My Bees Are Flying

I am so lucky.  All four of my hives are alive and thriving.

For the last eight months my bees have been left to their own bee-ish devices.  I’ve been too busy with Culinary School and professional cooking to mess with them.  I’m delighted they’ve been thriving despite my benign neglect.  I guess this happens when one lets one’s bees be bees…

A few years back when I was busy preparing for a big trial, my inattention resulted in the growth and development of what I fondly refer to as my “Mean Bee Hive”.  It’s the biggest, healthiest, and most productive hive I have! (Yes, they are a little defensive….)

The Mean Bee Hive

I still avoid messing with my Mean Bees.  I have no idea what’s going on in their lower deep, and I don’t want to know.  I suspect it’s some type of mystical and magical bee alchemy I wouldn’t understand.  I’m happy if they’re happy.

Notwithstanding the above, late winter/early spring is a precarious time for bees.  I’m going to make some Bee Fondant (Yes, that kind of Fondant!) tonight or tomorrow.

But here are a few pictures I took yesterday.  I wish these pictures showed how active my bees actually were!

Obviously, there is much cleaning and gardening to be done to pretty up the Apiary.  But right now, I’m delighted that everyone is surviving the winter!

Cooking Under Pressure – Honey Poppy Seed Vinaigrette

Thanks to my readers for welcoming me back!  I’m glad you’re interested in hearing my tales of surviving Culinary School!

One of my friends/readers asked whether I thought my -er, ahem- apparent age was what caused my instructors to be initially somewhat dismissive.

Good question! While I’m sure my age had something to do with it, it was probably more the fact that I flounced in, bejeweled, carrying a giant Louis Vuitton bag, having virtually no idea what Culinary School actually entailed. I vaguely knew that cooking was somehow involved…

I think I was temporarily deranged by grief.  I’m glad I was even admitted. However, I do believe I wasn’t expected to last more than a few weeks.

Again, this wasn’t primarily because of my age. The dropout rate for Culinary School is astonishingly high. Our summer class of close to forty, which was already small because we were summer starters, was down to twelve by the semester’s end.

This wasn’t college like I remembered it.  The attendance requirements were non-negotiable.  You showed up for every class session on time, prepared, dressed in a clean uniform, and ready to work. If you didn’t satisfactorily complete online homework assignments beforehand, you weren’t permitted to attend class.  Two absences and you were out.  People dropped like flies.

My age and job experience ended up helping me. I’m used to showing up on time and working insane hours under less than favorable conditions. I must confess that I actually like it.

But let’s go back to the uniform for a minute.  Chef’s whites – the only garment less flattering than a bee suit!

I may look like the Pillsbury Dough Boy most of the time, but the uniform is comfortable and functional.  The deep pockets of my Chef’s pants have even replaced my big Louis purse!

Well, I’ve gone on and on, and could go one even longer, but I’ll save some for later.  Instead, I’ll share one of the first recipes we prepared in class:  Honey Poppy Seed Vinaigrette.  It’s fantastic on both fruit and greens, and it’s made with honey!

Honey Poppy Seed Vinaigrette

• 1/2    cup canola oil
• 1/2    cup apple cider vinegar
• 1/3    cup honey
• 1    teaspoon fresh lemon juice
• 1 1/2    tablespoon poppy seeds
• 1    teaspoon dry mustard
• 1    pinch salt, to taste

PREPARATION

Briskly whisk all ingredients or shake in a small jar with a tightly fitting lid.

 

 

 

My Brilliant Culinary Career

I’ve been AWOL for five months now.  My sincerest apologies to all who have tried to reach me without success.  The reason is singular – my complete immersion in Culinary School.

The good news:  my bees are flourishing!!  They’ve never been healthier!!  I’m not sure whether it’s because of the idyllic summer we’ve had in Ohio or the fact that I’ve left them alone to do their own bee thing.  Maybe it’s a combination of both. In any event, they’re in the best possible shape to enter the winter season.

The bad news:  my garden is a mess!  It’s amazing how quickly things will descend into rack and ruin if neglected for even a short period of time.  My neighbors have been incredibly tolerant and understanding.  Perhaps they understand that it’s more painful for me than it is for them!

I’ll give you a flavor of what the past months have been like for me. Then I’ll go back to posting about beekeeping, gardening and cooking with honey.  With some culinary anecdotes of course!

As some of you may know, I’ve been a corporate lawyer for many years.  About five years ago, I added “writer” and “consultant” to my list of job titles.

In 2012 I added “blogger” to my list.  So how did I end up as “Culinary Student”?

