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Published on 2 Comments on Elderberry Syrup

Hard to believe that my last blog post was from March of 2021! A new managerial role at my day job - while a great career opportunity - certainly took its toll on my available time for pleasure writing. Didn't COVID-19 seem to wreak havoc on our habits as well?

Anyhoo, I'm thrilled to get back to some nature musings and restore a little of that important work/life balance we all need.

And fortuitously, the post I happened to be working on last - before earning a paycheck rudely interrupted my farmgirl scribbles - was on elderberry syrup. Which is timely as we'll be coming up on the elderflower season in June and the subsequent elderberry season in July. Perfect excuse to get prepared for their harvest. Hey, it's all good!

...continue reading "Elderberry Syrup"

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Published on 4 Comments on Reduce, Reuse, Wrap (in Beeswax!)

It's been a continuing journey to reduce our family's waste footprint over the years - at times really difficult making that choice of consciousness over convenience - particularly with a large family.

We've tried to be aware of our food choices and their impact on water (see What's Your Water Footprint?), our health and beauty choices and their impact on plastics and packaging (switching to bar soaps, shampoos, conditioners), as well as household items like Ziploc bags, cleaners, and laundry detergent (switching to silicone bags and eco laundry sheets).

We're by no means close to model eco-citizens but we keep slowly plugging away at it, hoping to keep lowering our impact.

...continue reading "Reduce, Reuse, Wrap (in Beeswax!)"

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Published on 4 Comments on Honest Honey

As my summer beekeeping season comes to a close, I've processed the last honey harvest and will soon prep the bee hives for their winter break. I've left them enough of their own supply to feed themselves through the winter months and will soon wrap the hives to provide protection from cold winds and snow. And then cross fingers the girls will stay safe, healthy, and happy for a well-earned winter rest!

Similar to last year, one hive was really banging while the other just tried to get up to speed. But with close to a total of 170 pounds from primarily just the one hive, I'm not sure I'm ready for 2 hives at full production! Harvesting frames of honey in June, July, and August gave me 3 different color and flavor varieties due to the abundance of different nectar sources in my area. For fun, I've posted some honey harvest videos at the end of this post.

June 'golden' honey
July 'amber' honey
August 'dark' honey
...continue reading "Honest Honey"

Published on Leave a comment on Veggie Highlight: Tomatillos

Hi all! I've been having a blast harvesting honey every couple weeks this whole summer, but the season is almost over and I'm looking at pulling my last few frames this weekend before leaving the rest to the bees for their winter. So it's time for a non-bee related topic!

The last Veggie Highlight I did (on the Japanese sweet potato) was over 2 years ago so I'm MORE than overdue for a new one. And if you follow this blog, you know my Veggie Highlights will give you the basics, a few cooking ideas, along with a few crazy factoids thrown in.

On my last trip to Maple Acres Farm, my local farmstand, I picked up some heirloom tomatoes and a few tomatillos. While I love Mexican dishes including salsa verde and have enjoyed tomatillos in a variety of restaurant dishes, I had actually never cooked with them before. Tomatillos will be in season pretty much at the same time as tomatoes, even a little longer into Fall so you should be able to find them easily at your local farmers market right now. Figured this was a perfect opportunity for both you and me to learn something new, right?

...continue reading "Veggie Highlight: Tomatillos"

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Published on 2 Comments on Swarm Story
Credit: https://carolinahoneybees.com/honey-bee-swarm-prevention/

Isn't it funny how something so common and naturally occurring can happen every Spring across the whole country without you knowing a thing about it and then suddenly, once it happens in your own backyard, you wonder how you possibly could not have seen it before?

Bee swarms. They're quite common this time of year and clumps of bees might be found on signposts or fences, backyard trees, or even patio furniture. How could I not know anything about this fascinating and amazing natural event before now? And....importantly.....know they're nothing to fear and something to behold. Really. More on the fear thing later.

...continue reading "Swarm Story"

Published on Leave a comment on Vary Your Veggies

It's that time of year to get planting! It's still a bit cold here in Philly but I got my beds ready last week and planted one box with the usual greens plus a few new ones (trying to take my own advice from the "Lettuce Be More Exciting" post). So I've thrown some mache (corn salad), mizuna, and minutina in with the spinach and lettuce.

