Black bear hunting season

Hello, I’m Amanda McNulty with Clemson Extension and Making It Grow. South Carolina has a hunting season for black bears. I met a game warden near Awendaw who told me he harvests one bear a year for its fat, which has a high smoke point making it good for frying. It’s also good for making balms, making leather boots and coats waterproof, and for soaps. When we were young, poor country people in the mountains asked us to save our bacon fat that they used to make soap. Most people now are so removed from lacking necessities that we forget how our forebearers here in the United States had to make do with local resources. The gentleman I talked with said he wanted to honor the animal by using all of it he could, skin, perhaps for a warm rug, and meat, and fat.