Probably because the best way to motivate me is to tell me I can’t do something.  I’ve always been that way.  It’s the reason I became a lawyer.

There were other factors too. I’ve always loved to cook.  I come from a family of great cooks, both self-taught and professionally trained.  I’m one of those people who owns hundreds of cookbooks and reads them for fun.

And then my best friend died unexpectedly in April.  I was devastated. I was desperate to find something to get myself out of my head and distract me from my grief.

In any event, shortly before the summer semester started in May, I found myself enrolling in Culinary School.

In truth, I didn’t know whether I just wanted to take a few classes or do something more.  I figured taking cooking classes would be fun, keep me busy, and would help me with my writing.  Beyond that, I was clueless.

It was apparent to my instructors that I hadn’t thought the whole Culinary School thing through. I had no idea what school was like. I had no idea what I wanted to do with my training.

The Administration tactfully suggested that I might not be willing or able to handle the six hour cooking labs and other requirements of the program.  That’s when my motivation kicked in.  I immediately became sure I wanted to pursue a Culinary Arts Degree.  Hey, I might even get a Pastry Arts Degree while I was at it!

The first three weeks of school took their physical toll on me, big time.  I was in good shape when I started, but I wasn’t used to being on my feet cooking for five or six hours at a pop.  I hurt all over.  I started carrying a plastic baggie full of Advil around in the pocket of my chefs’ pants.

And then there was my age. I was older than everyone, including my instructors.  My fellow students avoided me, and I was frequently mistaken for a faculty member.

I hated it.

Then, around week four, something happened.  I got used to being on my feet for so long. I realized I was really good at professional level cooking.  I stopped caring what people thought of me.  I looked forward to my classes.  I began to think the whole Culinary School thing might work out for me after all!

One thing I never doubted was what type of food I wanted to cook.  I wanted to prepare glorious, adventurous food made from fresh local and seasonal ingredients.  That meant working at an independently owned, fine dining restaurant.

In Cincinnati, there are many exciting new fine dining restaurants in the Over the Rhine area downtown.  In June, I was lucky to find an apprentice position in one of them.  Thus began my true journey…

That’s enough for tonight, I think.  I hope I’ve left you anxious to hear more!!

I’ve missed you all, and hope you’ve missed me a little too.

More tomorrow….

Deb

 

The Five Plants Bees Love Best

This is a very popular post and many of you have requested seeds this year. I’ve restocked and will be happy to fill any and all orders!!

Romancing the Bee

Okay, I’ve accepted that all of you aren’t going to become beekeepers, despite my best efforts to persuade you to don a beesuit and pick up a smoker and a hive tool.

Some of you are allergic.  Some of you just can’t understand how I can enjoy playing with critters that sometimes sting me. Beekeeping isn’t  for everyone, and that’s okay.

So is there anything you can do to help save the bees? Absolutely!

As most of you know, bees collect nectar and pollen from plants for food. They make honey from the nectar. Pollen is their sole protein source (honey bees are vegetarians) and they use it to make food for their young.

Some plants have more nectar and pollen than others. According to  Dr. Vetaley Stashenko, an apiculturist, naturopath and apitherapist, the five top plants to support the honeybees with nectar and pollen throughout the season are Borage…

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Tips For Creating A Bee-Friendly Garden

Alys Fowler

 

Top tips for creating a bee-friendly garden this spring by TV presenter Alys Fowler

18 April 2014

Gardening writer and TV presenter Alys Fowler is offering British gardeners top tips to help our bees, as part of Friends of the Earth’s Bee Cause campaign to save vital bees that pollinate our food and make our countryside, parks and gardens thrive.

Gardeners are also being asked to help urge the Government to strengthen its plans to protect Briatain’s bee populations.

More than 20 UK bee species are already extinct and a quarter of those remaining are at risk – due mainly to their food and nesting sites disappearing, with 97% of wildflower meadows gone in the last 60 years.

Alys Fowler said:

Gardens are becoming one of the most important refuges for Britain’s wild and honey bees, providing chemical-free food, clean water and a place to nest.

The Government must strengthen its plan to protect bees and other pollinators – but gardeners have a key role to play too.

Taking steps to make your garden bee-friendly brings in other beneficial insects and wildlife too, helping your garden to find its natural balance. When the balance is right, there is no such thing as a pest problem, meaning less work for you.

In return, bees will pollinate your fruits and vegetables, giving you more strawberries, apples and tomatoes to enjoy.

