Bayberry (Myrica Pennsylvania, often called Myrica carolinensis).
You can make your own candles from these berries. In fact, in colonial
times, September 15 was known as Bayberry Day, a time “when old and young
sallied forth with pail and basket, each eager to secure his share in the
gift of nature.” For although the bayberry isn’t good to eat, beyond the
use of its root bark as a medicine, the candleberry, as it was also
called, was considered to be “light on a bush,” its small, highly
aromatic, gray berries yielding wax for candles. Fragrant bayberry candles
are made by boiling the waxy bayberries to thick green consistency an
dipping cords into the mixture, the stemless, wax-coated berries often
yielding five pounds of wax to the bushel. Besides being used for Yule
candles, the wax was employed in making scented soap in place of
animal-fat tallow, and in making sealing wax. The berries, which persist
on the bush through the winter, were sold for winter bouquets.
The bayberry, 3 to 8 feet high and deciduous. An easy shrub to
grow, it prefers dry sandy soils, where it grows naturally. The same
applies to another species used for making candles, the wax myrtle (Myrica
cerifera), a tall shrub or small tree that grows up to 35 feet high, has
evergreen leaves. Myrica Gale, or the Sweet Gale, still another
candlemaking plant, is also called the bog or moor myrtle and should be
grown in acid sites in the bog garden (see Cranberries, in the Index). A
deciduous plant. Myrica californica, the California myrtle, also bears
berries that can be used for candles, on an evergreen, 30- to 40-foot,
hardy shrub. All of these species are easy to propagate by seeds,
cuttings, and divisions.
No molds are needed to make your own bayberry or myrtle candles. Simply
boil the berries in water until the mixture gets thick. After straining
out the seeds and skins, le the wax cool, reheat it, and keep dipping a
piece of wick into the hot wax. Pull the wick out, let the wax dry, and
dip it in the hot wax again, repeating the process until the wax on the
wick builds up to the size of a candle.
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