Harvesting Honey

It seems odd to be thinking of harvesting when the temperature is lingering in the teens.  Well, it is because of these low temps that we are harvesting...honey.  Unfortunately, a friend lost a couple of hives of bees due to the extremely brutal winter we've experienced this year.  His bees died.  So the honey that was meant to feed his colony through the cold months has become our harvest, and a blessed gift.

Of course, Mike and I did what we usually do when trying something new...we You-tubed it!  We learned how to slice the wax caps off the honey filled combs, and strain pints of liquid gold from the beeswax.  We are also planning on purifying the wax to be used in future Pysanky classes.

I must confess, when Mike called last night to tell me his friend had given us two honey frames, I was not excited about the prospect of getting the sticky stuff out of the frame and figuring out how to separate the wax from the honey.  After watching the You tube video, I became fascinated and eager to try.

In fact, we've been discussing the possibility of some small scale bee keeping ourselves.  Stay tuned...

Slicing the wax caps.

Straining the honey.

The empty frames.

Enough Lavender to Bale!

In the process of getting Shelby off to a good start with her farmer's market endeavors as the newly formed Oxford Bound Bakery, I've started harvesting items with a purpose that I use to do with a hit or miss attitude.  For example: my lavendar plants are pretty to look at, attract a lot of bees - to my delight- and occasionally are picked for a few sprigs in a bouquet of flowers or a bunch of heads to cook with.

Monday, however, one of the two medium shrubs received a buzz cut much like the shearing of a lamb!  Quantity produced:  21 bunches of drying purple fragrance bundles and a bowl full of leaves and heads also drying and ready to stuff into small sewn pillows for sachets!  I was amazed at how much one plant produced.

That is about all I had time for before heading to work.  I'm certain that the lavendar plant next to his newly butchered neighbor breathed a sigh of relief; certain he was spared the same misfortune.  It's been two days...just enough time for his guard to be down... (insert evil chuckle).