Recycled Candles Take Two

So I worked at a wilderness therapy program for troubled teens for some years in my life. This is what got me into things like sustainability, herbs, organics, and primitive skills. I loved being self-sustaining in the back country - living out of a backpack, making fire by rubbing sticks together, finding plants to eat in the wild. When I returned to 'civilization' I started growing veggies, making rainwater catchments, and doing a lot of things like I have been blogging about.


When I was working in the field one Christmas, we taught our kids to make candles out of bacon grease using old tuna cans and twisted juniper bark. The candles we made were small and messy, but the kids LOVED them. So when I was cleaning my kitchen this weekend and was looking at the jar of bacon grease sitting on the counter, I remembered this project and decided to embark on a little experiment.


I have a bunch of wicks left over from the recycled candle project I did a couple weeks ago, and I pulled one out and cut it to the right length to stick up out of the grease. I had to use tweezers to get it that far down into the jar. You are looking at a pint mason jar with about 1.5" of grease in it.

I was worried about what might happen when the flame burned down the wick - would the whole thing catch fire and I'd end up with a really awful mess from a bacon bomb? However, the candle burned well, and the worst thing was a slight bacon smell. Since I have no issue with the smell of bacon in my home I figure all is good in the world.

Plus it's really pretty