August 10, 2012

Water and Honey!

What a difference a week can make!  We have finally gotten some rain.  Using our rain gauge here we measured a total of 1.85 inches since last Friday: compared to a total of zero rain for several weeks prior.

The repair crew have arrived and started making some starts to getting some house

and general maintenance done: painting, staining, roof and gutter repairs, fencing repairs and new gates up. 

The cows got to literally go to a greener pasture since we got the new gates in and some fencing. We have been practicing intensive grazing in their last field and it was brown by the time we moved them.  The sheep seem to be ignoring the fresh hay bale we put out for them and continue to stick their head through the fence for all the green they can find.  We will be moving them from the pond area next week.

The big news is we harvested our honey.  We purchased and set up two bee hives in April and spent most of Tuesday collecting and extracting the honey.  Gratefully Amanda only had one bee bite through her costume. (See Pictures!)  Sorry to say while we got plenty honey it will not be available for sale this year ( just for personal use) but next year with two chances a year to gather we should have some to share with our customers. 

An interesting note is that it is the fructose of the honey which makes it taste sweet.  Local honey from hives in your part of the country are said to be extremely beneficial to people with allergies and more.

Another fun moment and always a surprise was finding a praying mantis while watering the porch plants early one morning.  I think it looks a bit like ET!

As for market this week we have picked some of our Red Delicious apples, squash (Patty Pan, Raven, Costa Romanesca, Blue Hubbard and Zephyr), beets, kohlrabi, okra, green beans (Provider),  garlic, cucumbers (Marketmore and Poona Kheera), onions (Alisa Craig),  tomatoes (Peacevine, Cassady's Folly, Orange Banana, Pink Brandywine and Amish Paste) and four types of radishes.  We will try to remember some of the fresh Sunflowers this week also.  As always remember we use no chemical insecticides, herbicides or pesticides.  See you at the Athens Farmer’s Market!