Beehive Maintenance

The hives, like us, are snowed in! Our friends came along to the farm to help us dig them out. I like to keep the entrances clear for ventilation and the all important 'cleansing flights' (bees don't go to the bathroom until it's warm enough to do so outside.) Each of my hives is set up on a screened bottom board in an attempt to control varroa mites. Other then blocking the entrances, snow is actually a positive asset, as it's a great insulator in these cold temperatures.

Here we are pulling in all our gear through the blizzard:

Ernie waited for us so patiently, tethered to a plow. Adam and Christine who own Blue Heron Farm have recently experienced (yet another) dog attack on their organic chicken flock, so we made sure our friends kept their guy tied tight.

Shoveling and listening to the hives. Some were definitely abuzz, but others were harder to hear. I actually don't hear very well, so when I don't hear anything, I don't lose all hope.

Cleaning the entrances and removing the dead bees, below. Each of these hives went into the Fall with  a metal mouse guard, in order to prevent critters from nesting inside. Now that the snow has fallen and everybody has found a spot, the bees are better off with a fully exposed entrance. We did find one mouse guard about 4 feet away from the hive, so we'll see if the bees are hosting any guests in the Spring. This same hive did have a mouse nest last year, but bounced back nicely - what a mess to clean up!

and, here JP is drilling a ventilation hole into one of the hive boxes. Okay, should have been done long ago, but better late than never. Bees can actually maintain really well in low temperatures, but cannot tolerate moisture. Zero ventilation will allow ice to develop, which is a death sentence. I used to just visit the hives around this time and prop the outer cover open with rocks to allow the moisture to escape, but that's a bit risky with animals and wind that could knock the cover off completely.

Now that the hives are shoveled and ventilated it's easy to see how uneven they've become from frost heaves. While this is concerning, it's got nothing on what mud season holds in store. The hives will sink and teeter, and it's pretty scary all around, but that's the deal with the the wet clay on our island.

Happy New Year, Happy Birthday, AND an Honorable Mention! (with recipes...)

Every New Year's Eve (that we can) my friends and I gather for a lingering dinner party and overnight.  Each couple prepares a course to serve, and often times we play parlor games while we wait for whatever's coming next. You know - paper and colored pencils, 60 seconds to draw a combination of whatever 2 animals you pull from a hat, like Rooster/Lobster or Iguana Pig. Lots of fun, especially when you can't draw, as your mind will take over whenever there's a time limit involved, as though your life depends on it. But your life doesn't actually depend on it, unless you're laughing so hard you choke on your food.

This year my course was a savory sorbet, served  in between Gillian's Fried Oyster Salad and Katie's Try, Try Again Cheese Fondue. JP, who always has to work out of town at the most inconvenient times wasn't around to help me work the ice cream maker (which is really the only appliance he has mastered) so while my Carrot-Apple-Lemon sorbet tasted fantastic, the texture was a bit crumbly. Nobody Cared.

The recipe was rather simple - I juiced about 2 cups of carrot juice with 1/6 of an unpeeled lemon and 1/2 an apple. I boiled it on the stovetop with 1/2 cup of sugar (I was too unsure to leave it out) for 2 minutes and then refrigerated the mixture for a couple of hours. I then strained it and processed it in the ice cream maker and put it in the freezer. Pretty easy! Cleaning up the juicer was the worst part, as usual. I'd like to try it again with no sugar at all, or maybe agave syrup.

I also brought roasted garlic, homemade seed bread from Healthy Bread in 5 Minutes a Day , as well as pickled beets, preserved apple chutney, and bread and butter pickles all from my garden. These were a big hit. Sadly, the beets are now gone, but I have a 4 x 8 bed of Chioggias in the hoophouse right now that I think I should harvest and pickle, as the tops did not withstand the latest cold snap.

