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.

Hot Bed

When we demolished the shed we saved as much wood as we could ( don't like to see any waste!) with the intention of making cold frames and raised beds . During the prolonged cold spring we made  a start.

The sides were made from old walls - easy enough to cut to size and the sides of the cold frames just cut through at the angle we wanted the cold frame cover to be.

The covers were simple frames that we covered with reinforced polythene kindly donated by Rob as a by- product of the building of Cordwood . www.sustainablegarden.blogspot.co.uk

April 2013

With what was left we made a " hot bed" - the sides about 2 feet high and filled with a mixture of manure, leaf mould and compost. The idea is to generate heat from below as the contents rot down and the plants get a good boost. We set seed in this bed - salad leaves, herbs, salad onions and beetroot and the results have been great, we have been picking leaves and herbs for nearly a month with plenty more to come.

Hot bed   - April 2013

The cold frames have really helped us get tomatoes, courgettes, squash and other tender plants off to an early start . The other cold frame we have used to plant up squash to see if it helps bring fruiting on earlier; one of the problems we have always had is the short growing and ripening season for squash.So in this bed we have put - Crown Prince, Golden Hubbard and Musquee de Provence, and because they are in a frame I have been checking for female flowers and giving them a helping hand to pollinate- just in case the bees don't find them!

May Sunshine

I know it's a long time since I last (I want to say set pen to paper! ) wrote an entry on the blog, but we haven't been idle in the allotment or garden. The first of May is officially the beginning of summer and the weather rose to the occasion- lovely and sunny although a slightly chilly breeze. After such a cold start to spring I reckon the gardens are about 3 to 4 weeks behind last year. The weather has been so cold there have been hardly any flying insects to pollinate the plants so it's just as well they weren't out sooner.
Our new cordon fruit trees are just beginning to shoot and in the garden the greengages and cherry are flowering; and luckily we seem to have an influx of pollinators -a mixture of bumble bees, solitary bees and other flying insects. This year of course we have no hives in the garden but still have seen some honey bees.

The spring time is my favourite season in the garden, I love to see the fresh new growth and early flowers. This year we are rejuvenating a couple of areas in the garden and have made some changes in the allotment, of which I am aiming to get up to date with soon on the blog! 

February Orchids in Flower

Orchids in flower this month in the house!

Dendrobium kingianum

Maxillaria picta - fantastic fragrance

Coelogyne ochracea

Cordon Fruit Trees

For Christmas this year we bought ourselves fruit trees- last year at the Southwell Apple Day we had been tempted by two apple trees, so it seemed a good idea to add some pears as well and build a frame work to grow them as cordons. The frame is simply made with fence posts with wire at 2 foot heights .

Cordons are grown at a 45 degree angle and the spurs are kept pruned so the trees only fruit on these short   spurs along the trunk. If possible the tree should face north or east to encourage the short spurs to turn to the sun, so obviously tip fruiting trees are unsuitable as each year the growing tips will be removed. Pruning is carried out in August time, the spurs are cut back to either 2 buds- or about 4 inches long. The growing tip is rubbed out when the tree is between 6-8 ft and kept this height.

The trees are supported by bamboo canes at about 3 feet apart. The pears we got were bare rooted so we put them in straight away, but the apple have been in containers so these will go in during the next week or so .

The pears are on Quince C root stock and the apples on M9- we choose Beurre Hardy and Concorde pears- these give different fruiting qualities, will help to pollinate each other and spread out the harvesting time.The apples are Pixie- a small fruited apple but with a good flavour and Reinette d'Orleans - a heritage variety that has a russet look to it, apparently it can be variable fruiting but the flavour was great so we thought it would be worth a try.

'Chitting' Potatoes

A couple of weeks ago we collected our order of potatoes for this year- usually we plant them on Good Friday which this year is the 29th March, quite early in the growing season so we shall have to see how things progress. However the process of 'chitting' the seed potatoes has started- they have been placed in old egg boxes with the best looking 'eyes' or potential shoots facing upwards to the light. We put them out of the way in the spare room so it is cool but getting the light. Gradually green shoots develop and begin to grow until they are ready to plant out

Although there had been rumours of poor quality or scarce seed potatoes for this spring ours seem fine; we have gone for old favourites:

International Kidney- a lovely new potato that we have found develops good sized tubers if left in for longer and is great for jackets.

