Tallowberrieman, A) you posted on the tree forum about selling berries/seeds - most of the members would assume that means planting and growing trees from them. B) there is a warning (at the bottom of the page on the general list of forums in the instructions?) about using this forum for commercial purposes - it seems you didn't see that or are ignoring it. C) the trees are stated to be garbage - which they are - not the berries. D) you say only that you want to sell the berries, not for what purpose. E) I am sure there are markets for your berries, but this isn't one of them. I am sorry if your feelings were hurt, but I think you need to realize you posted the wrong thing in the wrong place. Please go elsewhere...., and I wish you all the luck in the world selling tallow berries as decoration - elsewhere, and as Misssherry says, to other people than those who like trees in the South.

I have had a lot of experience with this tree. We ahd several growing thru the fence in Houston...or rather the fence was growing thru the middle of the tree. Yes, they are pretty, and make great shade and are fast growing. But the seed pods are curly and sharp and fall all over the ground, then the seeds fall later on...little hard black seeds, which are fun for kids to play with but then they start sprouting everywhere. They only stay on the branches for a while until that white coating is gone. Both us and our neighbors tried numerous times to chop down, burn and poison them, and finally managed to kill them I think. Not only are they invasive and pop up everywhere, but other plants tend to not do well underneath them. I have one here which I dont mind, as it is not close enough to the fence to grow into it, and there are no others growing yet, i can pull up new seedlings (and have to often from my flowerbeds) but the grass does not want to grow very good underneath it, and there are huge bare spots, and I've had a hard time finding plants that will grow in the flowerbed under it. Liriope and wandering jew seems to be doing fine so far. I've got these seeds all over the yard and am fixing to have a whole 'nother crop of them if anyone wants them. I wish they werent so crappy here. They make nice fall colors and its a nice cool shade tree.

Yes, it is called rebatching, and I will avoid it if at all possible. It's time consuming and tedious. To let you know, I make cp soap by the 10 pound recipes. I presently have 2 buckets of soap scraps, I would guess about a 2 or 3 cubic foot container. Instead of rebatching it I will add it to a new recipe of soap. Unlike what you have, this is still virgin soap scraps, not previously used. I will make soap and give these away or use them ourselves. What I would do if I had these previous used scraps, I would just add it to a new bar as they are being used; they do stick fairly readily, and they rarely come off. If you are going to still rebatch, I would grate them, then lightly mist them (not dripping) the night before, then add them to a crockpot on low or medium heat. You will need to set aside about 4 hours or so, depending on how much soap you need to do. The trick is to add just enough water (by the tablespoon) to keep the soap pliable and not dry, while you are trying to mash it, until it is thoroughly melted. Be careful, this soap is very hot while in the crock! Any scent of the scraps will disappear in the final product, so if you want it scented, then let the soap cool down a bit and mix in scent just before pour/mashing it into any molds. hth

Thanks! Most of the embeds are simple curls - I used a cheese planer and made purple and clear curls, then put 'em in the mold and poured over... The stars are out of the IKEA star icecube tray. The other embeds are just chunks. Nothing fancy, but they look pretty cool. I made honey oatmeal, lavender mint, lavender tangerine, lemon eucalyptus rosemary, sandalwood/cedarwood and a lemon soap that is really just all my mistakes chopped up and poured over. That is truly one of the coolest things about m&p - no mistake is final!