I've got two quick posts, both featuring my better half, both with very little to do with bees.
Except this:
And I thought my bees never swarmed? |
I was working a yard a few days ago, looked up and found this ghost town. Cool picture.
So anyway, our friend Kristen Baughman from Curly Girl Farm throws a big apple butter party every year. Jayne never misses it, but me, I've always found an excuse.
Until this year.
Turns out, it was really fun. And a learning experience. Kristen gets about a thousand apples cooking in a big copper pot over the fire. Then she gathers about a hundred friends to help with the festivities.
About dark, the apple butter had become thick enough to scoop and put into mason jars. And I mean a lot of mason jars! It was a well-organized craziness. Jayne knew just what to do.
Me, I just hung out with my drinking buddies.
After filling what seemed like a few hundred jars, we all partook of the leftovers. Kristen had baked a bunch of biscuits for this very purpose.
I swear, I've never tasted anything so good.
The apple party was two weeks ago. All those filled jars found their way home with many of the partiers. I wonder how many are still around? Not much left at our house.
Every now and then, we even share with our children.
Hi Isaac, can you give us more information about the beeswax hanging from the tree. Was that a stop-over until they found a suitable place? Is that what they built as a camp, or did something unfortunate happen? Thanks, Julie
ReplyDeleteHi Julie,
DeleteTruthfully, I'm a little confused myself. Maybe an expert out there can weigh in.
This was obviously a swarm that hung for quite a while. Long enough to build a bit of comb. Sometimes this happens. I think the dark area is also where there was once brood. The mystery is, why are they now gone? Did they somehow know that it wasn't a suitable spot for winter? Would they leave brood and honey stores? I don't know...