Alys’ top tips for a bee-friendly garden

• Planting nectar and pollen rich flowers will help you and the pollinators.  Crimson clover (trifolium incarnatum) will please the bees and increase soil fertility through its nitrogen fixing roots.
• Lacy phacelia (phacelia tanacetifolia) is a green manure that if left to flower will bring hordes of bees. Once it has finished flowering, but before it goes to seed, you can dig it in to improve the fertility of your soil.
• Allow edible plants like coriander and rocket to flower, these are attractive to bees and once pollinated you can collect seed to sow for next year.
• Soft fruit is wonderful for bees and delicious to eat too. Take your pick from blackberries, currants and gooseberries to wineberries, blueberries and raspberries – there’s something for every garden.
• Provide a clean source of drinking water for bees. All that’s needed is a shallow bowl with a few pebbles in the middle, so the bees can rest and sip water.
• Wild bees need nesting sites, somewhere dry and warm. Make a ‘bee hotel’ by bundling together some old stems of stuff like Jerusalem artichokes or bamboo canes south west facing out of prevailing winds.

Friends of the Earth’s Executive Director, Andy Atkins said:

Green-fingered gardeners are usually green-minded too, so we hope they’ll help safeguard crucial pollinators by making their gardens bee-friendly

Avoid peat and pesticides

Friends of the Earth is also urging gardeners to avoid pesticides and peat. There are many excellent peat-free alternatives to avoid the destruction of peat bogs, which are important wildlife sites that absorb carbon pollution and reduce flood risk.

Take action

Gardeners are also being urged to sign a petition calling for the Government’s plan to reverse bee decline – the draft National Pollinator Strategy – to be considerably strengthened to tackle all the threats bees face, especially from intensive farming and pesticides: www.foe.co.uk/beespetition.

Happy Earth Day From Your Pollinating Pals

 

Bee on Borage

 

Bats Are Pollinators Too!

Gosh Darn You, Martha Stewart!

I fell in LOVE with the cover of Martha’s Easter Issue. I was positively obsessed!!

I mean, what’s not to love, right??

So, with my characteristic over-enthusiasm, I decided to recreate Her basket for my daughter’s in-law’s Easter Table. That won’t be too hard, I told myself.

Around two hundred dollars’ worth of Martha Products later, I have a reasonable facsimile of Her Easter basket, if I do say so myself. Minus the adorable lop-eared bunny, of course!

Martha may not have a warm and fuzzy personality, but She’s still one of my Pantheon of Women Goddesses. Hey, Athena wasn’t Miss Congeniality either! And who else could have had a bunch of federal prison inmates crafting?? To gild the lily, She’s an avid beekeeper too!!

She’s the tops in my book.

Have a wonderful Easter, Martha.  I was just kidding You in the title of my post.  🙂

 

Honey Lamb Cake!

I’ve spent the last 48 hours baking, frosting and decorating three Lamb Cakes for Easter.

Okay, I took a two hour break to hear Carla Hall, my personal favorite Top Chef and co-host of The Chew, speak at our local bookstore, Joseph Beth. I even got to meet her and give her a big hug! She was awesome!

 

But that’s another story… Back to the Lamb Cakes

I first encountered Easter Lamb cakes when I moved from Louisville to Cincinnati back in the 70’s.  Cincinnati has a large Eastern European population, mostly German. Lamb cakes are wildly popular in the Old Country at Easter Tide, and German immigrants brought them here in the mid 19th century.

Lamb cakes were traditionally made in heavy cast iron molds manufactured by the Griswold Manufacturing Company of Erie, Pennsylvania. They aren’t manufactured any more, but you can find them on EBay, usually at exorbitant prices.  I was lucky and got mine for cheap. It was worth the hunt!

Traditionally Easter Lamb cakes were made with honey and ground hazelnuts. Sadly, nowadays hazelnuts are usually omitted and cane sugar is used instead of honey. My recipe leaves out the nuts, but you can always include some almond flour.

I originally planned to only make one cake, but this recipe makes two large and one small cakes. It was fortuitous though because both of my neighbors wanted one!

By the way, I’m starting Culinary School in two weeks.  Wish me luck!!

Cake Ingredients

3  cups sifted cake flour, plus more for mold

1 tablespoon baking powder

3/4 teaspoon baking soda

3/4 teaspoon salt

6 ounces (3/4 cup) unsalted butter, softened, plus more for mold (I used Crisco to grease the pan)

1 1/4 cups sugar

2/3 cup honey

1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract

1 cup whole milk, room temperature

6 large egg whites, room temperature

1/4 teaspoon cream of tartar

Directions

Place rack in center of oven, and preheat oven to 350 degrees. Using a pastry brush, coat both sides of the mold with butter or Crisco, making sure to cover all areas.

