Legends of the Fall

-Posted by Isaac

It's that time of year again.

Mid October, Pickaway County-- the schools shut down, the routes change, and everyone makes a pilgrimage to Circleville. Everyone in the state it seems, young and old.
The Pumpkin Show, now in it's 108th year sort of puts Circleville on the map.

I wish I had thought to take more photos of the general festival. There are rides everywhere, exhibits everywhere, pumpkin food every which way you turn, demonstrations,

and of course the people-watching is excellent.
Maybe I'll capture some of this next year.

I did however get a few pictures of Circleville's version of overdoing it.
Some of the GIANTS....

The mutants...

The winners, spawned of Pickaway county soil...

"In Umerica we call'em taters."

Talk about a tough one to judge...

There are pies,

...and then there are PIES.

Even the insects are gigantic.

Dr. Bob Liggett, our family eye doctor, seems to be a perpetual name in the winner's circle.

Here, size matters.

1,964 pounds this  year. I think this was a Pumpkin Show record.
I'd love to claim that this beast was pollinated by one of my bees but I'm pretty sure Dr. Liggett handles that job himself.

Cicleville isn't the only pumpkin crazy town. I happened to flip through this week's TIME Magazine and found out that there are alot of pumpkin festivals:

But I'll wager ours is the biggest.

Anywhere a lot of pumpkins are planted, there will eventually be a need for bees.

We did pollination work for three different pumpkin farms this summer. The number of hives required varies with the size of farm but it usually runs around one hive for every two acres of pumpkins. The bees work from mid June through September. And they don't make a lot of honey. (Which is why I charge more for pumpkin pollination.)

On Friday I got the last load home. We now have a giant home apiary-- 45 hives in the back yard to keep us company this winter.

This is our own version of overdoing it.

The Golden Season

-Posted by Isaac

Best time of year in my opinion. The golden time.

For a while we had absolutely perfect weather. If Ohio was like this year-round, I'd have much more trouble finding something to complain about. (And I just don't know what I would do with all the extra time.)

What a wonderful string of late September days we happened upon. The goldenrod came on in full brilliance...

And I became very much a recluse in the bees.

The pollen traps went on...

 

And a month later they came off.

In between, we collected a freezer full of beautiful goldenrod / ragweed / aster pollen.

Gorgeous stuff. And this year, more of it then ever.

So much in fact, we were comfortable asking Whole Foods if they would like to sell it.

Yes! 

(You can find it at the Dublin store right now. Lane Ave. coming soon.)

Strong hives pull in a lot of pollen. And the hives are incredible right now.

Better bees then I've ever seen this time of year.

Of course strong hives also make a decent crop of fall honey.

Buckets and buckets!

And we're still at it. 

Mr. Blair has seen a month of long hard hours in the honey house.

(Without a single complaint I might add. Love that guy.)

Some of the honey has yet to be capped off.

Wax during the goldenrod season has a unique yellow tint.

But that's ok. We just fire up the drying room and get the moisture down to where it should be.
It makes for a hot time in the extracting room. I mean pure hellish drudgery.
Hey, Mr. Blair... not my problem!

I spend my days in the bees!

The last yard I pulled, I was visited by some curious bovine onlookers.
..."EAT MOR CHIKIN!"

"EAT MOR HUNY!"

"EAT MOR PUMKIN!"

"EAT MOR POLIN!"

So the busy days busied on. Beautiful weather one day after another after another. It felt like we lived on the Carolina coast.

Then, finally, came the rotten stuff. The rain and the cold.

So we high tailed it to the Carolina coast.

Ha Ha!
Yes, a vacation thrown in, right in the middle of our fall harvest made for some interesting complications. But we managed to endure through it.
And the kids were so sad to be out of school.

Beautiful beaches.
Beautiful babes.

Of course we had our obligatory share of mini golf. This was a first for the kids and they loved it. Not the golf so much, but all the other fun challenges you can invent with a golf ball.
Here's Bridger and the water chute:

And while we're on the subject of fun distractions, let me leave you with one last snapshot. We just returned from the Bob Evans Farm Festival in Rio Grande. The grand finale was a concert by Ralph Stanley and the Clinch Mountain Boys. 