Kestrel-  a good all rounder

Charlotte- a waxy salad potato that has stored well for us.

Cara- we have not tried Cara before, but last year blight was such a problem that this variety that claims some resistance seemed to worth a go.

Things to do with wax

This year we have for the first time used a home made solar extractor to melt down wax to show - May 2012 - we were successful in getting good clean wax that only needed filtering and setting in moulds , it smelt and looked great. We weren't just biased because we won the wax categories at our local honey show and the Moorgreen Show this year. It was a lovely surprise to find that a trophy went along with this success!

I love the smell and feel of the blocks of wax and have used it to ease sticking wooden drawers - but it takes a lot more skill to make things like cosmetics or polish with the wax. Not surprisingly it also involves some legislation if these products are to be sold or used by other people- so this area takes some dedication. We have only dabbled in using wax for obvious things like candles, wax blocks and like other bee-keepers cleaning up wax in order to swap it for new foundation.

Christmas Cards

This year at the December meeting of  NBKA, Linda Jordan generously handed out Christmas themed moulds of wax- these gave an idea for another craft idea- Christmas cards. These are simply double mounted on card with a loop which enables the decoration to be removed and hung on the Christmas tree!

Fudge and Florentines

It is always good to receive hand made presents so this Christmas we began to think of treats to make - we love chocolate and we have honey so it is logical to think of combining the two. This recipe for Florentines adapted from  Nigella Lawson was delicious -

Honey  and Almond Florentines

100 grams flaked almonds
1 tsp. chopped peel
2 tbsp. butter
3 tbsp. sugar
3 tbsp. honey
2 tbsp. plain flour
150 ml. double cream
100 grams dark chocolate

1. In a heavy pan, melt the butter, sugar, and honey until smooth. Stir in the flour to form a paste, then remove from heat and whisk in the cream. Once the mixture is smooth, stir in the almonds and lemon peel.

 
2. Drop heaped tablespoons on the mixture on a baking sheet lined with greaseproof, leaving lots of room between them as they will spread. Bake at 190 C  for about 5-8 minutes, or until golden on the edges. Leave to cool for a few minutes before lifting, gently, with a palette knife onto another tray to cool fully. 

3. Once the florentines are cool, melt the dark chocolate then spread the chocolate on to one side or dip half of the biscuits in to the chocolate. Allow to set before serving.

Needless to say these did not last long and we made a few batches for Christmas!

Another recipe adapted from Nigella was for fudge- not true fudge but delicious and easy to make.

Chocolate and .......Fudge

350gm dark chocolate

1 tin ( 375gm) condensed milk

30 gm butter 

pinch of salt

150gm of flavourings

Melt the chocolate, condensed milk , butter and salt in a heavy saucepan until melted together.

Add flavouring of your choice- we tried cranberry and chopped macadamia nuts, sour cherries, and crystallised ginger ( in different batches) .

Pour in to a 23cm square tray lined with foil ( makes it easier to lift out) and leave to set in the fridge. 

Cut into mouth sized pieces.

The fudge needs to be kept in the fridge, but I made bigger batches and froze some as well so it was easy to make up gift bags - cellophane bags tied with ribbon and a tag- these made ideal gifts for Christmas.

Winter Wonderland!

It's funny how a fall of snow makes such a difference to the landscape- it all looks very pristine and clean out there. We have had a few days of snow- laying deep and crisp today it was an obvious invitation to get out there. Most weeks since the bees have moved to Woodborough we have walked over the fields to check them out. After an initial plod on the roads it is a lovely walk down the fields with a view towards the Trent valley in the distance. A bit misty to start with today but it soon cleared and the walk back was cloudy but better visibility.

We had great views of  flocks of field-fare, a green woodpecker, sparrow-hawk as well as the usual corvids and wood pigeons. These Jacobs sheep are always in the field at the bottom of the hill - today they were just standing in a line and were still there on the way back!

The beehives looked fine, last time we had been we hefted the hives to see how heavy they were- the 2 that had always been small colonies were still light but the others felt reasonable. Today we just wanted to check the entrances weren't blocked with snow and everything appeared fine- its impossible to know what's happening inside .We just have to hope they have enough stores and are not too cold to move to them.

Sometimes in snowy weather bees think it is bright outside because of the glare on the snow and come outside only to get too cold to get back inside- there were a couple of bees in the snow but no more and all the entrances were clear, so things are looking as well as they could be for now!