Country Living Magazine Feature and a Granola Recipe

-posted by Jayne

Last month we were contacted by a writer for the Country Living Magazine (the one put out by South Central Power Company), asking if we'd like to be featured in their "Food Scene" section.  They asked me to contribute a few recipes and wanted to know if they could come out and take a tour and a few pictures.  If you don't subscribe to the magazine- you can view the full article here:

https://issuu.com/nationalcountrymarket/docs/clm0816southcentral/18

If you've been following our blog for a while, you've likely seen these recipes before.  But in case you're like me and don't keep track of all the recipes you might want to try- I will post one of them here once again.  This is a recipe for our Super Chunky Honey Almond Granola:

2/3 cup raw honey
4 tsp vanilla extract
1/2 tsp salt
1/2 cup vegetable oil
5 cups old fashioned rolled oats
2 cups raw almonds, chopped course
2 cups raisins or other dried fruit
1. Adjust oven rack to upper middle position and pre-heat to 325 degrees. Line rimmed baking sheet with parchment paper.
2. Chop almonds.
3. Whisk together the honey, vanilla, and salt in a large bowl. Whisk in oil. Fold in oats and almonds until thoroughly coated.
4. Transfer oat mixture to prepared baking sheet and spread across sheet into thin, even layer (about 3/8 in thick). Using a stiff metal spatula, compress oat mixture until very compact. Bake until lightly browned, about 30 mins, rotating pan once halfway through baking. Do not stir! This keeps the granola in "chunk" form rather than loose and dry. Here is what is looks like when finished.

5. Cool on a wire rack to room temperature, about 1 hour. Break cooled granola into pieces of desired size. Stir in dried fruit. I used a mixture of craisins and raisins, but I also like to use chopped dried apricots, too

And here is a fun tip from Cook's Illustrated. For better granola... you must have fat. Without the oil, the oats become crisp and dry. When the water in the honey evaporates in the heat of the oven, the sugars left behind develop into a thin coating on the oats and nuts. Without adding fat, the sugar coating becomes brittle and dry.  So as much as you might want to skip the fat- don't do it!  It's what makes granola taste like granola - not dry flaky oats!

summer honey 101

-Posted by Isaac

It's summer honey time! We've been pulling honey for the last two weeks, and it will continue for at least another two. Busy this year... Seth ran off to the Air Force, so it's now just me in the bee yards and Lafe in the extracting room.

It occurred to me that I may just have enough photos to show you the process-- how raw honey gets from a beehive to the grocery store shelf. And I do. Enough photos in fact, to make this a two-part blog post. Oh boy!

It all starts in a bee yard.

Well, not really. As you know, it starts with millions of honey bees and millions of flowers. But that magic is an entirely different and more complicated subject. For this post, we're going to assume that the bees did their job and the weather and everything else worked out just dandy. (This year it did!)

So our job starts with pulling honey supers off the hives and loading them on the truck. The top boxes are the honey supers. They can get heavy!

It's a fun job, pulling honey. But hot and exhausting. As I said in a previous post, much harder than baling hay I did growing up. On a good day, we'll pull over 3,000 pounds of honey.

Mostly you wait until the bees have all the honey capped off.

When it's capped, it's dry. We're hoping for under 18% moisture. This year with the humidity, we've been moving everything into the drying room for a day. We rush to get the summer honey off before the goldenrod blooms, and that means not everything is capped. So we dry it-- the room holds about 150 supers and has five big fans, two big dehumidifiers, and a heater.

After drying a day or so, the honey is ready for extracting.

Here you see the system- the 60 frame extractor is in the foreground, the big cappings wax spinner in the middle, and the 500 gallon bulk tank for honey storage in the upper right:

At the start of the extracting line is the uncapper. Honey frames are run down through a couple vibrating knives which slice off the wax capping.

You need to have the cappings removed because the frames will soon be pushed into the extractor which spins the  liquid honey out of the honeycomb cells. Just good old centripetal force. No heat needed.

(One sample permitted every eight hour shift.)

