Honey Zucchini Bread Recipe

-posted by Jayne

If you have a zucchini plant in your garden, chances are... you have too much zucchini in your life. You can only give so much of it away because your neighbors are likely having the same conundrum.  Too much zucchini... lots of honey?  Make a honey zucchini bread with honey!  I found this recipe in my New York Times cooking app (my favorite!).  It was a hit, even with my kids!

INGREDIENTS

2 cups unbleached all-purpose flour
1 cup whole-wheat flour
1 tablespoon baking powder
1 teaspoon ground ginger
½ teaspoon freshly grated nutmeg
½ teaspoon allspice
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
 Salt to taste if desired
3 eggs
1 cup safflower, corn or peanut oil (I used canola because it was all I had)
1 cup honey
2 cups grated zucchini, about 3/4 pounds whole
1 cup chopped pecans or walnuts (optional- I left them out since I knew my kids wouldn't like it)

PREPARATION

Heat oven to 325 degrees.
Sift flours, baking powder, ginger, nutmeg, allspice, cinnamon and salt into mixing bowl. Beat eggs in another mixing bowl and add oil and honey. Fold in zucchini.
Fold zucchini mixture into flour mixture. Blend well. Stir in nuts.
Lightly oil 2 loaf pans, each measuring 8 1/2 by 4 1/2 by 2 1/2 inches. Divide batter between them. Place loaves in oven and bake 1 hour. Let cool briefly before removing from pan.

Montana III - Glacier

-Posted by Isaac

I know. The vacationing is getting a bit ridiculous. Although I still haven't quite reached the one per month goal, I'm getting close. Tough gig, this beekeeping.

With every sneaky trip like this one, I feel just that much guiltier.... I really, very much really do owe my beautiful, loving, intelligent, patient, kind and generous wife. This time I brought her some huckleberry soap. Think that'll do it?

So this little business trip was for Seth. He's leaving us in two weeks. And we're going to miss him... the perfect beekeeper combination of smart thinking and dumb muscle.

Where is he going? Well, from what I understand, he's off to some kind of government job. Something about "Aiming High."   I really don't know.

This was his retirement-for-now party.

We left the bees in good standing. The day before flying out, I made it to a couple out yards. I wanted to check mite levels, but mainly I was curious about the summer nectar flow. After that fantastic spring crop, the frames had been bone dry for at least a month. Just popping lids and watching activity, I could see things had changed. Shaking a frame, this is what I found:

The summer flow begins!!

It's nice to leave in a good mood.

Those of you who have been to Glacier know the special beauty of the place. Seth is a hiker, hunter, outdoorsy type. A few days in the park would make a nice sending off, as he is about to embark on a six year stint of defusing bombs.

One last chance to be a hippie.

If you're a wildflower person, northern Montana this time of year is like walking through fireworks.

Funny thing though. We hiked through miles of flowers, but I didn't see a single honey bee. Lots of insects, a few bumblebees, but none of the honey making variety. All the while our bees back home were pulling in loads and loads of summer nectar from our Ohio countryside. Summer blooms, wild and monocrop both.

A couple posts back, I got badmouthing Yellowstone Park because of the crowds. Glacier, in July especially, has a little of that too. Seth, always advertising, thought he could drum up business on Logan Pass. 

Check out the vintage "wood paneled" minivan.

But for the most part, on the back trails, over the mountain passes, we had the place to ourselves. I'll share some stories and a little of what we did on the next post.

For now, let's stick to the business side of the trip. We were able to see one big Montana operation. Here you can see hives placed on canola. 168 of them to be exact. In the background is the canola. Miles of rolling hills covered in yellow bloom. The bees had just been placed, supers were soon to follow.

It's a mutual love between canola farmers and beekeepers. In so many other cases the beekeeper is paid to bring bees in. The farmer needs the pollination, but the bees don't make much in the way of honey. Canola is different. The plant is a big nectar producer. I've seen bees on canola with supers stacked head high. Canola means honey!

And 168 hives, all with heavy honey laden supers stacked to the sky, for this big beekeeper means a:

A fistful of Benjamins for this Montana bee operation. It's big business.

Next up: animal encounters in Glacier National Park.

Whoo Hoo! Spring Honey!

-Posted by Isaac

Happy Fourth of July! Hope you're having a wonderful holiday.

Even with the rain, we had some fun. We made it over to my brother's place and celebrated our independence with the fish.

But this has been one of the few slow days in quite a while. In fact, the last month has been a whirlwind. A flood of spring honey.

The bees did great!

