I Made a CANDLE out of BERRIES - The Incredible North American Bayberry
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- เผยแพร่เมื่อ 2 ส.ค. 2024
- Episode: 752 North American Bayberries
Species: Myrica cerifera, Myrica Pensylvanica
Location: NYC, USA
0:00-1:46 What are North American Bayberries?
1:46-4:53 History of Bayberry Candles
4:53-6:10 Can you eat North American Bayberries?
6:10-7:39 Bayberry leaf tea
7:39-11:15 Bayberry Candles, A Christmas Tradition
11:15-15:22 How to extract wax from Bayberries
15:22-16:40 Myrica cerifera VS Myrica pensylvanica
16:40-22:13 Bayberry Gingerbeer Recipe
22:13-30:21 How to make a bayberry candle using bayberries
30:21-33:00 Final Thoughts
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Now that You've seen the North American Bayberry, be sure to check out my episode on the very tasty Chinese Bay Berry: th-cam.com/video/qIspCfEApp4/w-d-xo.html
💚🎄💚 Jared... You're my favorite TH-cam Nephew ❤
Next time you feel like working many hours for little result , I seem to remember other fruits that were waxy from other episodes...
You made my day , actually night but you got the idea , Man you are one legend of a fruit lover I have no words to thank you for going so far for us , I simply have utmost respect for you ! you know i watch you videos in my breaktime or resting-time to stay relaxed and Your efforts are useful for a lot of people , Thank you and stay blessed .
I’ve been seeing your videos since I was a kid I forgot about account way back and found it some months ago I love your channel merry Christmas
Bach in the 60s when I was growing up, my grandma's family all had a tradition. I don't know the origins of the tradition though, since Grandma never told me (she had a bad habit of just assuming you knew things you didn't). The tradition was that they would take a bayberry candle and light it on Christmas Eve when we put out the cookies and milk for Santa. It had to be a REAL bayberry candle too, not just a bayberry scented fake one or one where the bayberry wax was mixed with something else. The candle had to be allowed to burn out, that was part of the tradition. It was supposed to light the way for Santa. She (like you) didn't trust letting the candle burn unattended without taking sufficient precautions, so she would leave the cookies and milk next to the kitchen sink, and set the candle in the sink so there was nothing flammable around for it to set fire to overnight. It was usually either burned out, or almost burned out when we got up in the morning. If it was still lit, we had to go back to our room until it burned out before we were allowed to get up and open our gifts. I always wondered where and how that tradition started.
I think the sputtering in your candle was from bits of moisture in the wick from the liquid that leaked out the bottom. Our bayberry candles never sputtered like that.
There are so many obscure vegetable waxes out there, that a mini series about them might genuinely be an interesting adventure. I for one would watch!
I second this!
Oh, and bioplastics would be cool too:3c
This is amazing man. Its crazy you made this video, because my grandmother STILL makes BayBerry candles to this day each Christmas. She has a ton of them as shrubs at her house here in Pennsylvania and gets almost 10 lbs of them together and makes a few candles out of them. She has been doing it for almost 50 years now... She uses a huge drum tho to boil and obviously uses a whole bunch more, so she is able to separate the debris a lot more easily. Merry Christmas Jared and Happy Holidays!
Wow! You’re so lucky that you can see this tradition being continued in your family! That’s so cool!
That's awesome
Do they have much of a smell to them from the fruit?
@@Melissa0774 umm, the scent isnt really easy to describe, I wouldnt label it fruity tho at all.. I am going to my grandmothers house tomorrow so I will let you know and I will try to really pinpoint more of the fragrances for you.
@@JonHop1 Is it anywhere near as strong as a typical scented candle?
The crackle from the impurities just adds to the charm of the thing. I can imagine when they made them by hand they weren't perfectly pure either. Just safe enough. I bet this would be just right to people who made these. And there's no reason to leave a candle unattended anyways! It's for light! : ) Especially then.
The crackling is most likely water
Not sure if you'll find this useful but having a bit of experience extracting wax from water: have a large spoon in ice, pull out and dry quickly then touch back of spoon to waxy water and only wax will stick, scrape off with razor into your collection vessel, repeat. You can just keep the pot simmering until all wax is gone.
I was thinking more like fractional distilation, possibly in vaccum or argon if there is a risk of combusting xD
You're among the most creatively lovely and pleasant youtubers, thank you for this content!
Wow, thank you!
