Unexpected Extraction...
Jason has gone off now for shows in Madison, then Chicago (Lucky you guys) but I think it only fair we have one last picture of him, and wave good-by, here at the start of the Bee Post. By Jason! We'll miss you! Here he is yesterday getting covered in honey and being a good sport about helping me scrape frames.
I had not thought there would be a Bee Post this early in the year, but as it turns out there was a LOT of extracting to do. Sadly, the Kitty hive died earlier this winter. We think she did not have enough bees to keep warm enough. We brought the boxes back up, but didn't realize exactly how much honey was capped and stored in them! Until, well, two days ago, more or less. Boss mentioned it to me, and I thought, oh, a couple frames, whatever, I'll get it.
Nearly full, about a box and a half, 15 frames full on honey. That translates into "A Big Bucket of Honey" We have an extractor, but have not had too much success with it, and as I am the designated Extractor, we have been using the "Bucket and Cheesecloth" Method. STICKY!!!!!!!!!
Ah. Here it is. The picture of the Bucket. You scrape the honey and wax in, the honey drips, and there you have it. Stop me if this gets too technical for you....The wax can then be boiled, commonly known as "Slumgum" and the icky bits tossed and many fine things made from it. If one knew how. Which I don't. Yet.
In yet another bit of bad news, the Kelli hive, our last, also died off this winter. It's pretty obvious looking at the boxes that what happened was it got WET. This can happen if the snow is too deep. Good news was, it was FULL of honey, and most of it perfect. Bees cap the honey, and in its capped state, it will last a really long time. On the right there, you can kind of see the box, with the mold on it. The mold was only in the wood on the sides, and on one side of one frame, beside the wall. I didn't take that one.
This makes for a LOT of honey. I am kind of wishing I knew how to use our new fangled extractor. The Birdchick says the problem seems to be it need to be bolted to a floor or something heavy, before it will work right.
Speaking of floor, here is a shot of what your floor will look like during the extraction process. The floor, you, walls and Dog. Everything will be covered in honey.
Since the hive died, (RIP Hive) there are naturally a lot of dead bees. All over the frames , that one must sort of scrape off. I did not enjoy this part. Poor sad bees. The garage looks like some sort of Bee War has gone on, with none left alive to tell the tale.
I stacked the scraped frames up outside in hopes that a wild hive might come along and clean them for me. No takers yet. The bits I didn't scrape were bits that were just comb, or had un-capped honey, which might not have been good.
I can't believe how much honey there was. I am not sure Boss and Birdchick quite believe me, but look! Here it is. AND I still have three buckets going in the garage for jarring tomorrow! I feel a LOT like Winnie-the-pooh and his honey pots today....
I told Jason the tale today about how honey, in this country, is not really regulated. "Grade A" honey does not mean anything. Or clover, buckwheat, organic (Hello? Do you follow your bees and see where exactly they GET the pollen from???) There are no "Honey Inspectors" Grading honey. He mentioned we needed labels, and I said, how excellent he was here. Well, half an hour later, down he came with one!
Which made me laugh. Vegan Honey????
I am sorry the hives died, but that happens in the bee world. We are starting over soon, and due to a strange ordering mis-communication, we will have SEVEN hives this year, Four Italian and Three Russian. Each in their own bright colour, with their own personalities.
And plenty of Adventures.
Love and Honey,
Lorraine
128 Comments:
You really know how to show a guest a good time :-)
Does look interesting. What are you going to do with all that honey??
It does look like you had a lot of sticky fun there...and somehow after reading the post and looking at the pictures, I've very glad someone does all this work for me and I just buy the honey in a jar.
What fun! And yes, I do really mean that. :)
But it appears that the Bengal-Bee Alliance had a bad winter, at least the bee part of it.
I came home from work, cleaned a fair chunk of my workroom, and am now waiting impatiently for dinner. Yes, I don't have to cook, but, um, it's 8:30 and I'm hungry! (Lambchops with mushrooms and garlic, and mashed root veggies. It smells fantastic.)
Honeg?!
That is one fine honey haul. No artifically-induced pukeage here! It is the Last Bee Hurrah. May the Kelli and Kitty Hives live on in breakfast! Eternal breakfast by the look of things.
Seven hives is a lot of bees. I am tickled to hear that one will be(e) called Bea Arthur.
I find the dead bee picture really weirdly morbid. And also quite artistic, in its way.
I think the bee posts are my favorites. Hooray for springtime.
Will you be sending Lisa buckets of dead bees?
My local radio station just got rickrolled - hilarious
Where's the squeezy bear? Isn't that how hunny happens?
Vegan honey. Hee hee. That would be some sort of edible-honey-like substance. :P
It looks like a lot of sticky work. Fun tho! That is a lot of honey!
I made paneer tonight. Yum! Thanks for the inspiration.
I really should be figuring out my life and junk like that. Oh well. Maybe tomorrow. XOXO
Okay my scientific and foodie Fiends
could I make Paneer using UHT lactose free milk? I'm thinking that the UHT treatment might make such things impossible.
Stupid question but what is UHT?
