Author: David Criss

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Honey

Green honey

P1040263Two people that I know harvested green honey this year.  Both were wondering if it was safe to eat, so we did some asking around.  It turns out that a local beekeeper bought a large amount of green candy syrup to feed his hives. Honeybees are excellent at finding the richest sources of sugar and when the scout bees found these feeders, bees from hives located miles away were bringing back green candy syrup.  Since this guy is more into selling bees than honey, green honey isn’t an issue for him.  For those of us selling honey and not bees, we’re all hoping he runs out of green candy syrup before honey season starts next year.

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Last syrup pull of the season.

It was the 3rd season in a row for strange winter weather with long stretches of either too cold or too warm.  Making good maple syrup needs freezing nights and warm sunny days.  That also makes for a really enjoyable winter, too.  So as we pull off this last draw of maple syrup and begin the process of taking lines down, cleaning everything up, and storing it away, we say welcome to spring.

Pure maple syrup
Drawing off maple syrup
Categories
Honey

Health benefits of honey

Cup of hot tea & honey
Cup of hot tea & honey

Attached is an excellent article on the health benefits of honey.  We like to eat a little bit of honey on a regular basis.  A spoonful in a cup of hot tea is a great way to start.  http://honeypedia.info/health-benefits-of-honey

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Maple syrup

Maple syrup scenes from 2015

These photos were taken during the cold winter months of 2015.  Making maple syrup, or “sugaring” as it’s often called, only happens towards the end of winter.  Although the actual making of syrup is a 4 – 6 week season, the work of setting up and taking down takes longer.

2015 was unusually cold resulting in frozen tap lines.  Raw sap that flows out of the trees froze solid in the lines bringing the sugaring process to a halt until the thaw arrived.

Categories
Maple syrup

Winter 2015.

Sap bucket covered in snow.
Sap bucket covered in snow.
Sap barrels covered in snow.
Sap barrels covered in snow.

P1120551 P1120550 P1120549 P11205482015 was a cold and snowy winter.

Categories
Honey

Bees returning with full pollen baskets.

Watch these honeybees returning with full pollen baskets.  Pollen provides the protein and other nutrients essential for growing brood.  It’s also very healthy for us to eat.

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Winter is approaching

Beehive wrapped in foam board.
Beehive wrapped in foam for winter warmth.

The 1st of December and winter is approaching.  The beehives are wrapped in foam board on three sides to help keep the honeybees warm.  Freezing temperatures won’t kill them if they have plenty of food to eat, but if they run out they’ll starve as there is no food outside of the hive they can get.  The colder it gets the more they’ll eat as they convert calories into heat.  The foam helps them to stay warm and therefore eat less.

Continue reading “Winter is approaching”
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