#knowyourfarmer

-posted by Jayne

This week the kids and I took a trip up to my hometown of Berlin, Ohio. We got stuck behind a slow moving semi truck, slowly winding along the country roads. It left us plenty of time to discuss our food supply and modern farming techniques, one animal in particular…

The sight of this truck was nothing new to me. In Holmes County, there are plenty of large chicken farms. I grew up with one just down the road, within sight from my front yard. They never seemed too outlandish to me when I was a kid. I figured this was just “how it was done.” Yes, it smelled on the day the chickens were picked up and the barn was emptied. And yes, it was gross to see the feathers flying all over the road after the trucks passed by. But I was a kid, and as a kid in the country, you tend to take things in stride.

My kids had not seen a sight like this before, and they were pretty shocked. They had no idea how large scale poultry farms raised and transported the chickens. Poultry is one of the local meats that can be a bit more difficult to source, as there aren’t many small scale processors that are USDA certified within the state of Ohio. If you’d like to support more small scale poultry farmers, here are a few I would recommend:

Preston Family Farms in Canal Winchester - offer on farm pickup of eggs and whole chicken.

Covey Rise Farm in Radnor, Ohio - shipping direct to your door, as well as at the Westerville Farmers Market.

Doughty Farm Meats in Millersburg, Ohio- a butcher shop offering pastured poultry from their farm. They don’t have a website but you can google them and find their hours. Prices are very competitive for grass-fed and pastured meat. I take a cooler and stock up when I visit my parents. 5362 OH-557, Millersburg, OH 44654.

Red Moon Ranch, LLC- Shelby is a first generation farmer offering her meat at the Worthington Farmer’s Market each Saturday. I’m a big fan of her eggs- arguably the prettiest and tastiest ones at market.

In other news- our barn project is almost complete! We just need to figure out what kind of door to put on, and get that trash cleaned up out front.

We have new shirts available for sale, too. This is a similar design idea we from a Honeyfest shirt from years ago. Whenever we would wear them to market our customers would ask where they could purchase one, and unfortunately the Honeyfest quit making the “3 bee design” several years ago. What do you think? (Oh, you think I should invest in an iron, do you?!?)

If you’re wondering where Isaac is and what he is up to… he’s in his busiest season of work here on the farm. As I sit here on a Sunday evening at 9:22 p.m. and type up a blog, he is on his way to Circle S farms to deliver hives for pumpkin pollination. We’ve also been extracting summer honey, and are happy to report the bees have been producing an excellent crop. We’ll try to get some photos and update the blog with the honey harvest next week. I’ll leave you with this photo Isaac snapped from the loader this week, as he was trying to haul manure. Everyone wanted a piece of the action.

Benefit for bees- collaboration with Ohio Artists

We are excited to be participating in a collaboration with a wide variety of fellow Ohio artisans, raising money for two nonprofit organizations benefitting honeybees. Now through 9/30/2020, 50% of the net proceeds of this set will benefit nonprofits the Pollinator Partnership and the Ohio Environmental Council  in collaboration with The Buzz Maker.

Find the “save the bees” candle set here.

Order a shirt from artist Thom Glick- also collaborating with this initiative.

This handmade “Bee Delicious” set from Amazing Creams & Lotions is made with Organic Coconut Oil, Beeswax, Local Raw Honey, Exotic Butters and much more. Find it here.

Meet the collaborative at www.thebuzzmaker.com/save-ohio-bees. Follow stories, get bee facts, and learn about unique ways to help by following on Instagram, Facebook and Twitter @thebuzzmaker, and sign up for updates at www.thebuzzmaker.com/sign-up.  The Buzz Maker will contribute a matching gift up to $1,000. We are glad we were asked to collaborate on this project and look forward to making a donation to these two non-profits at the end of September. Thanks so everyone who supported this cause already- we appreciate your support!

Worthington Farmers Market is Eye Candy for the Soul

-posted by Jayne

What a beautiful cool week we’ve had here in Central Ohio. Market was perfect yesterday… happy customers, flowers in every corner, and an abundance of tomatoes, eggplants, melons, sweet corn… you name it, Worthington Farmer’s Market has it.

Sunflowers from Farmhouse Herbs and Flowers

Sister in law Becky and her husband Justin from Tilley Farmstand unleashed their new special “mixed quarts”- pizza mix, stir fry mix, and salsa mix. One of the best deals you’ll find at market!

Sara and Jess are happy to help customers make that mountain of beets disappear.

More eye candy from Farmhouse Herbs and Flowers

Louisa sleeping on the job

Here on the home front we made some progress on the new barn. Isaac finally decided trying to do it all by himself was not the wisest choice and rented a truck (and some friends) to help put the trusses on. It’s looking good. He thinks it’s for hay, but I know we are really building it to host square dances.

Yesterday at market I had conversations with two separate customers who mentioned their dogs love honey. One had an older dog who didn’t eat very well unless she drizzled a little honey on top. The other customer had a dog with allergies, and used the honey to attempt to ward off the dog’s allergies. Our new dog Buddy confirmed that dogs+honey = happiness, as yesterday afternoon I found Buddy in the yard chomping on a honeystick. He actually did an impressive job getting the honey out of the stick. Hopefully he doesn’t figure out there is a self-serve stand right there in his yard.