I think fresh cheese, like paneer, should be fine from lactose free milk. Most of the lactose goes with the whey any way. Right? Cultured cheese needs to feed on the last bit of lactose to make, say, sharp cheddar. But I would guess that fresh cheese would be good to go.
You could certainly experiment with a cup of milk and see if you get curd. I added salt cause I am like that. :)
Not stupid Gayle, I don't know either. Must one of those Down Under Terms...
Yea for CHeese Making!
Siri, the bears come later. Or not. We do have an electric fence to keep them out....
There will be LOTS of bee posts this year, with seven hives, spent a long time on the phone with the Birdchick today, plotting.
And yes, I am sending them to Lisa, who else????
Hooray for bees and plotting. :)
Ultra Heat Treated -you know, "Long Life"
Methinks this Fiend is ready for sleep. Somebody remind me to actually sleep instead of pick up a book ... please ...
Ah. UHT, of course. ;)
I would still try it. It is the fat and protein which make the curd. I think. I am sure someone else knows better.
I cooked mine in butter cause I was too lazy to clarify. It was yummy.
Sleep!!! No books... Wait. That can't be right.
We call it pasturized here, Sally.
Yay for honey. You picked the two messiest things to share with Jason. Do you realize that? Indians food which destroyed the kitchen. And honey which destroyed everything else. Also, both delicious.
Oh. My. Fod.
Whatever are you going to do with all of that?
Between the honey and the salsa perhaps there will be a Gaiman's Own line...just in case the writing thing doesn't work out.
I seem to remember our honey extractor being a bit smaller than that and both of my brothers being made to sit on it.
It poured forth glorious streams of flavorful wealth.
Yay Honey.
its more than pasteurized Ticia. This is the stuff that can sit in its carton in the cupboard for months. Its the only way we can buy lactose free milk, oh, other than one company and you won't always find that product in the shops and its more expensive. As it is, the lactose free is almost twice as much as normal milk.
oohhh. Good to know Sally. I love learning new things. :-)
Hello Oilivar, and welcome! Yup, it really travels, Hans is going to bolt it to something for later this summer, when hopefully, there will be LOTS.
As to what we are doing with it, well, Birdchick and I had a few ideas, but we are waiting for Boss to get back and have his say.
Jason and I did get messy, but he was wonderful fun. If you can go see him, do so, and say hello afterwards, he says he likes that part best, meeting people after.
I love these pictures and how much fun y'all had!! Can't wait for more bee stuff -- and garden posts and horses and bengals and even more gigs, right? :-)
The idea of all that stickiness just makes me shudder. The extractor looks beautiful and shiny. I will come help you make it work. I have a couple of sledgehammers. Do you think I'll have to check them or is carry-on okay?
"Ma'am, we need you to come with us."
heh. Had two martinis with dinner, horrified my MiL (part of the fun) and danced in the kitchen with offspring after we dropped Grandma off at the motel. Listened to Talking Heads, The Clash, Concrete Blonde, David Gray, The Tragically Hip and Smashing Pumpkins. Also Kryptonite by 3 Doors Down. Ah. We knows how to party on the school nights.
Hey! Just searched Jason Webley and he's going to be in Denton, TX on April 22. How cool. An hour away. Will have to investigate further.
Do you think I should wear my tiara (to a pizza place) or would Miss Manners object? Hmmm. So hard to know!
Oh, honey. Man. First cheese, now honey. I think there is a conspiracy here. A make-El-crave-delicious-foods conspiracy.
The label made me laugh.
Sally- That's a shame about the lactose free milk. I drank it for years, but then, weirdly, I grew out of my need for it.
Fluffy- rock that tiara at the pizza place like you're the coolest thing on earth.
Yes to tiara and yes to more bees Bengals and all sorts of what not!
Fluffy, DO go see Jason, so way worth it, you need to see this show.
El, you live in Minneapolis! You have food there! You have Amazing Thai, she says remembering fondly...
Mmmmmmmmmmmm...honey.
I need to call and go buy some tomorrow. We are out.
You probably can't guarantee that honey is 100% buckwheat, orange blossom, wildflower, etc., but if you move your hives to pollinate acres of buckwheat, an orange orchard, and so forth, you will get honey that is overwhelmingly that flavor. The first honey I bought last summer from our local beekeeper had hints of cantaloupe. They also don't claim any specific type of honey on their labels, just their name, address and telephone number. They also have dozens of hives.
The first honey I tasted that I liked was from a friend of my father's. It was very dark, and very good. He said it was from when the bees were pollinating okra. He had to quit beekeeping because the pesticides used on the surrounding cotton farms were killing the bees.
I'm happy to say that we still have pomegranate buds on the pomegranate bush. I didn't check the peach trees, so I'm not sure about them. We got down to between 26 and 28 F last night, then up in the low to mid 70s this afternoon. No freeze tonight, nor any expected in the next week. Probably no more freezes until maybe next November, but you never know until it happens. Good thing we haven't planted the garden yet.
