Each year, about this time, we get to harvest our honey. Since we raise and breed queens, we don't have as much honey as other beekeepers (you'll have to read "The Master's" blog to find out why: http://www.basicbeekeeping.blogspot.com/) so we get excited at even the littlest bit we get.
We started out with a huge problem this year though. Someone earlier in the week had used the extracting equipment a few days prior, and made the honest, but crucial mistake of keeping doors open, and having dripped honey everywhere so that a bazillion bees got into the honey extracting room. It took days to get the bees out of the honey room so that we could get in there and extract for ourselves. (Note to all beekeepers getting ready to extract: keep lids on your supers, keep lids on your buckets, get in and out quick, and keep windows and doors shut behind you.) It was one hilarious mess.
But we finally extracted our own liquid gold. I love to see it in the bottles, all lined up on the shelves. It sells itself. When people look at it, they start drooling and will pay (almost) any amount of money for the stuff.
Here's but a few of the 100's of my favorite things to do with honey:
Wheat Bread
1 egg ( of course, mine from my own chickens)
1/4 c honey
1 cup milk
1/2 stick butter
1/2 tsp salt
into the bottom of the bread machine ~
then add:
2 cups wheat flour (freshly ground)
2 cups white flour
2 tsp yeast
Steak marinade:
1 cup honey
1 juice of lemon
1/2 cup each of vinegar, oil or bottled dressing
1/2 cup ketchup
Mix in baggie, add meat and let marinade up to 24 hours before grilling
Chicken Seasoning:
Take chicken breast and dredge in honey (instead of traditional egg/milk)
Then roll in breading mixture (boxed or homemade).
Fry or bake as usual
No comments:
Post a Comment