New Year's Eve is also my sister's birthday, and last night was a big one. She turned 40! And while "40 is the new 20" to many, she pointed out that she herself is not Courtney Cox, and 40 feels a bit different to her. Touche! Here is the Peanut Butter Chocolate Cake I made her:

I decided to make it just before I went to work in the morning, and used a quick recipe I found this summer; Easy Dark Chocolate Cake . For the frosting, I used a hand mixer to beat a package of cream cheese, a few heaping spoonfuls (3/4 cup-ish) of Marantha No-Stir Organic Peanut Butter (simply life changing,) and about 1/2 cup of whipping cream. After they were well combined, I beat in about 1 1/2 cups of confectioner's sugar. The other recipes I saw online didn't have the whipping cream, but I thought it made a huge difference. I also noticed that they had extreme differences in the sugar content, but I found the 1 1/2 cups to be on the sweet side (one recipe called for 5 cups!) So, taste as you go... And my sister doesn't like bananas, but I think this cake is screaming for them!

Here is a picture of my friend Katie 'cooking.' She brought a girlish apron, and her cookbook is a blackberry, but even she considers it just a costume. Her cheese fondue is always a "keep'em guessing"theme, and we all love it - can't wait for next year!

and, a tragedy - Gillian's $20 FryBaby deep fried it's own lid, Oops! At least the oysters were safe...

Lastly, I was so happy to wake up this morning and find out that I won an honorable mention for my entry into  Mary Ann of Gardens of the Wild, Wild West 'Why I Garden' Essay Contest  -

Thanks Mary Ann! You can read the winning entries here...

Happy New Year!

Scenes from a Dusky Winter Garden

The bees are still quietly buzzing...

the scallions are finally finished...

rain, snow, ice, rain, and more ice, all melting, melting, melting...

and some Holiday Cheer from the coop...

Why I Garden (Essay Contest)

Mary Ann from Gardens of the Wild Wild West has put forth this essay contest  to encourage garden bloggers to tell each other (in 500 words or less) what motivates them to grow (kill, and grow again.) I, Jennifer, of the Puritan North, submit my entry:

I garden for many reasons, some fairly common and some a bit less considered. Although I grew up gardening and have given it at least some effort each spring of my adult life, I've only had true success over the past 3 years. Beforehand, I led a complicated life of a traveling 'art show artist,' selling my photography at juried festivals nationwide. This allowed me long van rides across the United States, deep in daydreams of growing my own vegetables in between stops at what I called the 'iceberg lettuce stores.' The lack of variety available across the country stunned me; was no one demanding fresh vegetables and um, flavor? My only consolation was to imagine that people who wanted more were simply growing it at home, and that if I wanted what they had, I needed to figure out how to garden in my van. Herbs, peppers, and some greens worked well in pots, as long as I could air them out in between trips at campgrounds. But during heat waves none of us were happy, and I had a bad habit of sleeping in parking lots where no one was allowed outside (house rules.) Something had to give.

I suppose it merits mentioning that throughout this adventure I also had a husband, entangled in his own traveling career. Our relationship has always been a real success, but our home life was becoming a bit unkempt. We acknowledged our failures and looked for a creative solution, which I insisted had to include growing some vegetables. Our first thought was to sell our house and move into the van full time with the peppers, herbs, and very wilted greens. Sometimes we can be so thick. In fact, this realization of stupidity in itself is the crux of why I garden; plants are the best lesson in 'keep it simple.'

I often look to plants when I'm trying to figure out a better way. As we renovate our house and try to make energy efficient decisions, plants have been a great lesson in solar energy. I think about them when I build things that need both stability and beauty. I appreciate what I'm able to learn when I realize that I alone am responsible for taking plants into an extended season; there are actions I can take that they will respond to, and those actions have parallels in my own life and work. These ideas may seem so small, but as an artist I can get really lost in the specifics of things without ever considering the bigger picture. Gardening makes me value simplicity above all else. No more gilding the lily. No more sleeping in parking lots, either. Now we grow a great deal of our own food, have a winter greenhouse, have planted a small orchard, and have a weekly food swap with friends. Now we grow plants just to watch them grow.

The contest is still open! Mary Ann is receiving entries until the Winter Solstice, 8:37 a.m. mountain time, December 21.