I suppose I should learn to dry bay leaves. That way I could share. :)
Keeping bees looks totally fascinating fun-like. Unfortunately, I'm allergic. Probably wouldn't work for me, but I'll live it vicariously through you guys. :)
April 22, J&J's Pizza, Denton TX? Cool - will try to arrange to be there, and I'll look for the fiend in the tiara. I'll probably be wearing a huge purple tagged straw sunhat with a feather on top. :)
I'm with El and Miss Fabulous. Wear the tiara.
I love that the bees will go to Lisa for art.
I'll bring fudge for the fiends. That's one thing I can do. If anyone needs anything from California, just let me know.
Oh, Lorraine... you mentioned avocado toast. I've been thinking about of for days. Is it just sliced avocados served on wheat bread? I love avocados as much as mango, so you've intrigued me.
Also, someone mentioned honey and pears... What is this magical combination and why have I never tried it?
If you just have way too much honey, feel free to ship 10lbs of it out here and hubby will make amazing mead out of it (not sweet crappy mead, like the fine champagne of meads) ;-)
Or not! :D
Haven't gotten to comments yet. Getting boo-bear ready for bed.
Eye spy with my Fiendish eye two new Fiends! Hi, Dymphnasis and iLOiVAR!
::sniff::
::sniff sniff sniff::
SPICY!
MWAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!
There is something so satisfying about how manual this process is. Being a guest at your house comes with some interesting conditions!
Have you ever read that Robert Hass poem about the Japanese artist and the bowl of dead bees? It's in his book Human Wishes and it called - "a story about the body." (I found it at http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2005/04/28/AR2005042801331.html you just have to wade through Pinsky's blah blah blah about Baudelaire).
Anyway - Great sticky stuff here. UHT = Ultra High Temperature pasteurized and UHT milk doesn't do it so much for me as an ingredient. (Years ago when I was on a great adventure and had little access to fresh milk I made yogurt from reconstituted powdered milk and LOVED UHT cream from Italy in those little boxes for making the most amazing sauces.)
Sorry for the ramble but thanks for the great post.
So I do, Q! But now it's 10:30. :(
I'm going to Psycho Suzi's on Friday for drinks, you'd think I could wait until then. But no. My brain would like AWESOME FOOD NOW, thank you very much. Sigh. Waiting is difficult work.
On a non-food related note: it was warm enough both yesterday and today for riding my bike! Soon it will be warm enough to ride to work. I consider this a victory over winter.
ariandalen- when it comes time you must have pomegranate in my honor.
Kate T- I assure you, rambling warrents no apology. Just read the rest of this comment for proof.
Great food in the posts and the comments. Yum.
It is time for me to start cooking again I think.
Yes tiara.
I think when I grow up I want to keep bees. And make cheese. And bake bread. And make lovely art with pottery and photos. And write lovely stories. And... And...
Q and Fiends inspire me.
Clearly time for this one to sleep.
We get raw milk here because we own a share in a farm, I don't like it myself, any milk, but it does work nicely for most things.
Venus and Mim are possessed of the Devil tonight, things are crashing, Mim peed on the counter, I keep trying to tend them and they are clearly upset, poor dears.
We did leash walking, and Mim climbed her tree, but got caught, only for seconds, and I was there, but I think it scared her badly. I feel pretty bad.
Her harness caught, and she wiggled out, then jumped into my arms. She's been upset ever since. May have to re-think the climbing thing. She only get to go her short leash up, but clearly it is a bit dangerous...
Fods, these cats need so much.
Bee and honey post! Wheee!
The honeg label is awesomeness.
Aw, just like people, Q. Some days we need a lot.
Right now I'm thinking I need sleep!
And I WILL rock the tiara! It looks cool - all-ages show so R can go too.
Did you SEE his schedule? How does that not kill a person?
Can you imagine being 14 years old and going to a rock concert with your mom who's wearing a tiara? (And hanging with fiends in floppy purple hats?) I wonder if she'll survive her teen years.
I'm pretty sure Malena can find something lovely to do with some of your wax..lotions, lip stuff, and soap:) Ooh, and Chantrelle's idea is wonderful too! (mead..YUM)
One of the new hives will be Bea?
Yay! I've always had a soft spot for Maude.;)
Fluffy, definitely rock the tiara:)
Ariandalen I'm glad to hear you will have pomegranates..can you imagine what pomegranate honey would be like? *drool*
Poor Mim. At least she had the good sense to jump back down to you.
Um, Fluffy, why do you have a tiara anyway? Forgive me if you've already said and I missed it.
Poor Mim!
I think it's bedtime for me.
Gute nacht!
Fluffy, my mum and I did crazy things like that when I was a teenager. They are me best memories of the time. Rock on in the tiara.
I hope we have pomegranates come October. We haven't gotten any yet, and we've had the bush for several years. If we don't get any this year we may buy a second bush. I thought pomegranates were self pollinating, but I could be wrong.
We have two peach trees, because peaches aren't self pollinating. Due to late freezes and wind we've only gotten peaches from them the year we planted them. ::sigh::
night
oh i was the pear and honey person. it was impromptu at work thing. i have a thing about eating apples and pears sliced up. so i had these slices, and i had just purchased some bee puke and decided, it works for apples at rosh hashanah, why not pears at my desk?
it was yum. simple, satisfying and not bad for me. satiated my sweet tooth that day.
all of that honey looks amazing. can't you use honey as a facial or hair treatment?
drooling now, at all the lovely wax AND all the lovely honey...