The honey simply flows out of the extractor into a 30 gallon sump, and is then pumped up into that big holding tank high in the corner.

At the end of the day, I fill drums with honey. We have yet to overflow the bulk tank, and if I'm diligent about doing this, we never will. A drum holds 55 gallons, and if Lafe is working alone, he can only fill the 500 gallon bulk tank to about three fourths.

The summer honey all goes into drums. Much easier to store, to move to handle...   All those buckets you saw in the above pictures are filled with spring honey. We had a great spring harvest this year. I'm sure at some point I'll be cussing all the lifting and pouring of those many buckets.

Most years we have far more summer honey than spring or fall. In a great year like this one, you can fill quite a few drums during a month of harvest.

And those drums now sit. And wait. And granulate. Within six months the honey will be solid as rock.

And I'll let you go with that. Next post we'll continue... from solid honey drum to liquid honey bottle to store shelf to your kitchen... the journey of raw honey.

Happy Anniversary

-Posted by Isaac

Eleven years ago I got lucky. I know I don't deserve her, and yet she still lets me hang around. Year after year. We have surpassed one decade together, and I'm feeling pretty good about my chances for a few more.

We have even multiplied.

(Bridger's dream Christmas)

The above picture was taken yesterday in Decatur IL. To celebrate 11 years, Jayne took the kids and ran off. Yes, another anniversary vacation without me. (Vacation?  4 kids?...) 

I'm sure she'll make the most of it.

But before leaving, we had ourselves a wonderful kidless evening at this swanky place.

The Avenue is a Cameron Mitchell restaurant. They use Honeyrun Farm honey. So does The Guild House, another Cameron Mitchell. 

 And so do many other places around town. Places more our style. Jayne and I sometimes like to stop in for a coffee or a "market date" meal. It's fun see how a business uses your product. It's fun to deliver honey by way of the back door and get a glimpse of the inner workings. 

So that's how they do it...

Until this Summer, I had only been privy to the receiving door at the classy Cameron Mitchell's. They were just too fancy for a market date! And too expensive to spend on, well, me. But between a birthday and an anniversary, both involving my beautiful wife, and grandparents who involved themselves with the watching of our kids, we have now managed to make it to both restaurants.

What a treat! For foodies. Wealthy foodies. And I suppose, wealthy beekeepers. Maybe it really is the best food I've ever had. Or maybe I'm just trying to believe it's worth the money. I don't know. It is different, I'll say that. Even for a foodie like Jayne.

The Cameron Mitchell Food: tall, dark, handsome, athletic build, with just the slightest hint of a sexy Spanish accent. 

How could I possibly compete?

So I finished my beer and began to glance around for the men's room. Didn't see it. Kept looking...didn't see it... maybe people don't pee in Cameron Mitchell restaurants?

Finally, about to burst, I asked Jayne.

"See that 'WC' in the corner? It stands for Water Closet," she said.

"Oh. Interesting...

...So where's the bathroom?"

Haha. Just kidding, I'm not that stupid. Everyone knows what a "water closet" is. 

It's this:

The guy in there smiled when I jokingly ordered a martini, but I detected a slight impatience. A bored annoyance with my country humor.

I did my business, really showed my class by taking a picture, then departed the water closet. (Let that be a lesson to you, guy. Fake smile = No tip.)

The evening had started with our waiter going over appetizers, one of which was a certain fondue dish served with Dan the Baker bread and drizzled with Honeyrun Farm honey. When the waiter took note of us making a big deal of ourselves, we assumed that the "free" dessert at the end of our meal was a little Cameron Mitchell token of appreciation. Or sympathy. (These are beekeepers... they're obviously not staying for our $6 slice of cheesecake.)

But we were wrong. It wasn't for our honey at all. It was simply a happy gesture of acknowledgment. A nod to the joys and woes of marital bliss; a salute to the brave, the bold, the stouthearted... the married. Another year, on the books! (And we liked it!)

The waiter winked and said, "You can even eat the little chocolate sign."

So we did.

And we liked it!

But I'm still waiting on that water closet martini.    Guy?

