Beeswax Food Wraps

We are trying hard to reduce our use of plastic - it's becoming a huge problem world-wide!  To that end, I've been experimenting with making my own food wraps.  I've scoured the Internet for videos and blog posts and have come up with a method that works best for me.

First of all, here's what you need for each wrap -- I'm making mine 10" squares:

cotton fabric cut to your preference - I'm making mine 10" squares, but you can cut circles, rectangles, whatever you want.  You can use pinking shears on the edges to make them pretty or leave them straight.

An old cookie sheet with sides - mine has an 11" base

2 sheets of parchment paper - I cut mine about 13" long and the paper is 15" wide

For each sheet - 2 tsp of beeswax pellets or grated beeswax (pellets are so much simpler!), 1/2 tsp jojoba oil and 2 tsp powdered pine rosin.  You can make it with straight beeswax, but the jojoba oil makes the sheets more pliable.  Pine rosin makes it clingier for bowls.  I didn't have the pine rosin and just used the pellets and oil.

An iron with the steam turned off

So let's get started!  Lay one of the parchment paper sheets on the cookie sheet and place your fabric on that.  I mix up the ingredients in a bowl so that the pellets are coated with the jojoba oil - so much easier I found than distributing the pellets and then trying to get the oil evenly distributed as well!

Sprinkle the pellets on the cloth as evenly as you can.

Then place the second sheet of parchment paper on top.  Now press with your iron - steam turned off.

I found this so much simpler than baking it in the oven.  You can use the iron to push the melted wax around.

You will inevitably get spots that didn't get wax.  Simply place a pellet or two in those spots and iron again.  When the sheet is thoroughly coated, lift if off and air dry it.  When cool, it's ready to use.  The cookie sheet and parchment paper I put away to use again another time.

The heat from my hands warms the wax enough to make it usable for wrapping this block of cheese.

I fold the wrap over it as if I'm packaging up a present with all the folds on one side.

When fully wrapped, it's ready for the fridge.

And it works, too!  Here's an onion that was put in the fridge 2 days ago.  The cut side is still juicy!

To clean the wraps, just wash them in warm water and you can use a gentle soap.  If they're starting to show wear, you can refresh them by putting them in the oven for a minute or two, and even giving them a new coating of the ingredients.  We've decided to have foods with strong smells wrapped in their own patterned cloth - onions will always use the fabric with tiny roses on it!

And how to store them.  You store them flat in a drawer or on a shelf.  I think they're so lovely, that I roll them up and keep them in a glass vase!  Getting rid of plastic wrap just got a whole lot prettier!