Photos by L.G. Patterson
For some people, being eco-friendly may seem like too much of a challenge. A lot of people have an all-or-nothing mindset when in reality, it can be just about making minor changes to your everyday life to help the planet. For over a year, Kristy Jackson, the maker and owner of Momma Bee Love Wraps, has been creating handcrafted beeswax wraps to help the community embrace sustainable living that blends creativity, eco-consciousness and practicality. “People think that because you start using a beeswax wrap, you have togo all in and that you can’t have any more plastic in your kitchen, but that’s not true,” Jackson says. “I think it’s important for people to know that you can just do small things.
Just because you get one beeswax wrap doesn’t mean you have to only use beeswax wraps.” It’s all about finding the right fit for you to add to your daily routine to help make a difference. For Jackson, finding her perfect fit came after retiring as a hairdresser after ten years due to a shoulder injury, when she came across the idea of making beeswax wraps. Jackson quickly found that the process came easy to her as it was similar to her hairdressing days. “When I was looking into the process of how to do them, it’s so similar to doing hair, really; there’s a lot of measuring and cutting,” she says. “And then the beeswax mixture that goes into it is, I would call it alchemy. It’s kind of hard to get the perfect ratio of ingredients. And then applying the mixture is very much like doing hair.” Jackson still gets the satisfaction of seeing an end product, all while making a difference in someone else’s life and the planet. “Just working with my hands and having a finished product is amazing,” she says. “My favorite thing was doing a full head of blonde highlights because you are transformed afterward. And so, it feels like, with this cotton fabric, this was just folded up on the JOANN’s fabric store shelf, and now it’s here, and this is going to last for a couple of years.”
The beeswax wraps are used as an alternative to plastic wrap, which is perfect for leftover food from the holidays, including vegetables, cheese, bread, muffins and fruits. It can even be used as a Tupperware lid. “I keep them on my counter. I have a little basket that I roll them up and keep them in so it’s easier to access,” she says. “When you’re packing up your leftovers you just grab it, put iton your leftovers, and you don’t have to fuss with the lids in your drawer.” Jackson says the only thing not to use it on is raw meat. “But if someone was taking home a leftover plate with all the ‘fixins,’ that is totally okay.
The first step to making this environmentally friendly product is to pick out the cotton fabric. “I try to go with really happy, bright yellows, oranges and florals.” Jackson then cuts the fabric into small, medium and large sizes before coating the fabric in a mixture of beeswax, tree resin and jojoba oil. “It’s hard to get the mixture perfect, because tree resin is hard, and you have to buy it in powder form or make it into powder form,” Jackson says.“ And getting that to melt into the beeswax is really, really hard, and it takes a couple of days.”
Then with just a little bit of heat from your hands, the cotton fabric turns into the perfect grab-and-go storage option when packing up your holiday dinner to keep everything fresh for a longer period compared to plastic wrap. “Let’s say you chop your cucumber and you put plastic on it, yeah, it’s going to get mushy over a couple of days and just kind of gross. But with the beeswax wraps, just put it on topof the cucumber, and because it’s cotton, it’s a little bit breathable, so it does keep your food fresher for longer,” Jackson says. “And then beeswax is naturally antimicrobial, so it keeps the germs away and will keep your cheese from molding fast.”
The best part is one wrap can last two years, compared to a single use when using plastic wrap. All you have to do in between uses is dunk it in cold water and lay it out to dry. Jackson says not to clean with hot water or lots of soap as it may cause the coating to melt off, making the product less sticky. “If you do get a little bit of like mayonnaise or stickiness, you can use a tiny bit of dish soap in the pad of your fingers and use the soft side of a sponge. But mostly, if you just dunk it in the water and pull it out, it just comes right off.” The Columbia community has caught on to this eco-friendly product like wildfire, helping Jackson kickstart her business more quickly than she was expecting. “It was actually bigger than I thought it would be when I first started,” she says. “My first event was The Zipper Fest, and I sold out.”
She says the community has been pouring love into her business since the very beginning.“ The community here in Columbia is so welcoming to small businesses, and especially a product like this that’s reusable, compostable and good for the environment,” Jackson says. “Everybody loves them.” If you want a beeswax wrap of your own, you can find Momma Bee LoveWraps at local markets, at Main Squeeze and soon on her new Etsy shop. To stay up-to-date on all of Jackson’s work andto get information on her Etsy shop, visit @mommabeelove_towelsthatmatter on Instagram and Momma Bee Love Wraps on Facebook.
