2025 Spring Homeland | Simple Gifts: Tallow Balm 

Hope Arneson and Gracie Medina recently launched new businesses selling hand-crafted tallow balm. Both are passionate about using natural products on their skin and for their young children.

The women have been friends for years, but didn’t intentionally start selling tallow balm at the same time.

“Gracie has been helping me with some tech stuff and picking out a printer for labels,” Hope said. “I’ve helped her with some tips on other things.”

Hope started making tallow balm for her own use five years ago.

“In 2019, I had a few weird autoimmune issues that were skin related,” she said. “I went to some doctors and they said it was chronic, there was nothing they could do, I would have to live with it my whole life and just figure out how to manage it.”

This prompted Hope to change her lifestyle.

“That started my journey to keep things as clean and minimal as I could,” she said. “I started drinking goats’ milk and cut beer and a lot of sugar out of my diet.”

Her skin issues cleared up, and have not returned.

“It caused me to look at everything I was putting on my body on the outside too,” she said. “I read something about tallow and I was like, ‘hey, I’ve got an easy supply for that.'”

Hope liked the idea of a fragrance-free skin care product with only one or two ingredients.

“It made sense to me; tallow is made similarly to our own skin and absorbs really well,” she said.

She started making it for herself and gave some away to family and friends. When she thought about starting a tallow balm business, she was nervous that it would put too much pressure on her and take the enjoyment out of the process for her.

Last fall, Hope’s cousin invited her to share a booth at a local craft fair, so she decided to give it a try.

“That very first time I sold out, so I thought maybe I should try another batch, and it sold out immediately. I’ve made several batches since then and pretty much sold out right away. It’s been very fun and I feel very blessed.”

Hope and her husband Reed welcomed their first daughter into the family a year ago.

“I was trying to find something I could do now that I have a baby,” Hope said. “I can’t do as many outside things on the ranch as I was used to. I tried a few part time jobs in town over the summer, but I really want to have her with me, so that didn’t work out well. This fits into my current lifestyle; I can do it with a baby hanging on my leg.”

Little Lou has added another level of motivation for Hope to create simple skin care products.

“She is so fresh to the world,” Hope said. “I am even more aware of what I put on her.”

Arnesons raise cattle near Faith, South Dakota, and finish their own beef.

“They provide the suet for making the tallow,” Hope said. “Suet is the fat around the kidneys. It is the most nutrient dense fat on the animal and also has a totally different texture. It is more brittle and pure than the fat on other areas of the body.”

It takes Hope about a week to transform a chunk of raw fat fresh from the butcher into tallow.

“I want it rendered down until it is odorless and tasteless to get it ready for balm,” she said. “I grind it first, this helps it melt down faster.”

Each batch is rendered four to six times. The first two renderings are done with salt water to help draw impurities out of the fat.

“After that I switch to plain water, because I don’t want salt residue left in the tallow. I like to do it in the winter; I end up with big bowls of fat and set them outside to harden and separate. I try to use the elements to my advantage.”

Through some trial and error, Hope has learned to start the process with more water than she initially thought she needed.

“The water insulates the oil from scorching, and it doesn’t smell,” she said. “I ruined the first batch I ever made; I didn’t add enough water and I scorched it.”

Once the tallow is properly rendered, it is shelf stable and can be stored at room temperature. Hope stores the tallow in sealed jars in a cool basement storeroom. She doesn’t put it in the freezer, as there is risk that condensation would develop, creating a risk of mold growth later on.

Hope gauges the final product by taste and texture, and for the final render, cooks all the water out of the tallow.

“I know when I’m happy with it, it’s ready,” she said. “I base that on how it feels, how it looks, if there’s no more residue on the bottom when it cools. I smell it; I want zero or very faint smell. I taste it too, to make sure it’s not salty and not beefy. It really has no taste.”

When a batch doesn’t turn out? “The chickens love it.”

Hope does her first render in a large electric roaster, and subsequent renders in a big stock pot on the stove.

“I use less and less water each time, and cook all of the water out in the final render. I don’t want any water in there; it can cause bacterial growth and the tallow won’t be shelf stable if there is any liquid remaining.”

A grease screen over the top of the pot helps keep spatters to a minimum as water bubbles rise from the bottom of the pot.

“It bubbles and burbles for about four hours; when all of the water is gone it will be a still, clear pot of hot tallow,” Hope said. “When there are no bubbles and no noise I know the water’s gone.”

Some of her earlier batches still had a little water remaining in the tallow and went rancid.

“That tallow has now become leather conditioner,” Hope said. “I’m glad I figured that out before I started selling it. Now I have the confidence that it will stay good for people.”

Hope adds infusions of native prairie plants to her tallow balm.

“I can pick them in my own garden and pasture, and I want it to be safe for anybody to pick up and use,” she said.

