The Bees Are Back...

What a whirl-wind day! Yesterday my friend, an experienced bee keeper and my bee mentor, urged me to get my vacant hives in order as there are swarms to be had at the moment. So I spent some time scraping and prepping hives, mixing up sugar water, mentally plotting where I might like to relocate the hives this year should a swarm come my way and lazily dreaming of all those pollinators helping my garden and landscaping as well as the honey I'd like to have this fall. Today my friend came over, blowtorch in hand, to help me finish the cleaning and gave me the heads up that I should be ready for "the call" in a day or two. No problem, I'll set these babies up tonight (or tomorrow morning) and be good to go should "the call" come over the weekend. Naturally, no sooner than my friend left and I was settled into a line at the grocery store did I get "THE CALL". Wait! What?! Now??!! I drove home (mentally tallying all that still needed to be done), made a few frantic calls to my husband looking for hive location approval and to my friend to let her know I was on my way home. Once I got home I set to work setting up hive boxes in a new spot in our yard, pounding holes in the lids of their sugar water to drip feed these ladies, and most importantly -- finding my bee suit and vail because there was no way I was working a swarm without a good layer of protection between those stingers and my skin. Soon, my friend and the bee guy showed up and got busy right away pouring 35,000 bees into one of my hives. I have to say that it never is lost on me the sheer awesomeness of this process. The "save the bees" shirt my friend was wearing really says it all for me. At first my interest in bees was completely selfish, it was all about that home grown honey. But now, two years in, the honey really is secondary. The realization that I am doing a small part to improve honeybee populations, as well as strengthening my garden is really what moves me to continue with bee keeping.

Lime Curd

A while back I mentioned that I had a cache of limes waiting to be used. I finally got around to turning them into one of our favorite condiments -- curd. This year I've been experimenting with Meyer Lemon Curd, Orange Vanilla Curd and today that bowl full of limes got their turn. I love the recipes by Marisa McClellan of Food in Jars, her curds are the perfect blend of tart and creamy without being too lip pucker-y. It was timely that I had that bowl of limes and some overstock of eggs that needed to be used. Though I fear that my pictures do not really do justice to the final product. Since we let our chickens graze on greens all day they produce eggs with the most beautifully vibrant orange yolks, though beautiful and tasty they can tend to skew the color of baked goods. So, though my curd is tastes of lime it looks much more like that of an orange curd. That's what the cute labels are for though, right?

Keeping It Real...

Lest everyone think it's always peaches and pie around here, I'll dispel that right here and right now. The long and short of it all is that my lovely chicken's have dug up, eaten, and decapitated all that I have spent the last few weeks planting in our backyard garden. All those peas... gone, lettuce sprouts... gone, radish starts... gone, and the poor arugula didn't stand a chance to their prolific digging. The last few beets from fall have had all their lovely crimson leaves methodically munched, the mint and dill I had started with hopes of mojito afternoons and herb fortified salads this summer were dug up and left for dead. I did replant both the latter with care in great hopes they will find a way to resurrect themselves, fingers crossed. Oh yes, I may have uttered a very long string of choice words under my breath as I discovered the full extent of their carnage this weekend. This was the first year I actually planned and plotted what, how, and when to plant in our little garden. I drafted a site plan on graph paper, researched optimal times for planting each and every type of seed I intended to grow, and had even managed to plan and execute some succession planting as to extend the season of some of our favorite items. Best laid plans... I have started replanting lettuce, peas and radishes, nursed that very droopy mint plant back to health (she looked much perkier today), and by sheer luck was just today offered two kale starts by a friend so I planted them with care in the arugula patch that is no more. And just because we loved that key lime tart so much the first time around, I made another one Sunday afternoon. I mean if you are going to spend a day replanting, you might as well end the day enjoying a slice (or two) of something tasty.

Spring Is Near...

I feel it in the air, don't you? The way that bone crushing chill has lost it's bite, the way the sun is sticking around just a bit longer each day nudging the chickens to start laying eggs again, and especially they way all these green beauties are popping up all over the place. All of the above very welcome by me right now, I mean layering the long johns just to take my children to and from school was getting a bit old as was feeding and caring our flock of hens just to go and purchase eggs elsewhere. I am starting to dream and plan for some spring planting of peas, greens, tomatoes and carrots. Now I'm off to start reading seed catalogs and sketching this spring's garden plans...