But I'm planning on stepping it up even further this year with a few more unusual greens as well as some exciting alternatives to the 'tried and true' veggies. I want to share with you a great book by Niki Jabbour titled "Veggie Garden Remix" that matches up the typical veggie garden staples with ideas for how to try more unusual alternatives. Many of them inspired by immigrant cultures who have introduced an amazing and flavorful diversity to our home gardens, the book has a stunning variety of suggestions - it was hard not to go overboard when I was deciding what to order from the seed catalog!

...continue reading "Vary Your Veggies"

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Published on 6 Comments on Dakota Kuchen

I've been meaning to tackle the challenge of Dakota Kuchen for awhile now but my day job kept me busy all Fall.

Was glad to have a few quiet days over the holidays to finally test my grandmother's recipe.

What is Dakota Kuchen?

Well kuchen just means 'cake' in German so really it could mean any kind of cake generally speaking. But Dakota Kuchen refers to a specialty of the region made by German Russians - a pie-shaped pastry with a sweet yeast dough and fruit mixed into a custard with a little crumble on top.

There are variations like sugar kuchen with a crusted sugar coating similar to a coffee cake, or 'kase-kuchen' which uses cottage cheese to make the custard for a softer cheesecake like dessert (sounds weird but tastes good!).

The fruit custard variety is the most common and well-recognized. All varieties have simple, common ingredients as these were made in times and areas that had access to mostly just basic staples.

...continue reading "Dakota Kuchen"

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Published on 3 Comments on Honey Harvest!

As a first-year beekeeper, it was definitely not an expectation to be able to harvest any honey, so it was thrilling to discover I would be able to pull off a few frames this month and still have plenty to leave for the bees to get thru winter.

In this post, I'm going to share the fun of this harvest with multiple videos capturing the process of getting to the good stuff!

Just to put honey production in perspective before I get to the videos, on average each full medium frame of capped honey (like in the picture above) weighs about 5 pounds total. To translate that into bee activity, it's estimated to take 556 foraging bees visiting 2 million flowers to make just 1 pound of honey, and one honey bee produces about 1/12th of a teaspoon of honey in her lifetime. It gives you such an appreciation for the amount of collective work those ladies do, right?

...continue reading "Honey Harvest!"

Published on Leave a comment on Elderflower Enthusiast

Soda is generally not allowed in our house with the exception of a shared 2-liter bottle on pizza night or for a party of some kind. But we love our SodaStream carbonator to have 'fizzy water' on hand at all times.  To add some flavor, we've gotten hooked on 2 syrups from IKEA to spike our fizzy water….lingonberry and elderflower.

Elderflower is my favorite, as it is very light with a hint of citrus.  It's hard to describe the flavor - it's frequently compared to lychee, but to be honest I don't really remember what lychee tastes like so I can't say if it's true. Probably the closest description I can make is that it's a delicate floral taste with a hint of honey.

...continue reading "Elderflower Enthusiast"

Published on Leave a comment on Backyard Beginner Beekeeper, Part 2

Hiya everybody. Hopefully you stuck with me after reading Backyard Beginner Beekeeper, Part 1 to find out how you really actually shake bees into a new hive!

But before I get to the exciting action, I thought I would talk a little bit about getting started.

Bee Prepared

As a first step, I started in January taking a monthly beekeeping class. Most classes start near the beginning of the year to get you ready to get your bees in April/May. The one I went to is the Montgomery County Beekeepers Association of PA beginning beekeeping class held in the 4-H building classrooms.  I was shocked at my first class (thinking there might be 5 or 10 people there) to find the class was close to 100 people!

Beginner beekeeper classes are extremely valuable, providing just the information you need in stages to gather equipment and knowledge in preparation for your hive and to then learn how to keep your hive healthy.

The class is really a one-stop shop for learning the basics, understanding the science of beekeeping,  how to find good sources of information and equipment, getting access to experts and long-timers, creating camaraderie with fellow newbies, and staying connected to the State association to keep up on what's relevant to your region.

...continue reading "Backyard Beginner Beekeeper, Part 2"