Say, call me crazy..but how is honey NOT Vegan? I mean, no animal products/byproducts whatsoever, right? And Maple Syrup (taken from the tree's BLOOD, man!!) is considered Vegan..
So why not honey? Or were y'all being, like, totally sarcastic and I totally missed it. :)
blogger failed, it actually posted when i hit the back button, but did not clicky box.
clicky bee box?
I am now imagining the Russian hives painted with tiny miniatures and matrioshkas...
eyes not staying open anymore...night night.
will dream of honey.
You should still have one hive alive if I remember correctly?
Guitarist Steve Vai sells his excess honey for a charity and this might be a good idea for this super honey too.
Thanks Vampi! I'm going to try that.
And Nat... I'm imagining Nesting Russian Bee Boxes with elaborate enamelled designs in bright colors. Fun!
I love local wildflower honey (local to central Texas, here, mine comes from Round Rock) over sharp raw milk cheddar with sliced tart apples. It's one of my favorite lunches! If I happen to also have some dark brown bread, that's a bonus.
Honey isn't vegan because it's produced by animals (the bees).
re: tiaras, floppy hats, and teenaged daughters. I say live out loud unapologetically, it'll set a good example. :D
so....
In googlecating myself re Is Honey Vegan, I've really learned a lot. These two links address, first, the issue of what it means to call oneself a Vegan; and secondly, the knotty issue of why isn't honey vegan and what are the deeper implications here.
Wow.
Thanks, Adri, your simple statement did me a world of good. I am the better for considering these questions.
I will now describe myself (when in that phase) as eating "a largely vegetarian (or largely vegan)diet" for reasons of health.
Sally - no cheese from UHT milk - it's hot enough to alter the proteins, and so the milk won't curdle when you add the acid.
There's different kinds of pasteurization, even in the US. Sometimes the label will say ultra-pasteurized, but it isn't required to. Most organic milk (OV, etc) is ultrapasteurized. It makes it taste a bit odd, but gives it much longer shelf life. The alternative is to use lower heat for longer.
Ariandalen - we had a single pomegranate and got fruit from it. (No, not in Pennsylvania!)
Um, Lys, honey is an animal product... maple syrup comes from trees. I'd put honey in the same category as milk - animal products that don't hurt the animal and that they'd make anyway, even though for their own use rather than ours.
I consider myself a vegetable-preferring omnivore. I eat and cook primarily vegetarian at home, but also happily enjoy meat on occasion. I eat a lot of animal-produced protein, though (eggs and cheese).
Phiala-- thanks for the info on ultra-pasteurization and organic milk. Now I know why it lasts longer! That always seemed counter-intuitive to me.
Phiala, thanks. I thought that was the case.
Lys, my head is spinning after reading that second article.
Adri, I think local is more important than organic in a lot of ways, and UHT organic milk bothers me. A lot of it comes from large farms in the west that ship in feed from the midwest, or even farther. I can't see how reconstituted organic milk from New Zealand is really an environmental good.
With things like, especially, milk and fruit, I'm concerneed about additives for my own health as well as the pesticide and other chemical issues for the environment.
That having been said, I 100% agree that local is more important than organic in a lot of ways. I'm fortunate to live in a location with a ten month growing season and a LOT of variety in local farms, orchards, dairies, etc. Also, an organization that sources, packs, and delivers a lot of that variety straight to my door. (for Austin/San Antonio fiends, let me know if you're interested and I'll get you a referral code :D )
I also thing cage free/natural diet animals are important both ethically and nutritionally. Also very expensive, which is one of the reasons I eat a lot of vegetarian meals!
The amount of distance philosophically, emotionally, geographically, we have from our food sources is fascinating to me, especially as someone who grew up in a largely agricultural area where buying most produce in a supermarket seemed crazy.
The amount of distance philosophically, emotionally, geographically, we have from our food sources is fascinating to me, especially as someone who grew up in a largely agricultural area where buying most produce in a supermarket seemed crazy.
as someone who grew up on a farm, me too.
we have lots of farmers markets around here now, but sourcing locally grown meat is much harder.
I was wondering about the 'Honeg' bit too... And very impressed by the quantity of honey.
Sourcng food - fascinating. My local farm shop displays 'food miles' for the stuff it sells, so you can see where it comes from.
I stopped buying meat from my local supermarket after I learned that they require their suppliers to use their own abbatoirs - because they only have one or two, this means that the animals are transported half way across the country for slaughter, then the meat is transported back so that it can be sold marked 'local'. This seems to me to be crazy both from a welfare perspective and an environmental one. Although it is a common poblem here as a lot of small, local abbatoirs closed after foot & mouth so lots of animals have to be transported further than in the past to be slaughtered. *sigh* I do like meat, but I don't eat a lot becasue I save up for the more expensive fre-range / local/ organic - tastes much better and seems better from an environmental & welfare point of view.
What else?
Jason doesn't look to be coming to Europe any time soon, which is a shame.
