07-17-2013 Honey!

Honey has, for thousands of years, sealed the close relationship between humans (and some other critters) and bees.

I like to check my bees about every two weeks unless I see something odd going on. I prefer to not disturb them too much!

I went in this morning to see how they were doing, how advanced the honey production was and make sure they had enough living space.

While all three hives are located near one another and have access to the exact same plants, their honey production was as different as different can be.

--#1: the new bees from this spring that were without a queen for a while had the smallest amount of honey but a healthy bee population.

--#2: for those who might remember I had a very aggressive hive last year, I did move that "mean" queen with a small population of worker bees into a new hive: my #2. I figured that reducing the size of the "gang" should have a positive impact; it's harder to impose yourself on the whole hood when small. It worked, not only are they now behaving in a civilized fashion, they also produced twice as much honey as the next hive.

--#3: the old "mean" hive with a new Italian queen. They are doing well and producing well.

Some of you might remember that my reason to keep bees is not to exploit them but to have them pollinate fruit and veggies in my and my neighbors' gardens as well as offering a (very) small shelter (maybe) from all those ugly colony collapses. So I just took one frame from the most productive hive to try it and left the rest to them.
We're only in July; August never is a good month for bees to find food: no pollen, little nectar! I want to make sure they'll have enough to survive winter (I know, it's funny talking about winter when the temps are in the mid 90s but gardeners always keep a foot in the future.)

07-14-2013 Rainy Bastille Day!

Sunflower photographed by my friend Ingrid Beckman! I have not planted a sunflower in years; I just let them pop up where they want. This one is one of my favorites for its coloring.

All sunflowers set apart, the last few days have been pretty wet to the dam of small organic farmers around here whose fields are flooded and whose crops are rotting away.

We seem to be lucky as far as location: those walls of storms often seem to split before hitting us. This means I get some, regular light rain but not enough to cause damages while others get clobbered.

Fingers crossed!

The near continuous cloudiness has been great as far as keeping temps down. The rain has been good for all my plants but has reduced the amount of cucumbers and tomatoes coming to fruition; they love full sun! I still have plenty for myself but less to share. :(

Gardening and farming always leave you in the hands of things like weather but I wouldn't give it up for anything in the world. Walking through that jungle every morning after bringing my neighbors the paper is one of those immeasurable moments that can't easily be replaced by anything else artificial or real.

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I love that corn! I chose a bi-color to have some sweetness (the white) and something to bite (the yellow)

Red headed corn!

We ate our first Japanese eggplants. Out of this world!

Light play.

Cherry tomatoes

Dill seeds. Another crop I have not planted in years. They self-seed.