There was a lot of activity at the farm this weekend. Pappy the beekeeper decided to start taking some of the honey off the beehives on Friday. Turns out the bees had a wonderfully prolific Spring harvest and we now have a good amount of honey back in stock. In fact, Pappy was so pleased with the honey harvest that he has decided to include 8oz of honey for every member in the CSA shares this week! Here is a picture of Pappy and two of his Grandsons helping him take the honey boxes called “supers” off of the top of the hives.
They only took half of the supers off this weekend and next weekend they will take the other half. The supers are filled with individual frames of honey. The frames are placed in a stainless drum and spun at a high rate of speed. The honey is extracted out of the frames and drains down into a filtration system. After the filtration to take out the bits of wax, etc the honey is bottled up for you! Here is another picture of the honey coming out of the extractor.
While the beekeepers were tending to the honey, we were busy getting some of the Spring crops out of the field, preparing ground for Fall crops, and harvesting Summer crops. We are in the thick of it now!
After last week’s mega share, we are in just a slight holding pattern till tomatoes, beans, and sweet corn make their anticipated arrivals! This week’s share will include:
8 oz of Pappy’s Bees Honey
Cucumbers
Zucchini
Lettuce
Hakurei Turnips
Cabbage
Carrots
Kale/Swiss Chard – choice
Herbs & Flowers – Zinnias have started blooming now! Also, pick some of the edible nasturtium flowers to really add some pizzazz to a salad or other dish!