Funny Honey

About a week ago I harvested our first honey crop. I was so excited about the gorgeous golden frames of comb I was sorting through and couldn't wait to divide it into jars and share it with our loved ones. Then I tried it. I didn't think there was anyway to really mess up honey. After all, the bees seem happy. They appear to be disease-free. They come and go every minute that the sun in above the horizon, but the honey turned out...funny.

The taste, to me, is a cross between mushrooms, cough syrup, and honey. Even when I put it on toast with butter the flavor still stands out. Mishka thought it had a smokey flavor, but I really didn't use that much smoke. I am a beginner and may not have a real understanding of what too much smoke looks like, but there were times when I didn't even use smoke when I was working with the hive. The nearby flora could also be the culprit and there's not much I can do about what the neighbors grow. It was suggested to me to just make mead out of it as the taste of the alcohol may mask the unusual/unappetizing flavor.

Above and below are a few pretty pictures of my hive gear. That's my smoker above - still having problems getting it going before harassing the bees. Below is more stuff, namely gloves that I accidentally covered in melted beeswax. A word tot he wise: don't cover you gloves in beeswax. It will transfer to EVERYTHING!

Harvest 2009 Begins

The other day I was pulling more of that blasted morning glory out of the raised beds when I noticed there were potatoes sticking out of the ground. I have to tell you, it was much like find gold. I had planted some reds last year, but they never grew as tall or as well as the russets. They are a whole different experience. Russets grow like gang busters. Here's a picture of some potatoes that just fell off the plant when I pulled it out of the ground. When all was said and done, we harvested about 35 pounds of potatoes out of the yard.

I've set aside some potatoes so that we keep a study stream coming in. Part of me still wonders if we're planting too much for only the two of us to eat. I guess our friends won't be buying potatoes for the next year either.

The corn stalks are growing little ears of corn now. Last year, we plants three plants and got two tiny ears. At this point, it looks like we'll get
about ten ears off the plants.

This year, The Mister built four raised beds and filled them with good soil and manuer. I'm not sure if the beds are retaining more moisture or if the the plants are doing so much better because of the soil quality. Either way, I'm pretty darn happy with The Mister's project. Thanks Baby!