Adri, you look fantastic in that corset!
Yeah, Supermarket meat has that problem here too. I have a lot of trouble liking commercial meat. Got to used to the meat from cattle dad slaughtered himself. He had them in the yard for at least a day before slaughtering, so all the adrenaline was gone. result = tender sweet meat. Consequently all meat not from my dad tastes just wrong to me. Even if you buy organic meat you can't be certain about the slaughtering process.
So you opted to show him the bees rather than the dry cleaners, the optometrist, and the plant nursery? Ah well, his loss. ^_^
Friend of Birdchick's here:
There are, in fact, USDA standards for grading honey that can be found at the USDA site. Enter "liquid honey" in the search box. If you have problems, write me off line and I'll send you a .pdf of the standards. Grade A refers to extracted honey with very particular characteristics, and mislabeled product can result in prosecution. Although I dare say the USDA is more correctly engaged at present in trying to prevent dumping of tainted Chinese honey on the US market. Go Feds!
And yes, your extractor needs to be braced or it will dance like Mickey's broom if it has an unbalanced load. If properly loaded with evenly filled frames, no problem (that's a joke, son). Now if you can just get the bees to cooperate.
Also, single-source honeys can be verified by pollen testing, although that is not fool proof because not all visits for nectar also include pollen packing, and vice versa. That being said, some honey types have consistent and distinctive enough flavors that there truly can be honeys accurately labeled as single source, particularly if the supers are promptly pulled off at the finish of the bloom. Single source honeys are a lot of work, so worth the price.
Consider donating surplus honey to local food shelves. I had a bumper crop one year and had a ball bringing the surplus to shelters and mosques.
Wow! So many many things I want to say....
Bees...my Dh went and helped the school garden house their bees on Saturday. Shaking a box of bees into the hive, and came home determined to take the beekeeping course at the 4H center and start hives next Spring. I am so excited!
Honey is an excellent antiseptic, as well as delicious, and the wax makes amazingly lovely scented-like-honey candles... Does Lisa actually use the dead bees to make art? Must go to her site and see.
Love the corset, Adri.
And milk. I, too am queasy about the super pasteurized stuff, and actually, about pasteurized milk altogether. there is some available evidence that pasteurization changes the nature of the fat in milk to make it harder to metabolize and more likely to increase blood cholesterol. (Check out the Weston Price Foundation for far more info) We drink raw milk, when we drink it at all, and it's what my kids drank as young'uns. Of course, we have a local place to get it, so are spoiled.
Paneer sounds delicious. Mmm. As does real Mead.
I'm sure there was more, oh, yes. Love the tombstone...is it inscribed?
I have a hankering for honey and never to get another grad degree.
I think Lorraine must be the Saint of Bengals & Bees.
Hi Kathy, and welcome! Hmm...I think I need to check my facts, sounds like (Hey, I've been wrong before , it CAN happen) I had heard these thing by a bee expert on NPR. I wonder if he was speaking of honey imported from other countries, perhaps?
Good things to know, and I do know you can remove boxes at a certain time to get different honies, makes for $$ honey. I think I was speaking more of the cheap stuff, where who knows what it is. Will check some facts here, and thank you!
Bengals still crazed, Mim particularly . Venus went thru this about 6 months ago, I wonder if it is some sort of adolescence ? She is about 2 now...Really aggressive, peeing on things right in front of me...
Weird. I have weird cats.
Morning. Today is the dreaded day. I fear it. Yes.
Taxes.
Sigh.
Then riding, which is nice.
Dabbler, that's great! The Birdchicks Bee book ought to be out then, meanwhile, read you some Sue Hubbel.
Dan, well, the eye place was closed, the plant place, it's still winter here, and I suppose we COULD have done the dry cleaners, I am going there today, but he did get to see the co-op...
We all learn lots of stuff here! dabbler, good to know that you may soon have a resident bee-keeper. I knew about honey being antiseptic. Didn't now about the fats in milk - I can't stand the taste of UHT milk - we mostly have pasteurised - raw milk is very hard to get hold of here as it can only be sold directly by the prodicer, it can't be sold via supermarkets etc, so I only get it when visiting dairy farming friends.
Quiche, commiserations on the taxes - query - I seem to see lots about taxes - does everyone have todo s tax return or is it only is you are self employed? Here, if you are emplyed and don't have lots of invetments you don't need to do a tax return as income tax is taken direct from wages by the employer. (I became officially self-employed 2 years ago, so I have to do one now, but happily we have an accountant for the partnership so I only need to remember to keep and hand to her my receipts etc) I hven't been able to work out if the system is different for you, od f it's just that a disproportionate number of fiends are self-emplyed or otherwise non-standard!
I hope you enjoy your riding.
PS to avoid possible prosecution, maybe you should re-vamp Jason's honey label - instead of the all the 'Grade A' 'Vegan' etc you could have little sound-bites from well-known consumers, like you get on the covers of books... "Some of the finestHoney I have ever tasted.." - Jason Webley "It was all that kept us alive (or at least, mobile zombies) on out last tour" - PAul and Storm etc..
Everyone has to do one here, Marjorie. I am not exactly self employed, and taxes come out, but you have to file anyway.