Dust mold with flour, tap out excess, and freeze until ready to use.

Sift together flour, baking powder, baking soda,and salt. Cream butter and sugar with a mixer until pale and fluffy. Reduce the speed; drizzle in honey. Beat on high until very pale and fluffy. Add vanilla.

Add flour mixture, alternating with milk, beginning and ending with flour. Transfer batter to a large bowl. Beat egg whites until foamy. Add cream of tartar, and beat until stiff, glossy peaks form. Fold 1/3 of the egg white mixture into cake batter, then fold in the remaining whites.

Pour batter into the “face” side of the mold.  Place  toothpicks or bamboo skewers in the batter to provide support for the head, ears and neck.  Place the other side of the mold on top.  Place on a baking sheet.

Bake for 20 minutes and turn the mold over.  Bake for another 20 minutes. Transfer mold to a wire rack.  After 15 minutes remove the top side of the mold.  After another 15 minutes or so, carefully remove the cake from the other side of the mold. Let cool completely. Wrap in plastic wrap, and refrigerate for at least 1 hour (or up to 1 day).

Honey Buttercream Frosting

1 cup unsalted butter, at room temperature
1/3 cup honey plus 2 TBSP
4-5 cups powdered sugar
milk as  needed for thinning out frosting

In a stand mixer using the paddle attachment, cream together the butter and the honey for 2 minutes.  Add 2 cups of the powdered sugar .
Start on low speed on the mixer, beat until smooth and creamy, about 3-5 minutes.
Gradually add the remaining sugar, 1 cup at a time, beating well after each addition (about 2 minutes), until the icing is thick enough to be of good spreading consistency.
Use milk to thin out frosting to reach desired consistency.

Tips for Success

1. Grease your lamb pan.  Then grease it some more.

2. Flouring your pan is MUST!

3. Fill your lamb on the “face” side of the mold.

4. Add structural support (e.g. toothpicks and/or bamboo skewers) to your lamb cake before it is baked.

5. Tie your lamb cake mold shut with baker’s twine.

6. Bake cake for the maximum amount of time called for in the recipe.

7. Cool cake properly before removing from mold.

8. Loosen edges on the face side completely before trying to de-pan your lamb.

9. Let your lamb cool completely before trying to frost it.

10. Give your lamb a good base (frosting on plate) to sit on.

Happy Easter To All!!

Telling The Bees

This is an earlier post which gives some background on the tradition of “telling the bees.”

Until the late 19th century, beekeeping was almost exclusively a family affair.  It was common for households to keep at least two or three hives, and bees were considered valuable members of the family.

It was a common belief that bees could understand what was said and done around them, and they were often treated as having human emotions. As a result, families were careful to inform the bees of important  family events such as marriages, births and deaths. This custom became known as  “telling the bees.”

“Telling the bees” was done in various ways,  including tapping the hive with a key, whispering the news to the bees, and leaving an appropriate gift – a piece of wedding cake or some other refreshment – at the entrance of the hive. It was also customary to drape the hives with black crepe or wool.

It was feared that if the bees were not properly informed, they would die or desert the family. This custom was so prevalent that it was celebrated in 19th century literature and art.

British artist Charles Napier Hemy painted the poignant Telling The Bees.

Telling the Bees

American Transcendentalist poet John Greenleaf Whittier wrote a poem of the same name.

Telling The Bees

Here is the place; right over the hill
Runs the path I took;
You can see the gap in the old wall still,
And the stepping-stones in the shallow brook.

There is the house, with the gate red-barred,
And the poplars tall;
And the barn’s brown length, and the cattle-yard,
And the white horns tossing above the wall.

There are the beehives ranged in the sun;
And down by the brink
Of the brook are her poor flowers, weed-o’errun,
Pansy and daffodil, rose and pink.

A year has gone, as the tortoise goes,
Heavy and slow;
And the same rose blows, and the same sun glows,
And the same brook sings of a year ago.

There ‘s the same sweet clover-smell in the breeze;
And the June sun warm
Tangles his wings of fire in the trees,
Setting, as then, over Fernside farm.

I mind me how with a lover’s care
From my Sunday coat
I brushed off the burrs, and smoothed my hair,
And cooled at the brookside my brow and throat.

Since we parted, a month had passed,–
To love, a year;
Down through the beeches I looked at last
On the little red gate and the well-sweep near.