Back At It - Summer Protein

-Posted by Isaac

Nose to the grindstone. While some beekeepers choose to fritter their summer away with vacations, it's nothing but Work Work Work around here. 

The bees have been hard at it, and me, I haven't had a break in like a week!

And what an awesome summer for honey production! If you remember, I mentioned going out to shake a frame before the Montana trip and finding the very beginnings of the of the summer honey flow. Well, the last three weeks have been amazing! Many hives have filled two, three, even four supers.

Strong bees and a strong nectar flow... almost makes you forget the cussing and complaining of last summer.

I bought a lot of new frames this year. And what a great decision that was. (A statement I don't get to make very often, unfortunately.) The bees have done an awesome job on the new stuff. Beautiful white wax, drawn out with the recent nectar flow.

Tip for beekeepers: Acorn foundation is superior to just about anything. (Even frames we waxed ourselves!)

It's not quite time for extracting. The nectar continues to come in, and most of the honey is not yet capped. So we wait. But we're not sitting around, oh no. We've actually been into one of the tougher jobs of the bee year-- feeding protein.

This is something that I've done in recent years, July and August, and I'm pretty sure it helps the bees immensely. I say "pretty sure," because it's kind of hard to quantify. A little protein now, when forage is scarce, may just be the ticket to taking full advantage of our wonderful goldenrod flow in mid-September. And it's not just a matter of making more fall honey. The bees seem to winter better also. They go into the cold months with a bigger cluster, more stored honey, more protein reserves, all of that.

At least I think I'm seeing this...    Or am I just trying to convince myself that it's worth all the trouble and money?

I had one big beekeeper (3500 hives) tell me that summer protein was effective at diluting all the systemic poisons coming in from corn pollen and neonic drift to whatever else. The neonics! (Months after planting, still protecting the American farmer!) (Thank you Bayer. Thank you Monsanto.)

Whatever you choose to believe, a little protein does seem to result in healthier hives.

But it is quite an expense. It is quite a bother. Not only is it hard work getting protein to the brood, the stuff needs to be kept cool if you're going to take a couple of months to feed it. Thankfully I'm in good with some rich produce farmers. Half of our boxes now sit in a 50 degree storage room. The other half will be fed in the next two weeks.

Back when I started feeding protein, we would mix big wheelbarrows full of protein powder, syrup, eggs, cinnamon, bananas, essential oils, honey, etc...

But lately I've gotten lazy. Most of the protein now goes down in pre-made patties. I'm thinking, just let the nutrition experts figure it out... and pay them a lot for being the "experts."

Plus, even without all the mixing, this job is hard enough. The protein needs to sit between the brood chambers, so you're out there in a bee suit, 90 degrees, sweating bullets, trying to get down three, four, five boxes to the brood. Hard work! Especially this year... we've got all this dang honey in the way!

I keep getting tagged in facebook pictures about the hard work of baling hay. We did a lot of hay during my growing up. Sometimes a thousand bales a day; I'd get feeling pretty exhausted. But this bee protein stuff, on a hot day, takes "exhausted" to a whole new level. Six or seven bee yards in eight or nine hours... it makes baling hay feel like a day on the beach.

(ISIS ain't a'gonna find this super.)

Is the protein necessary? I hope so. I want to tell myself it is...

At the very least, with the heat and expense, I have something to complain about. Without that, I'd be at a loss.

Montana III - Animal Whisperers

-Posted by Isaac

One more non-beekeeping post. For the two or three of you reading this blog and looking for bee advice, I am failing you yet again. But soon, I promise, soon back to the bees. For you other dedicated readers, another special treat from Glacier National Park! (Or scroll on to Jayne's honey zucchini bread if you want to learn something.)

This time we highlight the scenery and the "wildlife."

As I started to say in that last post, Glacier Park occupies a special little corner of my heart. The many experiences and memories build on one another. This trip was the Seth trip. His first time there, but unlike me, Seth has connections. On one of the days we found ourselves hiking with a group.

But most of the time it was just he and I and our hiking boots. Final tally, around 75 trail miles in four days! On every kind of terrain.