I am not too worried about getting prosecuted for the label, we aren't selling it, and so far the only jar with a label is the one Jason took, and it is by no mean the Official Label of Boss and Birdchick honey.
I'd like to do a charity auction for a jar or two.
Where I live you can get raw milk only if you own the cow, then you can do what you want, so one buys into an organic dairy farm for a nominal fee.
So yes, I do own part of a cow.
You all have my sympathy, having to file tax returns. No fun.
I like the ideao of having a share in a cow. It's wierd, isn't it, how difficult it is to get raw milk, which yes, *can* carry diseases if you are unlucky, when you consider how many things which are at least as risky, like alcohol and cigarettes, can be bought quite easily.
Have to admit, I wasn't overly concerned about you getting prosecuted either, as I didn't think you were in the habit of selling the honey, just wildly speculating following on from Kathy's comment
(Hi Kathy, by the way.I'm sure Ariandalen will be by to sniff your brains very soon)
OK, no time to read all comments. Some good stuff here!
When I was Vegan I did not eat honey. I still try to minimize the negative impact on animals producing the eggs and cheese that we eat now that we are ovo/lacto vegetarians again. We all do our part. Local is important. Organic is important. It is hard to choose. The migrant works required to work with pesticide make the organic thing more important to me than local. But I do my best. :) It is hard to eat local as a vegetarian living in a Northern climate. I like fresh veg now and then. Even in Feb in MN.
OK. Babbling now. I will admit that I am using you in order to avoid writing papers. Sorry. :)
Here (in Texas) you can buy raw milk from the producer as long as you don't take it out of the county, or something to that effect.
Good morning fiends. Now commences another day of distracting myself from the fact that my big corporate clients are still overdue on all of their bills, and there's not a lot I can do about it.
The time is fast approaching for my Dreaded Tax Appointment. Why I fear this so I have no idea, I mean, I get a refund???????
I will be potting more honey today too, three more buckets, and perhaps cooking the slumglum. Exciting or WHAT????
Hey, and good morning! I have to say I bought that tiara fair and square on clearance at the Saks outlet in Grapevine! I have a more gaudy, sparkly one with a matching scepter I mail-ordered from a company in SF. Of course the daughter got one too (and a magic wand with hers!)
I'm going walkies right now as I've been slacking a bit this week and there is no excuse today - weather is lovely and not hot (yet.) Strap on that iPod and GO!
Will you wear the tiara on your walkies, Fluffy?
I agonize about the tax every year, too. I don't have a tax guy, so my method has been to ignore them till March, then dothemreallyfastinpencil. Then ignore for another week, then finalcopyandMAILandDONEphew! It's never as traumatic or complicated as I think it's going to be, but I still hate it.
Charity honey auctions are a fine idea! And if you do it for Bengals, the Bengal-Bee Alliance will feed itself. :D
Tax Day is terrifying even if you get a refund. It's awful preparing for it, it's awful sitting in the accountant's office, and it's awful trying to answer all of the questions they you're asked. It's such a high-stress ordeal. .... especially if you forget a document or you can't remember an answer.
Ugh! My sympathis, Q! Just think, it's *almost* over.
Ooooo! Fabulous! Buckets and cheesecloth look like loads of sticky fun :) Sorry about the dead hives, but congrats on the great harvest! (is that what it's called?)
Hello all,
Lorraine, do the phases of the moon affect your cats? It's getting on for the full moon (tomorrow is the official day, I think), and my critters are always extra wackydoodle around then.
I had the wonderful experience of petting my tabby Max last night and the tip of his tail came off. Oh. My. God. Now he's going to the vet to have a little trimming and stitching. It doesn't seem to hurt him, the little pirate, but seeing that tiny bit of tailbone makes me dizzy.
I make my own yogurt, and usually hang it for the Greek style (and use the whey in pet fud and soup and bread), but now I must must must make paneer. Yum!
And also, hurray for a tiara!
The Taxes are DONE!!!!!!
More or less.
You know, it might well be the full moon driving the little guys nuts...
Obligatory cat-behavior/health note: if she's peeing on things in front of you, it could very much be a sign of a UTI.
Yay for taxes being done.
I hope it's not a UTI.
Adri, you rocked that corset BTW.
Enjoy your ride Quiche!
I am hoping not too. It doesn't seem like UTI, it seems more like trying to get my attention. She it isn't a little bit, she is really peeing. Only on the counter tho, and once when I re-arranged the Romance Room.
Hi, Kathy with bees! We all wear these nifty little white jackets with buckles. I'm sure you can find one in a stack somewhere. ;)
::sssssnnnniiiiffffffff::
Uh huh.
Definitely spicy!
MWAHAHAHAHAHA!
Phiala, thanks for confirming that pomegranates are self pollinating. :) Maybe this will be the first year we get some. My grandmother had two large pomegranate bushes that produced fruit. Not the size of POM pomegranates, but not tiny either.
Adri, you look great in the corset! On another note, you should be able to find honey that is more local to San Antonio than Round Rock. Seems like Kerrville is closer, but I'm not looking at a map. I know Seguin is closer. Granted, it doesn't really matter since you're moving soon. ;)
Adri -- great corset look! Yup.
