It’s Never Too Late!
While staying up late and playing spin the bottle has lost some of its glamour over the past twenty years (I’m lucky if I make it past ten with a good book), an interesting list of camp-like activities has not. Yesterday’s three part Harvest Fest 2010 had me running around Red Wing farm like a teenager high on a six pack of Dr. Pepper and a Snicker’s bar.
Harvest Honey
Last fall, Gecko bought a bunch of bees with the intention of harvesting some homemade honey. Unfortunately, it was a long, hard winter and sadly the bees didn’t survive, but they did have just enough time to sweeten up the hives.
So how is honey harvested?
The Sticky Seven
It’s a sticky job, but someone’s got to do it. Lucky for us, we had a fun group of seven.
It’s a sticky job, but someone’s got to do it. Lucky for us, we had a fun group of seven.
The first step is to remove the hive trays from the bee box (yes, that’s my own technical expert terminology).
Do not eat the honey trays - although they are sweet and tasty.
Put the trays into the extractor – exactly what happens inside the metal drum remains a bit of a mystery – all I know is that with enough turns of the handle, sweet, sweet honey will start to pour out.
It's pretty simple and pretty darn cool and I totally recommend you try this at home.
If only I had known sooner that I could make wine with honey, water and a few weeks time, I may have saved myself a pretty penny buying Chilean bottles of red from the grocery store. But now that I do know this, the bees better get prepared for double time because the world’s honey supply just may go extinct.
Beth introduced me to Mead wine at our very first family dinner on the farm. Homemade, infused with fruit and herbs and bottled in recycled Pellagrino bottles with labels that read ‘Lavander, Lemon Balm and Sumac’, this honey wine is a pretty dreamy summer drink.
So how is it made? The Sticky Seven get involved.
Strain the honey for maggots while getting pelted with one by Gecko.
Then walk along the path to the river and pick wild berries to mash.
Stain your hands and wave to the camera.
Harvest Friends
We started Thursday night family dinners on Red Wing farm last week with seven of us and it was a fabulous success. Well, it seems that the good word got out and about because this week – with seventeen of us – it looks as though the next thing we’re going to have to harvest are more chairs.
Nicole and I cook a chicken we may very well have killed.
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