On the right is Ralph Stanley on stage in front of about a thousand admiring eyes:

On the left are the wonderful Barnes children.

Log rolling down the hill.

Snapshots of life from a busy mom

-posted by Jayne

Fall is just so busy around here.  Every year it gets like this, and I can't quite put my finger on exactly what makes it so busy as compared with February.  But it really is pretty easy to see if I stop and think about it.  Beautiful weather that leads us outdoors to master bicycling skills (Mason just got his training wheels taken off!), soccer games, pulling Fall honey from the hives, collecting and cleaning bee pollen, getting stocked up on soap for pre-Holiday sales, and keeping up with increasing online sales.  When it gets cold, people start eating more honey!  Pure comfort food- and it goes great in a cup of hot tea or coffee in the morning.

Today I caught Mason rummaging through his piggy bank, counting out his quarters, 

"What are you getting money out for, Mason?"  

"I need to get seven dollars.  I want to buy something from the Honeyrun Farm farmstand."

"What is it that you want?"

"Cinnamon Honey..."

"Mason, you know I can get you some Cinnamon Honey, you don't need to buy it from the farmstand. I can just get you some from the honey house...."

"Oh!"

I love Mason's mind and how it works.  I think he just thought it would be fun to spend some money at our farmstand and have a jar of cinnamon honey all to himself.

Randle Road Sunset

 Maizy has taken it upon herself to start a fresh flower stand on our front lawn.  Lucky for her customers, the flowers are free.  She instructed me to write "Closing Time" on the back of her sign, and she turns it around when she is away at school.  So far she's only had 3 customers, so if you're coming by our way, feel free to stop by her flower stand.  It will make her day!

Another side story:  I had been avoiding phone calls from Missoula, MT, every night - since I knew it was a call from a student at the University of Montana who was calling to ask if I could make my annual donation to the University.  They always seemed to call right in the middle of dinner or when I was in the middle of an important conversation.  Finally, last night, I answered it.  I had already made my donation to the UM Sociology Department through the mail, so I assumed they were just calling to thank me.  I know many of my peers grumble about being asked by their alma maters to donate money, but I figure- it's the least I can do for them, since they gave me free tuition as well as a monthly TA stipend to live in the most beautiful city in the world for 2 (ever so short) years.  During the distracted 2 minutes it took me to have that phone conversation, Bridger was able to fill up his bowl of cheerios with lavender infused honey.  The boy drained the 8 oz bottle.  No need for milk, when you have honey, right Bridger?    When I got off the phone and saw what he did, I started cracking up.  He was eating it like it was normal- honey dripping off his spoon as he shoveled it into his mouth.  I tried to explain to him that it was too much honey, but his response was just a pouty face.  "Be quiet" (pronounced "kwy-dit") - he said with a grumble.  He did not like me laughing at his newfound independence with the honey bottle.  This is seriously about 6 full ounces of honey covering the cheerios.  He didn't finish it.  Even a beekeeper's son has his limits when it comes to honey.

This little babe is on the move.  She is now crawling on her knees, and she also has two teeth popping up through the bottom.  She doesn't care for daytime naps, either.  Just a few mini-cat-naps here and there.

So I get the question, "How do you do it?" quite often.  Meaning, how do I help run this business, take care of 4 young kids (one exclusively breastfed and refuses solid food or a bottle, seldom naps, and recently became mobile), and still manage to stay somewhat sane?  

Well- I just do the best I can.  I have a very messy house with books littering the floor, spider webs in every corner, half a million started projects that need finished (but will definitely get done even if it happens 5 years from now), piles of laundry in every room, and enough dreams to keep me going for the next 67 years.  Hey, my great grandma lived to be 101, so I'm counting on some longevity in my genes.  It's a fun life.

Pawpaw Fun (with a Pawpaw Ice Cream Recipe, too!)

-posted by Jayne

This is a post about one our newest favorite local fruits:  Pawpaws!  Have you tried them?  

They are ripe when they start to get soft and squishy, with some brownish marks on their skin.

The insides will be bright yellow and softer than a ripe banana.  There are lots of black seeds that you need to pick out.

