It's The Berries!

-Posted by Isaac

"Now that outdoor wood burner I put in last year... it's the berries!"

"That Chillicothe trail you were askin' about, the one we ride about every month down in the hills... it's the berries!"

We have a neighbor who likes to use this expression. When he says, 'It's the berries!,' I gather what he's talking about. He means, of course, it's awesome.  But I, with my high falutin thinking, always kinda dismissed the expression as striving to be overly redneckish.

This season has changed my thinking. Lately I find myself silently saying 'It's the berries!' about every mid-morning as I take the kids out to pick.

It's simply Awesome!

It's The Berries!

 Two years ago Jayne wanted to put in a berry patch. As usual I griped. And as usual she won out. Well, not really. We compromised. She wanted about a half acre of raspberries but we settled with this line in the garden for now.
As is oft to happen, I regret ever dragging my feet. This is wonderful!

We have raspberries galore. Every day a bowl full; we can't eat them fast enough.
Maybe she'll get that half acre after all.
(But you've got to do the marketing, Honey.)

For a change of pace (or I should say, change of taste) I took the kids berry picking where I grew up. My Dad had numerous wild berry patches staked out on the 200 acre cattle farm we called home. I spent many summer hours avoiding thorns, slapping bugs and filling old cut-off milk jugs with juicy, delicious small blackberries.

The cattle farm is now a golf course, but the old berry patches remain to this day!

Personally, I was thrilled to find such a wild abundance. All free for the pickin'.

Although the kids, to my dismay, were not quite as enthused. 

"There's thorns, Daddy!" 

"Ouch! I scratched! Ahhhh!"

"They're too small... I can't reach!"

"I'm itchy... can we go home?"

Spoiled children.

They did nothing but complain. And attract chiggers. Which called for an embarrassing amount of public crotch-scratching over the next few days.
For this I was awarded way too much undeserved blame.
Ugh. 

About the only one who really enjoyed himself was Bridger. 

For one, he ate every bit as fast as I could pick.  It was all just good eatin' to him. I don't think that he realized these berries were different... hunted in the mid-Ohio wilderness. He's still too young to be spoiled rotten by our home grown big fat domesticated thornless berries.

Oh well. 

We'll stick to the garden.

Beeswax Candles as Party Favors

-posted by Jayne

We recently shipped out a special order - some beeswax candles for a birthday party favor.  The customer sent back some beautiful pictures of the event and I wanted to share them here.  She chose this candle, which I call "Hive with Bee" and each person attending the party was able to take one home, wrapped in a cellophane bag with a ribbon.  The party photos look so warm and inviting, with many beautiful details in the decorations and backyard setting.  Each table was different, with the candles consistent throughout.

Thanks for sharing your photos with us Marissa!  Congratulations on your beautiful party!

Montana Honey

-Posted by Isaac

As Jayne posted a couple weeks ago, we had a wonderful vacation this July. As you know, when you're seeing new places, people, and things, you're almost obligated to seek out the local food. Jayne posted about the bouncing Missoula market scene. I'm going to show you a couple of Montana beekeeping operations we ran across.

Just an hour after the plane landed, on our way north to Glacier National Park we sighted this:

I was going about 80 mph at the time, but of course a sudden find like this meant a rapid stop, turn around, and turn-in.
Arlee's was a small outfit. A few dozen hives and a help-yourself stand.
Prices were set to move honey ($4.00 / pound). Cheap!   ...And we bought accordingly.

Montana honey has a light candy-sweet taste. It's mostly knapweed (also known as star thistle) and clover. Fireweed in there too if you're lucky.
We went through Arlee's honey much too quickly. Actually, it took about a day of Glacier Park hiking and we were ready for more.

We were in the tiny town of Babb, a roadside stop really, on the east side of the park when Bridger stalked a honey stash in the small mercantile.

Talking to the two ladies in the store, we found out that this Glacier County Honey Company was just a few miles east. It was time for a side trip. (Really the best thing about vacations).
Driving out, we found a prairie just bursting with wildflowers and a sizable bee operation soon to be taking full advantage of the bloom.

Glacier County Honey Company is about a 1000 hive operation. They make the delicious light Montana honey in the summers and take all the bees to California for almond pollination in the winter.
They had a retail shop and several tables set up in one corner of the honey house. (Something we didn't do when I worked for the Morris Honey Company... but should have!)

Wax was processed in another corner of the spacious honey house.

We didn't get to meet the owners, but well-traveled employee Travis, gave us the lowdown on the operation.

Later, heading to another hike, Jayne and I checked out the company's blog. We found quite a few similarities between us and them (The owners- Greg and Courtney). Similar ages and ages of kids... similar hopes, dreams and aspirations.

Although I think maybe they are a bit smarter... choosing to make a living on bees in a place like this!

Ah, Montana

Back on the home front, I've been painting boxes and building equipment. Basically biding time while the bees dry the uncapped honey. I've now been around to all the bee yards and my initial excitement has quelled a bit. There is honey, I can't complain, but it still looks like a below average year as far as the summer honey is concerned. That's ok, we'll hope for a good goldenrod flow.

We don't have a prairie full of wildflowers or almond pollination contracts, but we do have a wonderful local customer base. Unlike the big western bee operations who mostly send their honey off in barrels, we get to see and talk to you, our market crowd, our grocery store customers. Thanks for your continued support!