So much great info about honey and bees and Grades and Single Sources and milk. Wow.
When I was just a wee thing we had a couple of cows. Literally like 2 or 3. My brothers milked by hand and used to squirt the milk at me to get me out of the barn. My cousins had more of a real dairy farm. Tiny by today's standards but big enough that they had automated milking machines. They always had raw milk in there house and I must confess that I did not love the taste of it. Nope.
These days I tend to use soy milk most of the time. Seems like cows milk -- in its liquid state -- doesn't really like me.
Taxes. For years and years I did my taxes on April 15th and drove to the downtown Mpls post office 'round midnight to get it postmarked on time. It was such an amazing thing. There were always huge lines of cars and everyone was nice because they shared this sort of guilty "yeah, I know I should have done this sooner" kind of vibe. There would always be postal workers with bags in the middle of the street and all you had to do was drive by and hand them your returns.
Now I just do it online and the past couple of years I have actually done it at least several days before the deadline. Perhaps I am growing up. Well... not really as I am still able to do an EZ form. One of the benefits of living on the edge!
Okay... that was a bit long. Time to get ready to go to Happy Hour with a couple of my most wonderful friends -- who should really be fiends.
This post really really makes me want to add some honey to my new Winnie-the-Pooh tattoo. And eat lots of honey. Lots and lots of honey.
That looks like a fabulous time.
I have just come across the Mechanical Contrivitum, and learned some exciting facts about Our Queen Empress of Everything, Try it!
You should see the fascinating information about Marjorie!!!
Blogger would only let me put one link in. Boss claimed to be very afraid of his...
And I just learned that I share a birthday with Phiala!
I'm a bit disturbed by some of the others, though... *grin*
It got one thing right about the Fiends
Mine's posted on my LJ. LIke I said before, we don't need no steenkin' Lovecraft.
::evil grin::
Ellen took a beekeeping class in college (and her prof. really tried to get her to take an advance degree studying bees, but she hates getting stung). She also dated a beekeeper before we met. She says that the separator is just a big mechanical centrifuge, and yes, it really does need to be bolted or in some other way secured so it won't move. Think washing machine (or big ole' disk drives) walking themselves across the floor.
A former roommate got into making mead when he moved out to NoCal in 89 or so. For our wedding he gave us a bottle of sage-honey mead that was everything you always imagined mead could be. Amazing stuff.
And, yes, you can get varietal honey. Remember, bees are social, when one of them finds some tasty flowers, it will tell the others where it is. And, given the nature of flowers to fade in a few days, they all swarm over there and grab what they can while the flower blooms. A couple of my uncles in Kentucky kept bees, and one year Tom forgot to top (don't go there!, it means to remove the flower) a stand of tobacco. One hive found the flowers, and he ended up with a comb and a third of really dark honey that tasted amazing. I would love to find some more, so Ellen and Ben could try it, but tobacco flowers are rare, and today even rarer than 30 years ago.
This is a blog for learning amazing things, but that Mechanical Contrivitum is just plain creepy.
ariandalen - I think I'm glad to know your head weighs more than your bottom.....
And I may never eat grapes again.....
I chose to stay home and play trains with M tonight instead of go to class. I needed it and so, good for me.
There is a bit of upheaval here and I don't know where we will be living next month but tonight we play trains. :)
Happy Pesach to all. And to all a good night.
ok, that's more information about me than i think i need.
heading up to tahoe for a few days. hubby and ben will ski, i'll hang out w/ my sis and be warm
Holy crap. It's all true. Especially number four. How does Internet know? Maybe I should stop answering those Facebook meme things.
I'd feel very lucky to find you on Christmas morning Jess...but the whole site is still creeping me
I had the biggest win today. Grabbed some books at a discount place yesterday, and made sure I could exchange them if I already owned them. Went back to do swap today and saw the Script and songbook for Once More With Feeling. How did this BTVS addict miss that yesterday? Our piano might be seriously out of tune but I will be playing me some BTVS this afternoon.
Hurrah for wins!
I brings a happy thing. Watch:
Bathtime in Clerkenwell
G'night!
so this is proof that will the Kitty bees were bitchy and sting-happy, they weren't lazy! sorry we died.
can we come back to life, please?
Quiche! sorry i missed your call, I was at the local Armenian market picking up produce for the juicer. They are so much cheaper than my local grocery chain. SHockingly so. mmmmmmMMMMMMMMMMMMM
new magnet contest up on Twitter, easy to win, tell me a good joke. I need a laugh.
Hey all, had a fine ride, and my sister took some fun photos, but I am just home from work and soooooo tired....
No worries Kitty, we talk tomorrow. I wish I had juice! I am, so tired I can't even make tea and am drinking WATER!!!!!!!
Blog in the morning, as I am pretty sure I am going to bed early.
Good evenings fiends! Like Quiche, I will be going to bed early (I hope) Need to read some research first...
Sally, I love that you found magic when you returned to your bookshop. I swear bookstores straddle worlds and books travel between those worlds. Phasing in and out...
