She Makes Candles With Beef Tallow

She Makes Candles With Beef Tallow LIVESTOCK Beef Kelly Brandlee’s candles are fragrant with many of her favorite aromas such as coffee and cheesecake as well as Wild Horses leather and Take a Backroad oakmoss and lemon grass But what sets her candles apart is that their main ingredient is beef tallow Tallow has been used to make candles since the Roman Empire Compared to paraffin wax a petroleum by-product typically used in candles it’s a simple clean product As South Dakota beef producers the Brandlees have beef tallow available She and her husband Clint started selling beef directly to consumers in 2021 through their business Back Forty Beef and Brandlee had a freezer full of tallow she didn’t want to waste So she started experimenting with candle making first rendering the tallow in an electric roaster She adds soy wax to make the candles whiter and firmer and to remove the beefy smell She also adds essential oils Brandlee pours the wax into glass jars and clay and dough bowls in various shapes “They make cool décor pieces that can be reused as decorations ” Brandlee says “It’s really fun to create something for people to have in their homes ” It’s also an opportunity to educate people about how beef is part of everyday life “The cool thing about beef is there are so many uses for it There are so many byproducts ” she says including cosmetics medicines adhesives leather and so much more Brandlee enjoys creating candles and wax melts for people to use with wax melt warmers in their homes It’s satisfying to know she isn’t wasting the beef byproduct Making and selling candles is just one more way to tell their farming story Contact: FARM SHOW Followup Back Forty Beef Kelly Brandlee Pierpont S D backfortybeef@gmail com; www backfortybeef com; Facebook: Back Forty Beef and Adventure Farm; Instagram: back_forty_beef

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