Bee Pollen - collection and harvesting, health benefits, and flavor

-posted by Jayne

Pollen abounds at Honeyrun Farm!  Isaac put on the pollen traps about a month ago, and the bees have been really busy bringing in all that sweet goldenrod pollen.  I love to grab an afternoon pollen snack in the freezer in the honey house, where I can eat it fresh and raw.  We have actually had to go out and buy 2 new freezers to hold all the new pollen collected, as our current freezers are full of comb and chunk honey waiting to be purchased.  (Come, on customers... what are you waiting for?)

If you are new to the Honeyrun Blog, you might want to look over a past blog we did in 2012 about bee pollen- all about how we collect it, clean it, dry it, store it, and eat it.   Here it is:  "Bee Pollen - the Intricacies and Health Benefits of this Superfood."

Today I thought I would offer a pictoral "Blast from the Past"- a collection of photos of pollen collecting over the years here at Honeyrun Farm.

I love this photo of our pollen, as it shows the beautiful
textures and colors of the varied bee pollen.  

Somebody got into the pollen jar...  that's a guilty face!

YUM!

Even at a young age, Maizy had upper management
skills- telling Daddy how it's done.

The yellow in this picture is mostly ragweed pollen,
 collected in early September.

At the age of 4, Maizy could finally help harvest the pollen herself.

But her favorite job is "taste tester" (and flower picker).

We think Goldenrod provides the tastiest and prettiest
pollen - bright orange in color and sweet in flavor!

This bucket shows the varied pollen collected by
different hives - on the same day!  It is neat to see
how they each visit different plants in the same area.

Backdoor smorgasbord for these hives!

We'd also like to thank Vicki from Love Ohio Crafters and Artisans blog, for interviewing us and featuring us this past week!  Check out the interview here.   We actually got to know Vicki through her personal love of our bee pollen.  She is one of our most faithful pollen customers, and she feels that eating bee pollen helps her stay healthy throughout the year.  http://honeyrunfarm.blogspot.com/2012/08/bee-pollen-intricacies-and-health.html

Honeyfest 2014

-Posted by Isaac

Lithopolis had their annual shindig this last Friday and Saturday. This year the program was dedicated to Dan Cottrell.

We lost Big Dan about a week after last year's Honeyfest. Everyone remembers him as an exuberant volunteer in the Scioto Valley Beekeeper's demonstration booth and a permanent fixture cranking out the honey. He was a Santa Claus figure at the extractor-- surrounded by kids. Teaching, laughing, entertaining; always a twinkle in his eye. It was painful not to have him here.
The Honeyfest sponsored their first honey contest this year, and the "Best of Show" award was sponsored by our SVB club in Dan's honor.
More on that later.

Honeyfest is a big deal for central Ohio beekeepers and as usual we brought a whole bunch of stuff.

However, this year I got a bit smarter with the transport of this stuff to the festival. We now have a big flatbed... why not use it? This would eliminate the need for multiple vehicles to carry things. The only problem is, you can't run a thousand straps across a thousand different items.

Sideboards were needed. Another last minute project on a hot Thursday afternoon:

Friday morning: Here come the Clampetts.

By noon, everything was taking shape, looking good.

Once again, a wonderful Jayne-inspired masterwork of honey, ready to fly home with eager Honeyfesters.

And they came in droves.

Another (very smart) development this year. We were aided in the honey selling by no less then seven attractive young ladies over the course of the two days.

(Were the sales better this year?  Well duh...)

Eight, if you include the star of the show:

 

It quickly became evident that they didn't need me standing there looking stupid.

I got to walk around and take pictures. This year I soaked up the Honeyfest.

There were bee beards all day long-

American Honey Princess, Elena Hoffman models the latest in Bee Fashions.

And music-

And Art-

Both to wear..


And to buy...

A little Education-

And a Little Fun-

Food, of course-

And Honey of Every Shape, Size and Color-

Candles Too-

And Interesting Things-
Having nothing to do with honey or bees.

"Are you kidding? Yes, for the thousandth time, local anvils are good for your allergies."

"Seriously, I hate that question!"

Demonstrations of all Types-

I've got to highlight our own club!

SVB put on the ever popular extracting demo.

And Contests Galore-

ECOBA sponsors the annual photo contest:

My vote for "Peoples Choice" award- 

These crotchety beekeepers doing "American Gothic"

Who are these guys?

Carmen and The Devil

As I mentioned earlier, this year was the first for a real honey judging contest.

Maybe I got overzealous, but I entered honey or comb in seven different categories.

It was the shotgun approach.

Which fits nicely with that Taj life philosophy I talked about--(Many fish bites if you got good bait.)

So with the odds in our favor, we were bound to collect a few ribbons.

And we did.

But what about the Dan Cottrell "Best of Show?"

Well, you know...

I don't never like to brag none.

But you know...

Joking aside, I'm humbled and honored.
And I really felt moved when Dan Williams our club president shed some tears while presenting the award and talking about Big Dan.


What a two day whirlwind. I was happy to be able to document all my playing around.
When the big band plays late Saturday, you know it's about time to wrap things up.

Time to get back to the bees.
And kids, and everything else. On Sunday Maizy demonstrated one of the new time saving routes they had learned in our parental absence.