Chamomile, yarrow and rosehips have been favorites so far. She has used frankincense essential oil, but is switching to using frankincense resin instead because some people have sensitivities to essential oils. She creates the infusions with dried plants or herbs in a small pot of tallow or olive oil, keeping it on very low heat for 24 to 48 hours and then straining it before adding it to the tallow balm.

“When the plants are dried, it concentrates everything in the plant, so using dried plants gives a stronger essence than a fresh plant. There is also less room for mold.”

Coffee bean infused tallow balm has been a customer favorite, currently using locally roasted coffee beans from Little Mare Coffee Co.

“Every batch I make I’m thinking ‘this is my favorite,'” Hope said. “They’re all different and they’re all beneficial. I like the yarrow; I think it smells the most like hay. I like using seasonal plants. This summer I plan to try using dandelions.”

After the final render, Hope strains the tallow and refrigerates it so that it cools as quickly as possible. She wants it to be mostly solid but not hard when she whips it.

“If I do it when it’s not quite ready, it causes the tallow to be grainy,” she said. “I’m looking for a super smooth, creamy texture. I don’t want it too runny and I don’t want it grainy.”

The texture can be expected to change over time and with warmer or colder temperatures.

A little bit of tallow balm goes along way, Hope said.

Arneson is shipping orders of tallow balm as far away as Alaska and Norway, and has her products in a local storefront. She recently partnered with local ranchers Tom and Brianna Fabris’ Cowboy Prime Meat Co. to create tallow balm from their finished beef animals that will be marketed under their brand through their website and an area food co-op.

She has a Facebook page for her business where people can place orders: Smpl.Tallow.

“I’m super excited and passionate about it,” Hope said.

The Fruit of Her Hands Bison Tallow

Gracie Medina’s interest in making tallow balm started with a gift from her mom, Amy.

“My mom had been making tallow balm for her personal use and gave some to me for my newborn; it was the only thing I would use on her as a newborn,” Gracie said.

Medina gives God the credit for the inspiration to create a tallow balm business.

“He kept hinting to just do it, and putting the idea in my head that I could sell tallow balm if I wanted to put in the effort; I took a leap of faith and He took over from there,” she said. “It’s a blessing to see it materialize.”

Gracie had a strong desire to create a business that would enable her to be with her two young girls. Making tallow balm was a good fit. She cares deeply about using natural products on her children and it is something she can do at home.

She based her business name on a verse in Proverbs 31: “Give her the fruit of her hands, and let her deeds be her praise at the gates.” Proverbs 31:31

“I’ve had a really beautiful start to my business,” she said. “The woman in Proverbs 31 walked in wisdom and walked with the Lord. God was working and giving me something tangible, something I could create with my own hands.”

Gracie’s Lakota roots tie into her business. Beef tallow balm is popular, but she chose buffalo tallow to honor her family heritage.

“The Lakota people would use every part of the buffalo,” she said. “They would eat tallow and use it for their hair, or as a protective layer to keep insects or dirt off their skin. I started creating my own recipes and I am gaining knowledge as I go. It truly is amazing to get to learn from firsthand experience.”

Gracie follows the same rendering process that Hope uses to prepare the tallow. Rendering tallow, along with many other traditional practices, is not common anymore, but Gracie said we just need to look for knowledge of traditional ways.

“Many people say the wisdom has been lost, but we’re the ones who are lost,” she said. “The Lord has been showing me through this process that it’s not lost; it’s always just been there written on your heart. You just have to find it.”

Gracie sources her buffalo tallow from Westside Meats in Mobridge, from animals originating in the Cheyenne River Sioux Tribe herd. Her friend, Acacia Anderberg, opened a retail store on main street in Mobridge and invited Gracie to share the shop space.

“I’m grateful for that opportunity,” Gracie said. “Having the storefront kicked me into motivation to get my business going. I will also ship orders.”

Learning to refine the tallow to make balm gives Gracie insight into her own personal growth.

“Rendering it is a process to get all the impurities out,” she said. “It’s pretty amazing the way God will speak to us all in our own way; there’s always something we can refine and tweak and be better at.”

Gracie is using fragrance oils to scent her tallow balm, and looking forward to learning about using herbs in her products for the benefits they can bring. She and Hope continue to share what they learn with each other.

“I’ve been learning from her and we exchange back and forth; it’s fun to learn from each other,” she said.

Like Hope, Gracie is passionate about having natural skin care products for her two young daughters.

“It’s a blessing. I use it for everything for my girls,” she said. “It’s in the most natural form you can get.

Gracie can be reached through her Facebook page: The Fruit of Her Hands.

“I just aim to do well for my community and bring light through my business,” she said. “God has given me a way to spread that to others. It’s just been amazing.”