Friday, July 16, 2010

The End of Honey

I was never one of those kids sent off to summer camp for weeks at a time. I used to be envious of my classmates who would return to school in the fall armed with a whole new set of inside jokes about staying up late under covers with flashlights, winning the relay race or playing spin the bottle on the wooden floor of the boy’s cabin. Instead of having a nice list of planned activities, I was left to devise my own, which usually ended up as three long months of sleeping past noon, playing video games and learning to skillfully smoke Benson and Hedges out my bedroom window.

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.



The first step is to remove the hive trays from the bee box (yes, that’s my own technical expert terminology).

Then scrape off the waxy coating with a knife so that the honey can be released.
Do not eat the honey trays - although they are sweet and tasty.

Do pretend you are Vanna White with the honey trays.

And definitely spend time admiring the beauty of the hives.



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.

Harvest Mead Wine
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.



In a one to four ratio, mix a quart of your homemade honey into a gallon of water.

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.

Pour the mashed berries into the honey water.

Funnel it into a jug.

Add some herbs (Lemon Balm).

Then twiddle your thumbs for three weeks until it's ready to drink.

And don't forget...

Don't forget to drink plently of Mead while your making Mead.

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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