Beeswax Candles
We now make candles, from 100% pure Nova Scotian beeswax that we refine ourselves.
You can download our catalogue, as an Acrobat PDF file here.
We fell into the beeswax candle business almost by accident. We have always paid attention to the blueberry industry, as our chocolates business is built around blueberries, and it seems that the blueberry growers always pay a lot of attention to the honeybee business. It turns out that the single cheapest way to increase the yield of a blueberry field is to provide additional pollinators to the area, as wild bees and other insects are rarely able to visit every blueberry blossom. Some blueberry growers keep bees, and many others rent hives of bees during the blossom period in late June. And most of these beekeepers have wax to sell in the fall.
The bees store their honey in combs, and beekeepers harvest that honey by slicing off the top of the comb with a hot knife. The comb wax is re-used from year to year and eventually turns very brown, but the wax cappings, at the top, is made fresh every year by young worker bees. This is the best wax. It's clean, it's usually a golden yellow, and it has a lovely fresh honey scent.
We render and then refine all of our wax to ensure that we can maintain the best quality. The cappings come to us in 45-gallon drums, and we wash this material several times in a laundry tub to remove as much of the honey as we can and to remove any dirt, twigs, dead bees and other debris. We also watch for old broodcomb, which will darken the colour of the finished wax. Once the cappings are thoroughly washed we heat them with water in a big pot and melt the wax, which floats to the surface and can be skimmed off. This is filtered and then left on a low heat for several days so the tiny (almost invisible) particles of dirt and other impurities will settle out, by gravity. We scoop out the top layers of this wax, filter it again, and let it harden into cakes ready for subsequent melting and pouring.
This lengthy refining process is perhaps the most important step. Wax that is merely melted and filtered will not make good candles. Any honey that is left in the wax will not burn well (the sugar carmelises on the wick), and the microscopic particles of dirt will clog up the pores in the wicks. This can be overcome by using coarse and oversized wicks but this makes a poor flame and shortens the burning time of the candle. With very clean wax we can use finely woven all-cotton wicks, sized to give the best flame and allow the best burning time.
As you might expect we have a sensible division of labour in this candle business. Alan does all the dirty work and all of the heavy lifting. Beth takes over when the wax is clean and pretty and ready to use, and she makes the candles (which requires patience and a keen eye). Our friends seem to think that this is an entirely appropriate arrangement.
We normally sell the candles at the Tatamagouche Farmers' Market every Saturday morning, and at Christmas gift shows in our area. We are also offering them now to our on-line customers, through the catalogue available here as a PDF file.
To order, please give us a call at (902) 548-2323 or (888) 354-5355 toll-free. We are usually in the shop mornings and afternoons Monday to Friday. Or you can send us an email at beth@appletonchocolates.ca