We went pawpaw hunting on Sunday at a friend's property.  "Take all you can find," they said... "we don't need them."  The kids were delighted that pawpaw hunting was much easier than springtime mushroom hunting.

To start things off, Isaac decided to show off his climbing skills by going for the pawpaws waaaaay at the top of the tree.  Do you see the monkey in the photo?

The pawpaws hang in clusters, varying in shape and size.  Very easy to spot.

The kids fought over the ones low to the ground, easy to pick.  Because you know, that's simply the natural thing to do with a sibling.

Maizy spotted a tree frog up in the tree, which eventually ended up clinging to Mason's shirt... right there somewhere in the middle of Saturn...

And I decided to do some sampling right there, to make sure they still tasted as good as I remembered from the week prior.  

Ah yes, the fresh pawpaw.  Ohio's tropical fruit.

But by the end of the day, there was no need to fight.  Plenty of pawpaws for friends, neighbors, and curious aquaintances.

The kids weren't wild about the taste of the fresh pawpaws, so I thought we'd make some pawpaw ice cream to entice them.  They got the task of scraping those little black dots out of the vanilla bean.

I really make them do these things so that when they are older and learn about vanilla bean extract, they tell their friends, "When I was little, my mom made me scoop the little vanilla bean dots out of the bean itself!"

I worked on mashing up the pawpaws to make the pulp.  I asked the kids to help but they thought it seemed "too messy."  "Too messy!?"  Have they looked at their play room lately?

The above and below photos are courtesy of Maizy.  I'm trying to let the kids improve their photography skills so they can enter a photo in the Circleville Pumpkin Show art exhibit.  Keep practicing, Maizy...

Getting the pawpaw pulp is the messiest and most difficult part.  I squeezed the seeds and surrounding pulp into my strainer, then worked the rest of the pulp away from the skins.  After the strainer was full I simply used my hands to push the pulp out into the pan.  If your pawpaws aren't ripe enough to mash through the strainer, I would recommend pureeing the pulp pieces with a food processor.  Chunks of under-ripe pawpaw really has no place in pawpaw ice cream (speaking from experience).

And here is the finished product!

And here is the recipe I used:

Pawpaw Honey Ice Cream

1 C. sugar

2 C. whole milk 

1/4 t. salt

1 vanilla bean, split and scraped

3 egg yolk, lightly beaten

2 C. pawpaw pulp
1/2 cup honey

2 C. heavy cream

*You will want to wait to mash your pawpaws until the first two steps are complete.  You don't want the pawpaw pulp sitting out waiting to be used.

1.  Combine first 4 ingredients in a saucepan over low heat.  Stir until the mixture begins to simmer.  Place egg yolks in a bowl.  Stir in about 1/2 cup of the hot liquid to temper the eggs, and return everything to the saucepan.  Continue to heat to 160 degrees.

2.  Heat until thickened, about 5 mins.  Do not boil.  Remove from heat and chill in the refrigerator for at least 2 hours.

3. Stir in the pawpaw pulp, the honey, and the heavy cream.  Pour into an ice cream maker and freeze according to manufacturer's directions.  

adapted from Straight from the Farm 

The reason for our newfound pawpaw craze?  We went to the Pawpaw Festival at Lake Snowden the previous Sunday.  

One of our favorite authors, Joel Salatin, was the featured speaker on Sunday afternoon.  He has written several books that have inspired us on our journey as small farmers and ag entrepreneurs.  

And of course the festival was filled with the usual festival fun.  Giant bubbles...

And pawpaws in every kind of food imaginable.  Pawpaw beer, pawpaw burritos, pawpaw ice cream, pawpaw popsicles, pawpaw salsa, pawpaw curry puff, pawpaw smoothies, pawpaw cookies, and pawpaw cakes.  I'm sure I've missed something.  

One thing missing from the festival was our Cinnamon Honey.  But it is not missing on the Whole Foods shelves!  Finally!  

And you can save yourself .01 if you buy it at Whole Foods versus from us at the farmer's market.  

If you're coming to the Worthington market on Saturday, I may just have a few extra pawpaws to share.  Hidden under the table.  Secret code:  pawpaw.  And a smile and a wink.  Hope to see you there!

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.  /honeyrunfarm/2012/08/bee-pollen-intricacies-and-health.html