Honeysticks are “Buddy approved.”

Propolis

-posted by Jayne

Propolis- the sticky brown “gunk” bees use to fill up unwanted cracks and crevices in the hive. I almost regret telling you about it here in the blog, because I’m almost guaranteed to receive a slew of messages asking for it, and we’re currently out of stock. But the traps are on the hives, so hopefully there will be more in the coming weeks. So what exactly is it, you ask?

Sticky, brown, resinous propolis.

Propolis is collected by bees from the buds and sap of trees and used in their hives as an anti-bacterial sealant. It acts as an antiseptic barrier that will cover invaders and prevent hive contamination. I saw evidence of this in a photo shared by John P. Rose on the “Ohio Beekeepers” facebook page. If this photo doesn’t deserve some sort of beekeeping photography reward, I don’t know what does:

Mummified propolis encased mouse. Photo credit John P. Rose- shared with permission.

Basically what happened here is a mouse entered a beehive, hoping to find a cozy place to stay and/or a sweet treat. The bees attacked the mouse, killing it, and not wanting a dead decaying object in their hive (that likely smelled) they encased it in propolis. What is left behind is a sort of mummified mouse that will not contaminate their own food stores.

People use propolis for a variety of reasons, most commonly to create tinctures or salves that can be applied to the body. It is often used as a mouth rinse, a treatment of minor burns or scrapes, and internally as a nutritional supplement. It is believed to have activity against bacteria, viruses, and fungi, as well as anti-inflammatory effects. We use propolis in our “herbal propolis salve” which I prefer to use for dry skin, eczema, insect bites, small scrapes and bruises. The composition and color of propolis will vary from season to season and hive to hive. It is normally dark brown, but some variation will occur.

Propolis trap, with bits of propolis in the holes.

In the past we have used hive scrapings to harvest propolis, but this year we are employing the use of propolis traps to help us collect it. The trap is placed on the top of the hive, after removing the inner cover. The lid is propped up with something small like a thumb tack or small stick, to allow light into the hive, encouraging the bees to plug up the holes in the trap. Once the trap is plugged up with propolis it is put in a bag and placed in a freezer. After removing it from the freezer the trap (still inside the bag) is banged against a hard surface or gently bent back and forth in order to cause the brittle propolis to fall from the trap. It takes quite a while to gather a very small amount of propolis, and we are careful to only leave traps on the hive for a short period of time, moving them from hive to hive. We understand the bees need the propolis as well and don’t want to take too much.

Want to try your hand at making your own propolis tinctures? Find some helpful recipes on this bee culture website: https://www.beeculture.com/propolis/

We’ve used the recipes on this site for some of our own tinctures and infused oil and find they work well. Drop us a line or comment below and let us know if you have any questions about propolis. We’d love to start a conversation about this amazing substance.

At least there's still ice cream

-Posted by Isaac

“If we’re going to commit suicide as a nation, I guess I’d prefer nuclear war. What we’re doing now is really taxing my patience.”

That was an Isaac Barnes quote from the bee yard. Well, from a shelter house near the bee yard. I had the kids with me, and we took a little lunch break. As an exemplary parent, I found my way to Facebook while they fought over the pop.

It was a buddy’s post that brought out the comment. The meme showed the raw escalating Covid numbers in juxtaposition with some recent Trump quotes where he was trying to somehow give the whole debacle a rosy shine.

I guess I was feeling somewhat fatalistic.

Come to think of it, the morning had fatalism coming at all angles. First it was Bridger.

My future rock star. Listening to the radio he says, “Dad, is this 93.3 The Bus?! They play the best music. I love this song!”

(AC/DC’s ‘Highway To Hell’ had just come on.) Oh boy.

After that shaky little laugh, Mason gave me more of a hearty laugh. We were riding along, passing the usual proud multitude of TRUMP 2020 banners. He says, “Keep America great? …Dad, aren’t we still in a pandemic?”

Now that was funny.

(Well son, I think we are. I guess it all depends on where you get your news.)

Thank God for the bees.

They keep me hustling. Even when I pay attention to the news, I can’t afford to dwell on it.

The very day we finished up with the dark tulip poplar from the eastern yards,

(14 buckets this year. Not great, but good enough to carry us through!)

I was already running late to get a second mite treatment on the hives.

So I went right back to it.

The first treatment came while the spring honey was being pulled. Due to the way the brood cycle and the mite cycle line up, it’s good to treat again within two weeks.

Plus, it was high time to get those hives supered up for the summer flow.

The Bee Man watched it all happen this year.

Not a minute too soon. The soybeans are starting to bloom. I noticed a trickle of nectar coming in during the early part of the week.

By Thursday it was a gusher.

This intense heat helps. I don’t know why. With the honeysuckle, you can fill boxes and boxes with 70 degree temps. It takes at least mid-eighties to make gobs of summer honey.

And gobs it is. So far, so good. We’re only at the beginning.

Will those storm clouds hold off for a few more weeks?

And the bigger, broader question— Will those Covid storm clouds hold off for a few more months? It’s not looking good. When’s this vaccine coming, anyway? January?

Not looking good.

Thankfully, for now, we’ve got bigger and more pressing worries than the impending societal meltdown.