Calm down
You lost quite a bit of wax to residue on the containers and strainers. If you ever try this again, boil as you did, then use a small stainless bowl or large stainless measuring cup full of ice water to help collect the wax from the surface of the water after it's cooled down to just above room temp. Basically think of the process like you would defatting a beef stock. Let it sit, then skim off the wax which is behaves the same as the beef fat@@WeirdExplorer
@@jimsonjohnson3761wdym calm down? Lmao
@@jarred267bear in mind that he's a vegetarian, I can guarantee he's never processed beef stock or beef anything for that matter.
Jared, thank you so very much for solving my personal bayberry candle mystery! I applaud your tenacity! As a child, mid 1950's through the 1960's, our family had a tradition of only bayberry candles during Christmas and New Years. I loved the scent, and the color, as your candle exactly replicated that feature. Sometime during the 1970, bayberry candles changed, and not in a good way. The scent was wrong, as was the color. As a bayberry candle lover, I have searched in vain many years for a true replica of my childhood. Your bayberry candle journey found out what I suspected, it's dang hard to make bayberry candles without cheating! Crap! Starting today, going to buy bayberries and make my own candle for next year, per your guidance and experience making yours! Merry Christmas, enjoy the scent of childhood's past!
I just remember the name “bayberry candle”, but I could probably recognize the scent!
Nooo! There is still time to make one for this season and burn on new years! Order the berries today and u can get them tomorrow
If you make your own may I sugest you put the straind liquid into a metal container. Then when you poor off the water to get the wax the container can be heated to nelt the wax residue around the edge rather than trying to scrape it off the sides.
is there any chance you are near the eastern coast? you can forage berries there.
@@sunstarsseekersanctuary4241No, I live in central Texas. Best things to forage here are mesquite beans and prickly pears. I did find some online, expensive, but worth it for the holidays.
The smile on your face when you lit that candle was great.
Jared, you have my deepest sympathy! I have been on this same journey. It’s so messy! And it feels like so much wax is left behind in the seedy matrix! I live in the south where we call this wax myrtle. I have wanted to make candles out of these since I was a kid. Finally tried it a few years ago and did the same thing you did, made a giant mess with water boiling and straining and skimming. I poured my end product in a silicone mold and got some small brittle sticks of green wax. But I didn’t give up. The next year I picked about 8 pounds of berries and decided the problem was the water. I tried infusing the berries in oil. I put them in jars and heated them for a long time in a slow cooker. I tried mineral oil, olive oil, jojoba oil, and more. I strained the waxy oil through coffee filters and then made wood conditioner and lotion bars out of it with added beeswax. That worked great. But I still wanted candles. So the next year I tried infusing the berries directly in beeswax. I heated beeswax together with the berries and stirred and stirred, then I strained it through muslin. I put the whole bowl and strainer setup inside a slow cooker to keep it hot enough to run through. This method was very successful. I took the leftover waxy seeds and stirred them into a bucket of saw dust to use as a sweeping compound on the concrete floor of my shop. No waste!
But there is a catch. It turns out I’m allergic to myrtle. The burning candles make my throat burn. And if I use it in a lip balm it has the same effect. I can use it as a hand lotion ok, but it has to stay away from my mouth. The ginger ale would be RIGHT OUT. I put the little 2oz candles I made on my Etsy shop and sold all of them even though I thought $15 for a tiny candle was crazy. But it was a LOT of work! I wanted to do it again this year but birds ate all the berries.
@beachton: God, I can just imagine what it'd be like if you had to go through all that just to survive. It sounds like a _Twilight Zone_ or _Tales from the Crypt_ episode.
@@sdfkjgh I think that’s why people used to just go to bed as soon as the sun set!
I'm glad you mentioned bayberry usage as a hops/bittering substitute! I made my own wild foraged root beer recently, and used bayberry leaves as a bittering agent.
You showed more patience than I would. I'd have quit halfway through. The candle turned out pretty darn awesome, and you didn't cheat.
It’s a Christmas miracle you got that out of the mold in one-ish piece 😂
I can see why people didnt make a lot of these candles but just the fact they figured out you could is impressive for how much work this was
That’s desperation for ya.
if you let the berries dry down a month or so, you can rub them over a screen to remove a lot of the wax. it should give you a good start to some fairly clean wax. you can still boil the berries to extract more, but the bulk will come from this first step. use a plastic bag or a covid glove on your hands to keep the wax from adhering to your skin.
This is entirely speculation, but it might be easier to gather the wax if you cooled the water in a container that provided less surface area at the top. Something like a vase or those long-neck glass globes that people tend to save pennies in. That would force the floating wax to be concentrated in a much smaller area than it was in your wide plastic box.
