Wednesday, November 30, 2016

Dandelions and Honey

While working with the bees this summer, I suddenly remembered  I was given a Golden Dandelion Jelly recipe years ago. I had good intentions at the time to make it, but like a lot of things...it never happened. This was going to be the year I finally make it.  I decided I would make it with some of our very own honey instead of sugar.
I could hardly wait to go home and pick the last of the dandelions and try a batch. I dug out my recipe box and after some time finally found the tattered old card. It required a quart of dandelion flowers. After picking them I sat down and researched if I could substitute honey for sugar in canning. From everything I read I could but it was recommended that I could replace about half the sugar with honey. So that's what I did.
Although a lot of work, it was well worth it. It has a beautiful golden color and the taste...well its quite incredible. When you first put it in your mouth, you can definitely taste the honey, then you can taste citrus and right at the end, a nice grassy note.
Below is the recipe.



Golden Dandelion Honey Jelly
Snip off the stems and green collars of the flowers. Rinse one quart of blossoms in cold water. Put one quart of water and the rinsed blossoms in a pot and boil for 3 minutes. Let cool. When cool, strain and press pedals with fingers to extract 3 cups of juice.
Add 2 tablespoon of lemon juice, and a box of pectin (1 3/4 oz).  Bring to boil in a jelly kettle. Add   2 3/4 cups of sugar and 2 3/4 cups of honey. Stir well and let boil for 3 minutes. Pour into sterilized jars and seal.



Although the bees that made the honey for this recipe are now gone, we can now enjoy the fruits of their labor all winter..


Tuesday, November 29, 2016

Winter Ramblings...part 1

I knew I couldn't go very long without finding something to chat about. Winter can last a while in Northern BC and that's a very long time to go without chatting about my bees.
Well since its official and winter has set in now, the bees are tucked inside their warm hives and only wander out briefly. So there is nothing much to report.
Below is a picture of what winter looks like this time of year here in the Robson Valley

Winter at the Motel


Fraser River



First snow in the bee yard


Next time, I will be sharing a recipe of mine, using Dandelions and Honey.






Its suppose to be winter

Well here it is November 9th and the past two days have been rather balmy. So balmy in fact, the bees decided it was nice enough to come outside during the afternoon. Yesterday was warmer than today but both days brought sunshine and warm temperatures.
I shot this little video to record the bees activity during this unusually warm days.
You can really tell we are still newbees, yesterday James found a bee sitting on his truck, it was later in the afternoon and it had started to cool down some, so he picked it up and carried it back to the bee yard. This morning we rescued one that fell in our little ditch full of water...we are a sappy couple when it comes to the bees.

I have decided that during the winter I will be posting recipes, using our honey and maybe even talk about bee books I have been checking out.
Until then...cheers