Post-Lorax Readers: Please Support This Site If You Can. Thank you!:

Wednesday, May 9, 2012

Bees & Herbs


Found an amazing website!!! http://harvesttotable.com/ Pulled this great article from it!

Bee on oregano bud
Bees in the garden are a good thing. Bees pollinate about 75 percent of all of the food crops in the world.
Many culinary herbs will attract bees to your garden. Grow herbs and you will get double-duty attracting pollinators and bringing flavorings to the kitchen. Many herbs can be harvested cut-and-come-again, leaves, flowers, and seeds. That means you can enjoy many of these herbs all season without replanting.
Herbs can be planted in an herb bed or spread out to the corners of your vegetable beds to make sure bees stop along the way to visit your vegetable crops as they move from one herb to another.
Here are several herbs that attract bees to the garden and also can be used in the kitchen.
HerbPart usedUse
AniseSeeds, leavesLicorice-like flavor for baked good, soups.
Bee BalmLeaves, fresh and driedShred leaves and petals for green salads. Use flowers in sandwiches.
BorageLeavesShred leaves for cucumber flavor in salads or sour cream.
FenugreekLeaves, fresh and dried; seedsUse leaves as a vegetable, cooked with potatoes,spinach, or rice.
Lemon balmLeaves, fresh and driedTea; lemon-mint flavor also used in cooking fish and poultry.
MintsLeaves, fresh and dried; flowers for salads and garnishesFavoring for carrots,eggplant, peas, potatoes, tomatoes, and zucchini. Use in marinade, jelly, and sauce.
Oregano and MarjoramLeaves, flower knotsUse in Italian cooking, for pasta sauces, pizza, roastedvegetables. Greek dishes: souvlaki, baked fish, Greek salad. Mexican dishes: beans dishes, salsas.
SageLeaves, fresh or dried; flowers as garnishFlavoring for meats and poultry. Good with apples,dried beans, cheese, onions, tomatoes.
Sweet BasilLeaves freshCompanion to tomatoes in salad, sauce, soup. Also with fish and seafood and roast veal and lamb.
ThymesLeaves and sprigs; flowers for garnishesWithstands long, slow cooking–stews, casseroles, soups; enhances other herbs.
Winter SavoryLeaves and sprigs; flowers for garnishes and salads.Flavoring in long-cooked meat and vegetables dishes and stuffings, often with green and fava beans.

Sunday, April 15, 2012

Getting a Box Full of Bees!



Yes.  Literally, a box full of bees.  The little package you see above is just a little bigger than one of my shoe boxes.  It's carrying about 12,000 honey bees, a can of simple syrup, and a queen bee in a little protective cage.

We weren't about to just dive right in to tackle putting these honey bees into our hive.  Oh, by the way, here's a picture of the Worcester hive in the backyard, pre-honey bee installation:



The paint came out really beautifully!  Not bad for the "Oops..." paint aisle!  Right now we're just starting our with the two deep boxes.  We've only put frames in the bottom box.  After we dump the bees, they start drawing out comb on all 10 frames, and fill the frames with honey and eggs, we'll add frames to the second deep box.

Okay, back to the box of 12,000 bees...  To prepare ourselves for what lay ahead, or buzzed ahead (Haha... yeah, lame, I know), the Worcester County Beekeepers Association was holding a series of workshops in one day on what to do when your package of bees arrives and how to install them in the hive...

A Beekeepers convention!  Some people didn't wear any gear... BOLD MOVE.

Notice most of the people without gear have moved away... far away.

Even kids are getting involved.  I think he said this girl was 8 years old!

6 Packages of Bees delivered to the hive.  6 x 12,000!  That's a heck of a lot of bees!

Then we picked up our package of bees, put them in the trunk of the car (there's no way they were going in the back seat!).  We weren't able to get it on video, but here is what we essentially did:



More or less.  (except with gloves, a hat, veil, long sleeves and rubber bands around our wrists and ankles to keep the bees from flying in, and A LOT more nervous!)...

...Tada!





That was the Worcester hive.  And then we did it again at the Princeton hive.








Phew!  Survived without a single bee sting!

Saturday, April 14, 2012

Bees on Colbert Report




It's not the funniest or the most informative, but it's still BEES on COLBERT!

Stinging Nettle Tabouleh!


It's almost nettle season again!!!  Time to go foraging for some yummy and healthy nettles!  A few words of advice: if you go foraging for nettles be sure to wear thick gloves.  Pull snip the stalk around the upper most part of the plant.  Come to the acceptance that whatever part of your body touches the plant, is going to become numb for a while.  Please don't eat nettles raw!!!  The way to take away the sting of nettles is to blanch them by boiling them and then giving them a quick ice bath.  These pictures are from last summer.



Ingredients
  • Nettles
  • Cucumber
  • Tomatoes
  • Red Onion
  • Parsley
  • Garlic
  • Tomatoes
  • Cous Cous
  • Feta Cheese (optional)