Honey Harvest
The bees have put in a lot of long hours, hot days, and millions of trips back and forth from hive to flower to make this year’s honey crop.
Jars are for sale at Bay Hay and Feed while supplies last! Our overall harvest was a little lower than last year, and that seems to be the consensus among several other beekeepers in the area. It probably has mostly to do with the dry Summer. Like all things in nature, things ebb and flow. Some years things are up, and some things are down. The way we see our role as beekeepers is to try to bother them as little as possible, and to do what we can to make sure they have an environment where they can thrive. If they are healthy and successful, we get to share in some of their bounty - but only when there is an excess. We only harvest once we feel OK that they will have enough food to make it through until next Spring.
This honey crop was also a little darker than last year. The color of the honey varies, depending on the mix of flowers the bees are visiting. You can see in this picture from this year’s county fair the range of colors of different jars from different beekeepers. We didn’t enter anything in the fair this year, but congrats to the ribbon winners!
Harvesting Sweet Potatoes
Now that the honey harvest is over, the time has come to begin excavating the sweet potatoes! It feels a little bit like a treasure hunt, or maybe digging for fossils. We try to be careful not to scratch them up or break them off in the ground when pulling them out. After digging we then let them cure for a few weeks to toughen up the skins, and sweeten up the flavor. Our hope is to sell some at Bay Hay & Feed, so be on the lookout in the coming weeks, and hopefully they will be on the shelves soon. We will post on our Instagram, bees_and_greens, when they are available.
Oyster Mushrooms
We have also been growing and selling oyster mushrooms at Bay Hay, along with our continued weekly deliveries of microgreens. Oyster mushrooms are very versatile, easy to cook, and pair well with just about anything. They are great in pasta dishes, stir fries, grilled, fried in butter, dried for soups, or on top of pizza. They are also beautiful works of art!
Fall Forage for Bees
As the season winds down, the honeybees and other pollinators are running low on food sources. Again, we make sure to leave plenty of honey for our hives to eat throughout the Winter, but as long as the days are warm the bees are still out diligently looking for flowers for fresh nectar. We planted some Buckwheat and Phacelia next to the sweet potatoes to provide some Fall food for the bees. You will probably see them visiting your oregano, thyme, or anything else flowering this time of year.
That is all for this newsletter! Thank you all for following along and supporting us this season. We’ll post again in the coming months with a recap on the season, and maybe some plans for next year. Happy Labor Day weekend!