I may have to try this myself someday. It looks like an interesting project.
Or a sauce separator, made to separate water and fats.
That was so interesting!! I would love to see Townsend make a video on early American candles and see him replicate this method as well!
I was thinking exactly the same thing.
Tell Townsend - they are always asking for content ideas.
I love the reaction to the candle popping out of the mold: -audible gasp- "it's beautiful!" Like a parent holding their newborn.
Wow! Loved the effort, it must have been so nice to finally be done with that craft. It was a lovely shade of green as well. I'm not sure if I'd know the smell of bayberries as I'm outside of the US but I'll definitely keep my nose to the ground over the holidays. 😊
That’s why I love this channel! Sure, you review fruit, but also foreign junk food, interesting plants, epic battles between personified milk substitutes, and now, even making bayberry candles without being a filthy cheater like those others! Weird in all the best ways!
Myrica also have a species that was very common for use in beer before hops became the dominant gruit, myrica gale, or sweet gale.
The leaves are still used to spice liquor here in scandinavia. But both the leaves and drupes can be used as spices. Gave some bunches of nutlets(lol) to a friend to flavour his homemade mead. They have a bit of an oily resinous smell that reminded us of some strange herbacious cough drop, he said ricola.
It should grow wild in the east north america.
And you just got to the Gale part as I wrote this, lol. Still posting this, cheers!
Dude, I love you. Thanks for making a terrible day a little better.
right? He always makes my day so much better. what a lad!
Cool! If I had access to bayberries, I would definitely try this out.
Btw, Myrica Gale (or sweetgale) grows wild here in Sweden and has been used to spice mead, hard liquor and, like you said, beer. I found some for the first time last summer and BOY does it have an amazing aroma! I'm going to use it to make a batch of sweetgale mead.
Is it also waxy?
7:01. The leafs have a layer of wax as well. You should had rolled or mashed them before drying, like it is done with tea leafs.
Interesting.
My grandmother burned a lot of bayberry candles - they were this exact same shade of green.
That scam is prevalent in essential oils as well. Brands will label the product as "fragrance oil" which is not the same as essential oil which is distilled plant oils and there's also a lot of brands that don't say how diluted they are, so it takes trial and error to find good ones that aren't overpriced
That said it's still super cool you can make a candle from berries!
I love these videos so much! I just happened to have the seeds for the North American Bayberry and apparently now is the time to plant them. 💚🍒🌱
Great! Good luck if you decide to make a candle :)
@@WeirdExplorer 🩵😂
I'm from Cape Cod, and we have bayberries everywhere.
When I was in first grade (around 91-92) We had some old ladies from town come to school to help us make candles to give to our parents for Christmas. I made mine and gave it to my mother, it had that same green hue and a very distinct smell I always assumed it was just a bunch of left over wax they had, however now I know it was bayberry wax.
My mother still has the candle and she only burns it on Christmas morning.
I'll be smelling it tomorrow morning.
When I was a kid growing up near Plymouth, MA USA it seemed like everything was bayberry in our house. The smell came right back to me when you said "bayberry". Amazing. Thanks!
I don’t know how you do it, but these videos about fruits are the most relaxing and soothing thing for me
Thanks for this lovely video. I don’t have the shrubbery available in quantity to make candles from my own rendered wax, so I buy it in vast quantities throughout the year to make bayberry candles for hundreds of traditional candle lovers around the globe. It’s my favorite wax to work with, followed by beeswax. I spend many hours each day dipping and packaging the wondrous wax creations.
Wow!
Though I personally knew about bayberry candles before this, I know many people don't. Thank you for putting in the work to prove the concept, and showing people the amazing world of fruits!
Back in the '80's the business I worked for gave out natural bayberry taper candles as a gift at holidays. The scent is gorgeous!
I remember picking bayberries and making candles with my mother and sisters when I was a young child. The smell of the whole process and even the candle itself was quite pleasant✨
My respect who makes candles with his own hands! 👍
I started making these for my wildcrafted home goods business this season! awesome to see a video on this from you, I love the knowledge you provide
**round of applause**
(6:45) *Decoction:* Some types of leafs must be boyled to liberate the flavor.
You can also use a large cup with leaves and fresh water, and place it in the microwave for two minutes.
(23:04) *_'Cerifera'_* means 'waxily'. _'Cera'_ is 'wax' and _'fera'_ is 'producer'.
Such candles were commonplace usually around Christmas where I grew up in North Carolina, emanating from old Moravian folk traditions in Winston-Salem.