I can see it all now,–the slantwise rain
Of light through the leaves,
The sundown’s blaze on her window-pane,
The bloom of her roses under the eaves.

Just the same as a month before,–
The house and the trees,
The barn’s brown gable, the vine by the door,–
Nothing changed but the hives of bees.

Before them, under the garden wall,
Forward and back,
Went drearily singing the chore-girl small,
Draping each hive with a shred of black.

Trembling, I listened: the summer sun
Had the chill of snow;
For I knew she was telling the bees of one
Gone on the journey we all must go!

Then I said to myself, “My Mary weeps
For the dead to-day:
Haply her blind old grandsire sleeps
The fret and the pain of his age away.”

But her dog whined low; on the doorway sill,
With his cane to his chin,
The old man sat; and the chore-girl still
Sung to the bees stealing out and in.

And the song she was singing ever since
In my ear sounds on:–
“Stay at home, pretty bees, fly not hence!
Mistress Mary is dead and gone!”

Many modern beekeepers will understand their ancestors’ desire to treat their winged charges with love and respect.  I know I’ve started talking to my bees. They seem to like it.

 

The Archbishop Of Canterbury Talked To Bees

Reprinted courtesy of  The Telegraph

Archbishop of Canterbury: I talked to the bees about my day at school and pretty girls

The Most Rev Justin Welby has disclosed how he would talk to the bees about his innermost secrets growing up, as the bees “were reasonably confidential”

The Archbishop of Canterbury Justin Welby in the gardens at Lambeth Palace Photo: HEATHCLIFF O’MALLEY FOR THE TELEGRAPH

By Hannah Furness, Arts Correspondent

7:30AM BST 13 Apr 2014

The Prince of Wales once told how he liked to unburden himself to his plants. Now, the Archbishop of Canterbury has disclosed that he too, is not averse to conversing with nature.

In the case of the Most Rev Justin Welby, though, it was not flowers and shrubs, but bees in whom he would confide his innermost secrets.

The cleric has told how he became interested in beekeeping as a child through his grandmother, and would use the time when he was tending to their hives to talk to them.

He added that he started off by telling them about his day at school, but that as he grew older, he moved on to more mature preoccupations – the birds and the bees.

Interviewed as part of a new BBC programme, The Wonder of Bees, he said he used to talk about the “pretty girls” he had encountered, adding: “The bees knew more than anyone else.”

The Archbishop said his grandmother had introduced him to Rudyard Kipling’s encouragement to “tell bees the news”, from his poem, The Bee-Boy’s Song, and had embraced it.

“I assume they were reasonably confidential,” he added.

The Archbishop will appear in the second of four programmes presented by Martha Kearney as part of her new series beginning tomorrow . In it, the broadcaster will explore the science and history of beekeeping.

At one point, she will visit Lambeth Palace, which is currently home to six beehives, to the “delight” of its incumbent. In the programme, due to be broadcast on BBC Four on April 21, the Archbishop said: “My grandmother took to keeping bees and grew up with the information from the beekeepers that you must always tell the bees all the news.

“It’s in Kipling. So we had to tell them, she took me down and I’d say how school had been and what I was doing.

“And then as I grew up and, ‘I got a boat’, and ‘there’s this pretty girl here’ and that sort of stuff.”

When asked by Kearney whether the bees knew “all his secrets first”, he added: “The bees knew more than anybody else. I assume they were reasonably confidential.”

He also discussed the significance of bees in Christian thinking, where hives are used in religious art to symbolise people living harmoniously together in a monastery.

“Clearly the people who picked up on those had never lived in a monastery,” he said.

“Religious community life was, and to this day remains, not always that easy but then I suppose hives aren’t always as harmonious as we like to imagine.”

Reflecting on the symbolic use of bees in religion, he went on: “The ancient legend was that they were the only creature to escape untainted from the Garden of Eden so they were particularly innocent.

“The great preachers in the era of the eastern Roman Empire, Constantinople, would be referred to as ’honey tongued preachers’ and it was a sense of smooth and sweet and with words that carried real conviction and power and life changing impact.”

The remainder of the Wonder of Bees series will see Kearney working on her own beehives, in the hopes of producing honey to sell.

Programmes will also see her try to combat disease in the hive, visit scientists putting bees in tiny ’straitjackets’ to demonstrate the damaging effect of chemicals and filming the “waggle dance” that helps the insects communicate.

The Wonder of Bees is part of BBC Four’s spring season, intended to explore the nation’s “deep relationship with nature and our inimitable love of gardens”.