Better than ever. Tons and tons of beautiful white spring goodness! The best honey you've ever tasted, and so much of it! This year the stars aligned perfectly. A warm March meant early splits and early splits meant big hives by mid-May. Mid-May here in central Ohio means honey production!

Yard after yard...   The truck filled...

The extractor filled...

The big new bulk tank filled...

The barn itself filled...

And filled....                      Wow!

The honey is gorgeous.  

Lighter than last year's spring crop. There was more of an influence from the black locust bloom this year. Still not quite as clear as a celebratory bottle of wine... but I'd take the honey any day!

It was such a great harvest, we've decided to go wholesale (at least in the smaller sizes.) A few groceries have already picked it up. I snapped a quick shot here at the Giant Eagle Market District in Grandview. What a contrast with the fall goldenrod...

And don't forget about the wonderful byproduct of all this honey making. Lots of honey means lots of wax.

Our wax wall grew and grew over the month of June. It will all be turned into candles by Christmas. (Thanks to Katie.)

About the middle of the month, we had three birthdays to celebrate. The honey work came to a stop for a few hours and we had ourselves a June Thanksgiving. Our little turkeys fought over the pop. (They're allowed a pop once in a blue moon.)

(Seth advertises constantly.)

There are presently 37 bee yards that produce this beautiful spring honey. But that's not all of the bees. As some of you know (you dark honey lovers) we have more bees down in the hills. About 50 more hives in three locations, produce the rich dark tulip poplar honey that some of you have come to love.

You never know how these bees are going to fare. It's a mystery down in the woods. Last year was pretty bad. Too much rain. This year I pulled into this pollination yard south of Bainbridge, lo and behold, I was greeted with a good sign:

Two of the pallets I placed the hives on had buckled! This could only mean one of two things-- crappy pallets... or... honey, honey, honey!

The bees did not disappoint. We have plenty of tulip poplar!

It was a shock and surprise to see the big honey hose turn dark after three weeks of see-through locust honey.

Still not enough to wholesale, but plenty by far to keep the farmstand shelves stocked for another year.

And enough to satisfy you farm market connoisseurs.

Enjoy the fireworks! Tomorrow the sun comes back, it's going to be 86 degrees, and it's back to work. (For all of us.)

American Bee Journal features Honeyrun Farm

-Posted by Jayne

We were honored to be featured in the July edition of American Bee Journal, a nationally syndicated magazing about beekeepers and beekeeping.  View the full article here, written by Bill and Mary Weaver.  

I'm an actual Nerd... This is not a Halloween Costume.

-Posted by Jayne

Do you ever watch Portlandia?  Have you seen the Nerd PSA?  

Today I was feeling very nerdy.  I have one hobby that is a bit more dorky than the rest.  I enjoy entering flowers into the Pickaway County Fair flower show.   As a business owner with 4 kids under the age of 8, I don't really have a lot of free time.  So it is a guilty pleasure to spend several hours cutting and arranging flowers, but it does bring me a lot of joy.   We started our day at Blossoms At the Bend, a pick-your-own flower farm just south of Williamsport, Ohio.  

After filling a bucket of flowers, we came home and I arranged a playdate to keep these four busy.  As 7 children ran screaming up and down the halls of our house and through the yard (I do not exaggerate here), I calmly analyzed the exact spot to place each flower to create the perfect arrangements.  Here are a few:

The theme for this arrangement was "Millersport: Sweet Corn Festival" and required me to use all yellow flowers.

This arrangement called for "A fresh design of roadside/hillside materials."  I had a lot of fun scanning the roadsides over the past week to search for beautiful weeds.

The theme for this arrangement is "Cy Young Days" - a design of fresh flowers using a baseball motif.

And the final (odd) one required: "A fresh design in the abstract manner... incorporating duct tape" (In honor of the "Avon" Duct Tape Festival).  This was quite a challenge and honestly, I'm sure this is not abstract enough.  But it's the most clever thing I could come up with.  I used duct tape to connect the willow branches with the dried "love-in-a-mist", and floated little balls of duct tape on the water.  Now if that isn't nerdy, I don't know what is.  

Maizy entered these arrangements on Sunday in the youth division.  She received best of show with the tall Flint Ridge bottle arrangement.  It required a Native American theme.  We hung a small feather from the neck of the bottle and used curly willow and clary sage, also pick from Blossoms at the Bend.

Mason also entered his lego house in the competition, as well as his "recycled art" project he made Isaac for father's day:

In defense of "real nerds" everywhere, I will resist calling ourselves a nerd family.