Masters of efficiency, our children.

Putting Food in Jars

-Posted by Jayne

Ah, Labor Day.   Every year I imagine a Labor Day with no laboring.  However, this will never be a reality for us, as Honeyfest quickly approaches every year on the Saturday after Labor Day.  But that's okay- it's not in our nature to loaf around, so we toil on, busying ourselves with the chores of our farm, our four young children, our 400 some beehives.  Today Isaac put pollen traps on 45 of the hives.  It took him over half the day and at least a gallon of sweat, and he still has more to attend to tomorrow.  I worked on preparing packages to ship from our Etsy online store, amidst entertaining the kids with baking soda and vinegar volcanoes.  We ended the day with some blackberry jam, so I thought I would show you the progression of my jam-making this summer.

So far, I've made 39 half pint jars of black raspberry jam.  This is just the tip of the iceberg of what is to come.  Earlier this summer, I got a little overzealous about the black raspberries when I was visiting my hometown.  I purchased 42 quarts to fill my freezer, where they sit waiting to be turn into jams, along with about 40 quart bags of red raspberries from our own garden.

Anyone looking to stock their freezer with fresh local produce should take a visit to the Farmer's Produce Auction in Mt. Hope, Ohio.  This is where I purchased most of my berries this year.  I love to visit anytime I go back to my hometown.  Even if I don't need any produce the people-watching is great, and the colors and quantities of the fresh produce are amazing.  Candy onions were the hot item of the day.

And who can get enough of little Amish babies in their bonnets.  

I think my baby is cute... but really, is there anything much cuter than an Amish baby?

Maybe a Mennonite/Methodist baby with some sunflowers?
But I digress... back to the Black Raspberry Jam.  I am not a strict follower of recipes when it comes to jam.  I love to attempt low-sugar recipes, but I won't lie- they have not come out perfect for me this year.  My first two batches resemble more of a syrup than a jam, which is great for spreading on pancakes and in homemade yogurt (or plain yogurt if you don't make it yourself).  But after my first two batches were a little runny, I went ahead and bought some sure-jell and liquid pectin to see if I could improve the texture and get to that jam phase.

Isaac grabbed his camera while I was working.

So even though I didn't follow an exact recipe for each batch, here is the skinny on how you make jam:

6 cups black raspberries (mine were frozen, thawed, and mashed in the pot)
4 cups sugar
one pouch liquid pectin

1. Prep 9 half pint jelly jars (I sterilized mine in the dishwasher)
2.  Combine the berries with juices and sugar in a large pot.  Bring it to a boil, stirring as you go.
3.  The jam will begin to thicken and the boil won't be easily stirred down.  Add the liquid pectin and stir.  Cook for an additional 5 minutes and allow jam to thicken.
4.  Remove from heat and ladle into jars.  Wipe the rims with a clean cloth, apply lids and rings.
5.  Process in a boiling water canner for 15 minutes.
6.  When time is up, let jars cool on a wire rack.  When cool to touch, remove rings and test the seals to make sure they have properly sealed.

Now- here's the part where you question why I used sugar and not honey?  I know I know... honey is better.  I'm sure it would taste better too.  I simply don't like to boil my honey.  I do like to bake with honey and I have no qualms about turning raw honey into "non-raw honey" by baking it.  However, with such large batches of jams, I simply prefer to use sugar.  It pains me to see such large quantities of honey at a rapid boil on my stove.  Just my personal preference though... I am sure honey jam is more lovely in many ways.  If you would like to make jam with raw honey- I would suggest trying a freezer jam recipe and adding the honey after the hot jam/water mixture has cooled below 100 degrees.  Here is a great one to try from the Montana Homesteader website.

Another food we put in jars today was homemade refrigerator dill pickles.  Maizy is my pickle lover.  Yet she still gets confused about which one is the cucumber and which one is the pickle.  So I thought I'd give her the chance to make them herself.  I even let her cut the cucumbers herself with (*gasp*) a real knife.  :-)

We followed a recipe from my favorite food blog, Annie's Eats.  However, we decreased the amount of salt in the recipe because when we made them last year they were way too salty for our liking and we ended up throwing them out.  Here is our amended recipe:

Refrigerator Dill Pickles:

• 1 bunch fresh dill
• 4 cloves garlic, peeled
• 3-4 medium-large cucumbers, sliced how you like them
• 3 cups water
• 6 tbsp. distilled white vinegar
• 1 tbsp. kosher salt
• 
  

Combine the first three ingredients in canning jars.  Combine water, vinegar, and salt in a pitcher.  Pour this mixture into the canning jars so the cucumbers are completely covered.  

Refrigerate for two days and enjoy!

Even though Labor Day is supposed to signal the end of summer, there is still plenty of time to enjoy summer adventures.  Toads in the driveway...

Camo toad!

 ...and hiking trips to Honey Run waterfall.  That's right!  There is a beautiful little waterfall on the way to my parents house with our very own name.  If you're ever traveling on Route 62 I suggest you take the 1 minute detour and check it out.

Me and Bridger at the Honey Run Waterfall

We hope to see you at the Lithopolis Honeyfest this Friday and Saturday!  It is guaranteed to be a good time for all.