Stasia's Place Of Grace

Friday, October 11, 2002

 

The Bountiful Harvest

I grew something! These are black eyed peas from my garden. No, not all of them - there are a few more pods, maybe about a cup in all. But I finally grew something in my garden!

I like to make a concoction I call BEPPO - it is Black Eyed Peas, green chile Peppers, and Okra, with rice. I throw it all in a pot and just kind of make it up as I go along, and it tastes great. If memory serves, it is similar to something called Hoppin' John which is served at New Years - I believe it is an African-American tradition from slave times...?

So I will save my single serving of peas until New Years and remember my garden during the cold, snowy months with a hearty meal.

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Guess what this is? It is the honey from the hives! You get a sneak preview, before I update our beekeeping website.

This must have been the fastest honey harvest in the history of the world. Jeff washed all the equipment, took apart the hives, cut the cappings off the honey with the electric knife, spun the frames in the extractor, and is now filtering the honey into the storage buckets.

Last time, this process took days, and I had to do a lot of work. I'm grateful, actually, that there wasn't too much to harvest since I couldn't help this year, but I'm also sorry, because this honey is even better than the last batch. It is less lemony, as these bees didn't seem attracted to our lemon balm and bee balm, but far, far sweeter and more delicately floral. Honey actually takes on its flavors from the flowers and trees that the bees visit while collecting their nectar. We don't know where these bees went, but wherever it was, they got some awesome nectar! Aubrey, you won't believe how good it is! I'm envisioning honey lip balm? (Hint, hint!)

We will probably bottle it on Sunday, and we'll see how much we actually get. I'm predicting about 30 bottles (compared to about 175 we got the first year!)

The bees have now figured out that the honey is in the garage and they're all tapping with little bee legs on the back door, trying to get in so they can suck it all up and take it back to the hive! It amazes me how they can figure out, in a couple of hours, where we've taken it. It must smell really good to them.

It smells good to Chester, too. I made the mistake of giving him some wax cappings with honey still in them, and he's been pointing at the garage door ever since, barking at me when I walk by. Maybe I found something new to use as a reward for his clicker training sessions!

The smell of the heated wax and honey is awesome - I just want to sit in the garage and breathe!

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As for fiberarts, today I sat outside, a la Kary, and knit on my sister's acrylic scarf. I practiced knitting without looking, and had Ches and Val out there with me on their leashes. Ches watched the chipmunks, and Val sat in a chair next to me, and it was just utterly gorgeous. The sun was shining, a gentle breeze was blowing, the skies were blue, the birds were chirping, the colors of the leaves seemed to brighten as I watched... just an all-around perfect fall day.

I have a hard time sitting still and just being. It is usually really tough for me to knit without listening to a book on tape, or watching a DVD, or at least having someone to talk to. This is not a healthy thing, and it's something I'm working on. It sounds like such a simple thing, but I am so proud of myself for just taking the time to sit and enjoy being outside, alone with the dogs, and knitting without something else going on. I actually enjoyed it and didn't have to force it. I feel like I made major progress in healthful living by doing that today. (I think the Paxil helps!)

Thanks to Elaine, I also ordered some Cottage Creations patterns from ISeeSpots Farm. I got the Rambling Rows afghan and jacket, the Tunic Sweater (I can dream, can't I? It's done in the round, I believe...), and, for my sister, a book of community knitting projects (items, forgiving in size, to be donated to worthy causes). She hasn't been knitting much lately and I think it would do her good as she works as a digital lighting specialist in the motion picture industry (she worked on ANTZ, Forces Of Nature, and Shrek) and it's a stressful occupation (though, I imagine, a lot of fun). In my opinion, everyone should knit - hee hee! I know you guys will agree!

I know I said I wasn't going to update the Blog daily, but this one's for Larry!

You guys have a good Friday night, and thanks for visiting!

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