The Real Thursdsy Weld is a great band, Jess. They do some interesting stuff. You found my favorite song and the video is all kinds of awesomeness.
Okay. Making the electronic rounds then it's off to read. Nighty-night my darlings!
Y'all are evol Fiends fer shure. I couldn't resist (lemming? LLEMMINGG!!)
so here is what Mechanical Contrivium had to say....I rather wish, in fact, they were all true--cause would I actually admit that I can "swivel the tip of (my) abdomen and shoot a jet of boiling chemicals at (my) attacker."
hehheheheheeeee.......
good evening fiends. my company had a screening of Duplicity. it was ok, needs more clive owen missing clothes.
fo fiends who don't twit, my joke for kitty was: why did the vampire subscribe to the newspaper...he heard it had good circulation.
i'm easily amused
I laughed at it Vampi!
I just nicked up to the supermarket to get chicken for tea.
Forgot that for some reason every person in the neighborhood is stocking up because the shops are closed on Good Friday. Parking and shopping trolleys were difficult to find. Madness.
The moon sits motionless in the sky.
A giant silver coin frozen mid-toss by destiny.
Forever heads.
Forever tails.
A sixteenth century mathematician lost his nose in a duel over his love for spacedlaw, and wore a silver replacement for the rest of his life.
Apples are covered with a thin layer of spacedlaw.
Cats use their spacedlaw to test whether a space is large enough for them to fit through.
In 1982 Time Magazine named spacedlaw its 'Man of the Year'.
During the reign of Peter the Great, any Russian nobleman who chose to wear spacedlaw had to pay a special spacedlaw tax.
Bananas don't grow on trees - they grow on spacedlaw.
The Eskimos have over fifty words for spacedlaw!
Ancient Greeks believed earthquakes were caused by spacedlaw fighting underground.
In Japan, spacedlaw can only be prepared by chefs specially trained and certified by the government!
68 percent of all UFO sightings are by spacedlaw.
Spacedlawolatry is the mindless worship of spacedlaw.
Spacedlawolatry is the mindless worship of spacedlaw.
that is brilliant.
hopelessly behind once again thanks to the blasted tax prep demands. off to lovely accountant tomorrow. will hold breath from now until then (thus becoming a lovely blue lex)
I'm still loving some of the "facts" the mechanical contrivium is throwing up:
-If you don't get out of bed on the same side you got in, you will have NeilHimself for the rest of the day.
-The number one cause of blindness in the United States is Cthulhu.
-Boss is the only one of the original Seven Wonders of the World that still survives!
-Cats use their Quiche to test whether a space is large enough for them to fit through
Nathalie, what's really frightening is that at least two of those are likely to be accurate:
Cats use their spacedlaw to test whether a space is large enough for them to fit through.
68 percent of all UFO sightings are by spacedlaw.
.
so Q, i see Boss broke your blog re: twitter.
such things happen to a girl in the wintery midwest...
ps
A furrytigerkittyometer is used to measure furrytigerkitty!
And in case any of you were tormented about this piece of mystery: The last Sandman book is translated in French and will come out next week (not sure if any of the fiends are interested but someone asked a couple of weeks back and Neil did not seem to remember).
WOW! Hello all! Boss did a Tweet and linked to my essay and yes, the site has gone down a few times, but what fun!!!!!!!!!!
Think I will do a new postie...
I have another joke...
Why did the stadium get warm after the game?
are you ready for this one?
Because the Fans left.
muahahahahahahahaha
My husband's family kept bees - he says the Italian Bees were very fiesty so good luck.
Ah, poor Mim and Venus. Hope they're less upset, more happy today.
So much good info about bees and honey.
Fiendocracy is government by Fiends. The thing knows all!
Taxes. We have learned that U.S. citizens must file by virtue of being citizens. Doesn't matter where you live. In Canada, however, you pay taxes based on residency, doesn't matter where you're a citizen.
newpostnewpostnewpost!!! not that i didn't thoroughly enjoy the last one but i'm on my tea break so it would be very good timing. just sayin....
Vampi, you asked for it: What did the zombie Mac Store rep say to the customer? Between you and me, that Powerbook will cost you an arm and a leg.
Hi Ellen, and welcome! I had heard that about them....BEE SUITS!
Louisa, new post is up, just for you, m'dear!
(Well, not really, it's for everyone, but you know...)
The Italian bees look feisty because they speak using their paws and wings...
Hey there! I'm new around here, though I've known about your fabulousness for quite some time in following your Boss' blog. I've been reading yours for a bit, and as you seem really awesome and full of hilarity, I'm making my presence known. Also, I'm an assistant to a publicist at the moment, so I feel much if not all of your pain. :) So...Hello.
Also, I'll trade you a pot of honey for a mango or two.
I ran across this posting about trying to extract beeswax yesterday, and thought you'd find it entertaining :)
I can recommend a beeswax/linseed oil/turps mix for 'restoring' old wood, for sure... but not the method above for getting the beeswax ;)
Marjorie - It took about 4 attempts (and careful scrutiny)... The iPhones buttons are REALLY tiny and tend to jump around a lot when alcohol is involved. *grin*
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