Beekeeping

On a recent visit to Attingham Park near Shrewsbury we came upon this old way of keeping bees in this bee house- the bees are in Skeps- a traditional woven basket - originally the colony would have been destroyed to collect honey at the end of the season, but here the beekeepers are trying a method using removable combs!


After a slow start to the bee honey bee season here in Notts things don't seem so bad- although I have no bees of my own this year I have been going to the apiary at Woodthorpe Park - things have been more settled than last year and it looks as if there will be a reasonable crop of honey from these urban bees. My injections are going well- no real reactions - so looking good to return to beekeeping in the future.
The bees I passed on are building up well, which is good to hear, this is the photo I took of the yellow queen in that colony before they went to their new home- she is not too clear but you can see the yellow dot that marks her as last year's queen!

In the field of opportunity.......

It's harvest time again!

The strawberry bed yielded a great crop this year - enough for jam and picking for a good 6 weeks with the odd everbearer still giving a few.

Still struggling to find a good setting strawberry jam but used redcurrant juice as last time and a very gentle set- but still lovely with croissants or on scones!

The cherry produced over 7 kilos of fruit- so a mass freezing, sore fingers from stoning and a search for new recipes- clafoutis always a favourite but cherry and almond pudding and hot cherries with cherry brandy and spices was lovely too.

We have had great success with broad beans, french beans are just beginning but onions only mediocre and garlic pretty pathetic again this year.
Potatoes so far- Internation Kidney and Charlotte good yields but Kestral huge potatoes and a good weight - hope these store well for jackets in the winter!

I made Elderflower Cordial again this year , and rather than waste the lemons and limes decided to try marmalade with them after the soaking and draining- what a success- I used a basic recipe and was slightly worried that because all the fruit was there it would produce a bitter result, but I pulped all the fruit in the blender and used that as the starting point, cooking the fruit with water then adding the sugar and boilling until setting point was reached.