Bayberry........
So many of my readers and patrons have shared their Holiday plans with me already! I never start to decorate for the Christmas season until the day after Halloween at least...but I'll tell you~ our weather is getting cold and nippy, and I'm really getting in the festive mood! As you all are planning your Holiday decor, I hope you will include the wonderful bayberry scent~ either in greens or candles, or oils or something! My Christmas just wouldn't be right without it.
Bayberry candles were a cherished prize during our Colonial Ancestors' Christmas seasons~ they were very hard and tedious to make, and very expensive! True Bayberry candles are made from the wax coating of the berries~ these were boiled (and still are today) , and when the wax floated to the top of the pot, it was skimmed off and saved. It literally takes thousands of berries to yield enough wax for a single taper. Keep that in mind, next time you go to the market and buy an oil scented bayberry candle.