"Favorite Hive" Update

-Posted by Isaac

A quick update on that favorite hive of mine... and the general honey-making of late.

When we left for Montana I was feeling a bit nervous. The early July rains were keeping the bees from foraging often enough.  The soybeans were starting to bloom, which usually constitutes a decent honey flow in our area but there wasn't much of anything in the supers. 

Upon our return it was a different story. The bees have been busy and the boxes are filling up. 

I put some pollen traps on our home bee yard hoping to collect some buckwheat pollen. (We've planted a lot of buckwheat this year, which I'll post about later.) To put the traps on you have to remove all the supers and brood boxes, so I basically did a thorough inspection of this yard. We have honey! Some of the hives were so caked full I added a super. You can see I added a deep to this "favorite hive." The golden Italians are hard workers in addition to being 'lookers'. Hard not to love.

I hope this honey flow keeps up. The recent cooler days and rains will put a damper on things but I've got a feeling the stronger hives will still add a few pounds as long as there is something out there blooming.

Wow!

Congratulations to the Beekeeper! Second Place in the Missoula Marathon!

-posted by Jayne

Last week we took some time off and snuck in a summer vacation- something that hasn't happened in quite a long time.  Those Saturday markets usually keep us from venturing away - in the past we try to leave Sunday morning and get back Friday, but this year- we planned a trip to Missoula, Montana so Isaac could participate in the Missoula marathon.  He took 2nd place!  His time was 2:38:53.  Like most runners, he had hoped to run it a bit faster.  Meanwhile, I'm just wishing the #1 guy hadn't shown up on race day.  But oh well.  ;-)

After the race, we took a hike up to Glen Lake in the Bitterroot mountains and Isaac took a much-needed dip.  It was a lake fed by snow-melt and it was pretty chilly.  I took my shoes off and dipped my feet in the water, and Bridger promptly grabbed my shoe and threw it in the water.  The boy just loves throwing things in water.

This picture is from the same hike.  You can see the area around the trail was recently burned.  Despite the blackened trees, the area was spectacular.  The beargrass was blooming all around (this is what Bridger is holding), and the fireweed, although not yet in bloom, was covering the landscape.  Bees love fireweed and it makes an excellent honey.  

Earlier in the week we visited Glacier National Park and stayed at one of our favorite places on earth- Polebridge, MT.  There is a great little hostel there called North Fork Hostel.  

Just down the road, the Polebridge Mercantile makes excellent Huckleberry Bear Claws and other pastries and breads.  The entire town operates without electricity, running mostly on solar power and generators.  Outhouses abound.  

Enjoying a Bear Claw by the river.  We had one for dinner, breakfast, and a snack the next day.

 We hiked the Bowman Lake Trail, viewing some of the most pristine water I have ever seen.

Bridger happily tagged along on Isaac's back during our many hikes. Such a cooperative little fellow!

 After hiking a ways around Bowman Lake we took the suggestion of the locals and tried the Hidden Meadows Trail- a short hike that led back to this lake with two Swans.  I am really curious how the swans got there.  What do you think?  Do they migrate?  Or did someone put them there for the summer?

The next day we hiked on the Grinnell Glacier trail- which was only partially open due to snow cover near the glacier.  Just check out those wildflowers.  Bee's paradise.

We headed over to "Two Medicine" on the East side of the park the next day and took a hike there as well.  Next time we come (with Mason and Maizy in tow) I want to rent a canoe in this spot.  

And the final hiking picture I'll leave you with; Camas Lake Trail.  We ended up circling the entire Lake which was a much longer hike than expected, but we snacked on Huckleberries all the way around the lake.  Fortunately we had our cousin Rachel, resident Montanan, to make sure we only ate the edible Huckleberries and Thimbleberries.  I had purchased Huckleberries many times at the farmer's market in Missoula, but never gathered them myself in the wild.  It was so great having Rachel join us!

Speaking of Huckleberries- check out the hefty price they fetch at the Missoula Farmer's market! 

The Missoula Farmer's market is where we first started our dream of becoming market farmers.  It is a huge, bountiful market with such a great expanse of produce.  Cool weather crops such as root vegetables, kale, chard, and other greens, sweet peas, carrots, and onions are plentiful.  Very few farms had tomatoes this time of year, and there was no sweet corn.

 This is Josh Slotnick, my former professor and thesis advisor from the PEAS Farm.  He and his wife run Clark Fork Organics.

The name of this flower eludes me.  I know it grows best in cooler climates- which is why I have never grown it here in Ohio.  Can anyone help me identify it?

We have Bison meat here in Ohio- but nary a Buffalo hide to be found at our farmer's markets!

Here is an "above-the-bridge" shot of the Missoula Farmer's Market.  This is only one-third of a section of this particular market.  And there is another farmer's market less than a mile up the street.  Missoulians love their local food!

 I hope you enjoyed this short visual tour of our vacation.  We visited a beekeeping operation up near Glacier National Park and I'm sure Isaac will be posting about it in the next blog post, along with more hiking and wildflower pictures.

Nevertheless, we're back to work, and we're pleased to say our bees were working pretty hard while we were gone (along with our employees Delinda, Julia, and the Josephs who worked our Worthington and North Market booth- THANK-YOU!)  Isaac and fellow beekeeper Jim North went out to check a few hives today and reported that the bees are bringing in a lot of Summer Honey, although it is not quite yet capped off and ready to be extracted.  We'll keep you updated!  And once again, thanks for following us on our journeys!