Love content like this. Not a word about the scent tho?
Criminally underwatched channel. Your creations are always great! No need to downplay them :)
Thank you Jared, this is so cool! I love plant crafting, and when you explore other uses of plants. You are one of my favorite channels by a long shot. We need more people making videos doing things they actually love to do or simply for the fun of it, instead of constantly trying to conform to the algorithm. I miss old TH-cam for that.
" Those people are quitters!", And that narrowing of the eyes... That was spectacular! Subscribed. 😅😊
I really like the colour of the finished candle and it's quite suprising giving the colour of the fruit and all the boiling liquids during the process.
It also looked like it burnt very nicely, a great success :)
You’ve been making some incredible videos recently!! The passion fruit wars and now this amazing one have been my favorites. Thank you for all the amazing content!!
Absolutely brilliant, again. Genuinely one of the most interesting fruit explorations by anyone I've seen. BUT!! I was waiting for your review of the scent the burning candle produced at the end! I suppose you chatted about it earlier, however, I was very interested in how intense the candle smelled and how it compares to the store bought ones or the artificially scented ones etc.
Did the candle actually smell good?
Merry Christmas Jared!
If I've ever seen anyone deserve a like and subscribe, its you for this memorable effort.
A lesson in determinations rewards for us all!
Grate job don't burn candle at both ends and it's nice to see you enjoying the fruits of your labor!😊
Oh my gosh, the crunch when you ate the North American Bayberry was too funny. Perfect comedic timing and presentation.
this was really informative and a lot of effort on your part to do all this for us viewers. Thanks for opening my eyes to a true American holiday candle tradition I never knew existed!
I love it when you show multiple uses of one fruit!
Behind the sarcastic smile for comedic effect I saw a flicker of genuine joy when he first lit it
This is a great episode and I worry people will brush over it because the title sounds gimmicky but the history and stuff around it makes it so much neater!
I've been watching your vids for a few years now and I have to say: You've gotten so great at storytelling and structuring your videos in a way that makes them really interesting! Always appreciate you trying to process the fruit in different ways, and the longer uploads
Ok, i live in maine. I gotta try these.
You should!
In the beginning I was ecstatic to see that I have a bayberry tree in my yard... by the end I realized I will never do that. I will never dedicate that much time and energy into a candle. 😂😂Great job! You have amazing perseverance
I would suggest that you get a granite mortar and a granite pestle for grinding hard seeds.
I wonder if he could have gotten more wax out this way.
@@maskcollector6949The wax is a coating on the peel, not in the seeds.
@@erikjohnson9223 Then it's just super inefficient lol.
THIS is what I want the internet for. And I'm so glad you called out the bayberry quitters. Somebody had to say it.
Great episode!!!
This is great format. Thank you for sharing.
Fascinating video!
Amazing video!
This is awesome!
you did it! great job!
so much work! very cool
I love these little experiment videos, I'd love to see more of this from you.
This was so cool
Awesome video
I absolutely love this channel
Love your content!
So interesting and you are also very funny
Interesting explorer! Thank you! Happy Holidays and thank you for your content.
I love your videos so much it was neat to see the comparison!
This is my new favorite channel!
this one is my favorite of all your videos!!
You did a great job!
THIS was awesome !!!!great video bro
My favorite video so far!
Nice job! Thanks for a very entertaining elucidation.
Good work
Fantastic effort Jared 👏👍
I loved this one
Nice show, I like use along with food.
love this video! you worked so hard lmao. ....... genuinely great job!
Well done bro
This was great. I learned a lot. Yea for you!
This was an awesome video! Reminds me of the stories of the historic candelilla wax factories of Big Bend, Texas.
You did a damn good job
I think you did a great job. Awesome video
This is my favorite video of yours Jared! Amazing effort and the end result was awesome. Merry Christmas!
Great video
Great video! Thanks for all of the hard work and effort you put into the making of this project.
This is one of your coolest episodes so far.
I really enjoy these long form videos that you make. You’re one of my favourite TH-camrs. Happy Christmas.
I’m so happy for you! You did it!
I love watching these whenever I'm anxious, just really soothing content to be honest 😊
I believe bayberries (the ones you used to make the candle) are now considered to belong to the genus Morella, whereas the related bog myrtles are placed in the genus Myrica. Myrica gale, also called bog myrtle, which you also mentioned, is still considered to be in the genus Myrica.
You are amazing! The candle is so beautiful! Appreciate you!
Good video, your smile at the end had me weak
Freaking epic awesome work!!!
good work