Snow and ice,

rock and water,

and mud...         I think Seth was preparing himself for bootcamp in a few weeks.

We had a surprising amount of rain.

"It really never rains in Glacier Park past, like, June 20th."                                                                                              -Our shuttle bus driver, one hour previous.

But it never lasted long. When the skies cleared, taking in the stunning views often required a food stop.

Seth had been hiking by that point for about a week. He was in Yellowstone a few days previous. I had flown into Bozeman to meet him. From there it's a five hour drive to Glacier Park. Plenty of time, plenty of stops to load up on trail food. Whatever we could dream up.

We carried with us quite an arsenal. Most, looking better than tasting....

And later, how to get rid of all that gut-churning gas station trail food? By taking in more great views, of course!

(Just fine, if you want to hold it for seven miles.)

Let's remember, this was still supposed to be a business trip, and all day spent on a mountain meant plenty of time to talk business. Mergers, acquisitions, hedge funds... you know... the business.

"What! Honeyrun stock down a quarter percent?!"                                                                                                             "Yer FIRED, Brumfield!"

Also, logging twenty miles or so in a day means you sleep really well that night. At least for me it does. And your sleeping arrangements really don't seem to matter. Two of the nights we slept under the stars. (Or under rain clouds.)

One night was spent in a teepee just south of the Canadian line. We stayed on the edge of a sprawling metropolis called Polebridge. 

The next morning we made our way downtown to find a Farmer's Market in full swing. (Traffic was horrendous.)

Between the trails, the business meetings, and the hustle of Polebridge city life, we never lacked for entertainment. Seth's friends even showed us what the locals do in lieu of a shower.

Nothing knocks the stink off ...                                                                                                                                                  Like Glacier Park run-off!

But it wasn't all fun and games. We had to be careful! (Play with caution!) One thing we were continually warned about was the possibility of running into a deer.

Oh sorry, I mean a bear.

I guess Glacier Park has a large number of bears apparently looking for food. And, according to some, we apparently qualify as food. Mmmm, delicious....

Thankfully a friend in Bozeman loaned us a can of bear mace.

Man oh man, did it come in handy! It's true, Glacier Park is filled with bears. They're everywhere!

...and boy are they fierce!

Microbear.          ...fresh brewed.

Huh? Wha? You no like my humor??

Ok, we really did see a bear. And we did (almost) literally run into it. (Long story.) We didn't have to use the loaner can of mace - Good. But in the hurry and surprise, I didn't have the presence of mind to get out my camera. - Bad.

But Seth, more experienced and professional in these matters, was fortunately quick on the draw. He managed to snap off three images, the best of which is right here:

NATURE PHOTOGRAPHY BY SETH                                                                                                                           Studios Open Soon!!

Is that a large dog? Seth? 

Really... a grizzly bear??  If you say so...         (They'll really believe that one.)

That was our one and only grizzly sighting. But we did manage to see quite a bit more wildlife. Some close encounters, I'm telling you! (See video)

At some point (maybe after blasting the squirrel) Seth declared ourselves "Animal Whisperers." His words, not mine...  Funny though, we did seem to be able to walk right up to the animals. They've got'em trained well in Glacier Park. Mountain goats, a herd of bighorn sheep, a mother ptarmigan and her baby chicks, jackrabbits, a pika (maybe), about a dozen squirrels and chipmunks, probably more than a dozen deer...

And this guy. In Ohio we call this a groundhog. And if you're a farmer, you reach for the 22 rifle. In Glacier Park it's called a marmot. And it practically lets you pick it up. Luckily I was on top of things with my camera. Very professional!

Speaking of wildlife...  Speaking of grizzly bears...

NATURE PHOTOGRAPHY BY SETH                                                                                                                        Studios Open Soon!!

Seth took this quick photo two seconds before the screams and pepper spray.

"Wait! Stop!," I said, "I'm just a hairy beekeeper!"

And then they really let me have it.

Thanks for joining in on my reliving of another fun trip. One last 30 second laugh for the road:

At one with nature-- The Animal Whisperers