beeswax wraps are easily found online or in a natural food store…. but man are they expensive. I had to try to make them myself! The internet is full of different instructions to make your own, but the ingredients are generally the same: cotton fabric, beeswax granules, jojoba oil, and pine rosin. I had exactly two of those things on hand. Some improvisation was needed. Story of my life.

I read somewhere that you can use any food grade oil in place of jojoba (except coconut oil) so I decided to sub with olive oil. I have lots of that. I still have beeswax I bought from a local bee keeper awhile ago, so I was all good there. I found some scraps of fabric I had bought for a project last year- remnants of a pack of fat quarters in pretty white and gold patterns. The last ingredient was the pine rosin. I couldn’t find any locally, but it is easily found online. Unfortunately (or maybe fortunately?) I’m way too impatient to wait for things to come in the mail when I have a project in mind. So I set about making my own. Check out the post here

Now that I had all my materials gathered it was time to get to work. I cut my fabric scraps by measuring some of my baking pans I would like to cover. Just make sure there is enough to hang over the edges so it can be pressed on to stay in place. Preheat the oven to 180F.

Next, I set up a double boiler and measured out 3 oz of beeswax granules, 1/2 oz of pine rosin, and 1/2 of olive oil. On medium heat I let everything melt together. It’s so important that anything you use when working with pine rosin is only used for that purpose. It is extremely hard to get off everything! I recommend lining your countertop with newspaper in case of any spills.

You’ll want to line a cookie sheet with parchment paper. As I said before, the pine rosin is super sticky and hard to get off. Lay out your fabric on the lined pan. Using an old flat paintbrush ( I used one from an old art set) dip into the melted wax/oil and spread on the fabric. It won’t go on super smoothly, but that’s okay. Pop the pan in the oven for a few minutes. When the pan is pretty warmed you can take it out and using the same brush, spread the wax and oil around to the edges of the fabric. You can add more if you need to. It’s important for the oils to soak through to the other side of the fabric.

When the fabric is completely covered carefully lift it off the parchment paper to let it set and stiffen up. I laid mine out on newspaper so I could work on the next. They dry very quickly and are ready to use right away!

Here’s the part I really looked forward to! Finally using these wraps! I tried them first as covers for my glass pans that did not come with lids. They worked great! I laid the wraps over the top of my pans and pressed the edges over, using the warmth of my hands to stick it down. The wraps held up well in the fridge, retaining their shape. I fold them to store when not in use.

Now the sad part of my story. I decided to try wrapping some of a leftover block of cheese. After not even a full day wrapped the cheese had absorbed so much of the pine smell and taste. It was awful! There was no smell with anything I used the wraps over as a cover, but directly touching food, while food safe, was very gross. So that’s to be noted.

These wraps will not replace Saran Wrap completely. At least for me. I’m still on the search for a reusable, sustainable product I can use for things like freezing pie crusts. For now I use my wraps over dishes and store extra cheese (or anything the wraps would come in complete contact with) in a glass container with a lid.

I’d love to hear any recommendations for products that would replace plastic wrap more effectively! If you know of any, leave a comment or send me an email.

My experience using eco friendly “Soap Nuts” as a laundry detergent

Nothing says wash day like a giant bag of withered, dry soap nuts next to the washer! Well, maybe not in most households. But it is now the norm in mine. When I first started to read about these magical little berries, I was so intrigued! I pinned and read, and pinned and read some more. I’m weird like that.

My husband was less enthused about the idea. In fact, when I showed him a video that explained how they worked he couldn’t have rolled his eyes any further back in his head. But as usual he let me know he trusted me and whatever weird decision I made.

So what are these things??

I was surprised to learn that soap nuts aren’t actually nuts at all. They are the berries produced by shrubs in the Sapindaceae family. These shrubs grow in tropical climates, and are mostly harvested from Southeast Asia. The berries contain saponins (that create the foamy, soapy consistency) and they are natural surfactants. You can use the soap nuts in any type of washer and they are septic safe.

After doing a little bit more googling, the hunt for my laundry berries was on! It actually didn’t take me long to find some. My local co-op carries several sizes! Even though I had never used them before, I went with the largest bag. My poor husband gets to live with all my experiments taking up space in our little house.

Are they easy to use??

The bag I bought came with two cotton drawstring bags to use in the wash. You simply place 4 berries in the bag, pull the drawstring closed, and throw it in the washer. That little bag is good for around 4 washes. When your washer has completed its cycle just take the bag out and let dry. But if you do laundry like me – just keep it in there for the next load. I like to do my laundry in one or two days a week.

One drawback about using these soap nuts is that they work best in warm/hot water. And I really only wash with cold water… Lucky for me there was a formula on the back for making a liquid soap for laundry. I boiled 15 nuts in a pot of water with 6 cups of water. After it boiled down for 20 minutes, I added another cup of water and boiled again another 10 minutes. After it cooled I strained the liquid into a clean mason jar. It’s actually recommended you keep the liquid refrigerated between uses, as it can spoil. But hey, what’s one more weird jar in my fridge??

Less waste- and I can save money??

Now, one of the main draws of switching to this way of washing clothes was saving money. My husband and kids tend to break out in rashes when I use any detergent other than Tide. And Tide is spendy. Because of that, I’m so happy to find that this seems to be a good fit for our family. No adverse reactions, and it’s easy on the wallet. My two favorite things. Haha!

As I’m working on making changes in the products we bring into our home, I’m becoming much more aware of the amount of unnecessary plastic in packaging. Unfortunately, even though the soap nuts came in a linen bag there was still a plastic liner inside. However, that’s still less waste than a container of Tide produces. After the soap nuts are used up they can be thrown right in your compost pile. But there is still the question of whether or not importing these from Asia is really more eco friendly in the long run. I’m continuing my research as far as that goes!

You may be thinking to yourself “Okay… but do these even work??”. And I’ll answer by saying yes…. and no. My laundry comes out mostly clean using soap nuts alone. Set-in and stubborn stains need pretreated. But to be fair, I was still pretreating stains when we exclusively used Tide. My toddler’s “accident” clothes didn’t come out smelling fresh and clean. I found that adding a cup of vinegar in the wash really helped with that odor. I also put a few drops of essential oil on a clean cloth in the dryer for scent, because the soap nuts themselves do not leave any sort of scent on your clothes.

Is it worth the switch??

So let’s look at potential savings. My 2.2lb bag cost $23 at my local co-op (you can definitely find better prices on Amazon). I wash an average of 6 loads of laundry a week. Each load uses 1/4 cup of liquid. Following the directions on the back for the liquid detergent I end up with a full quart jar. So that one jar will take care of 16 loads- or almost 3 weeks of laundry. And that’s only using 15 of the nuts! Here’s my math:

• 15 soap nuts weigh about 1.4 oz
• The entire bag is 2.2lbs or 35.2 oz
• I will use 1 quart of liquid detergent in a 3 week period
  
• I should be able to get 25 quarts of detergent out of this one bag which will be enough for around 16 months of laundry

So even with any sort of stain treatment I buy and use (right now that’s vinegar and hydrogen peroxide) I’m still saving a heck of a lot of money. That seems like winning deal to me!