What are the beekeepers up to?

We’re settling into our caretaking role and feeling good. The lambs seem nearly as big as their moms, and we’re starting to befriend Mac and Jimmy, the two guard donkeys (mostly they allow this because we bring carrots).

Days are long and the garden is popping with color. We have a stand of popcorn that’s taller than Adrienne (not taller than Justin quite yet) with the tassles out and silks starting to form, and a stand of scarlet runner beans that seem like they’re growing about six inches a day (maybe a little bit of an exaggeration, but not much). Tomatoes will be here before we know it, as will the fruit harvest - there are about 100 fruit trees on the farm where we work, most of them apples that are used for cider. Sweet potatoes are doing their thing - another six weeks or so and we’ll dig up a plant or two to see how they’re doing and when we might harvest.

Adrienne is filling in for the farmer’s market manager on Bainbridge Island occasionally - she’ll be there this Saturday, stop by to say hi and get some veggies from the farmers who are there!

Our farmstand (on Komedal road, just off of Seabold) is open most days. We have Dahlias and greeting cards on days when it’s open, and often also have eggs, beeswax candles (thanks, bees!), and sometimes spare veggies from the garden. Once bean, corn, and sweet potato harvests are underway, we’ll be excited to share those spoils with you as well.

Honey

Did you know that bees make honey for themselves, to get through the flower-less winters? I know, hard to believe they don’t do it for us. But bees don’t really know when to stop, which means they’ll keep producing honey even once they have enough to get themselves through the winter - that excess is what we as beekeepers harvest. What that means for us though, is that we always need to strike the balance between harvesting honey for ourselves, and leaving enough behind that the colony won’t starve before next spring. Unfortunately this year, that balance means we’re leaving most of it behind. It was a slow year and we lost several hives to pesticides early in the season. So it’s going to be a small harvest this year. But not no harvest! We’re starting to make the rounds to the hives we keep on various farms in the area to collect the frames that are full of honey, and hope to harvest in the next couple weeks. We’ll let you all know when we have honey available for sale.

Microgreens

We’re so thankful to all of you who’d been snapping up the microgreens at Bay Hay and Feed. You might have noticed they’re not for sale there right now. Unfortunately, with this hot weather, the growing space in the greenhouse is just too hot for the tender shoots, so we’re on a hiatus. We’ll be back in just a couple months as things start to cool down and excited to get back into the rhythm of weekly harvests.

Until next time! Hope everyone is enjoying their summer.