Talking bees!

Well, they can't talk, really. I just put that little pretend thing up there, to indicate that the bee was buzzing and whispering "tinarama" ... I do sure love me some bees, though.

A couple of weeks ago I extracted honey for the first time from our new hives at the community garden. The photo above is not one of mine, but it kind of shows what it looks like when the frames first come out. So exciting! To get the honey out of the combs, you start by chopping the top of each cell with a hot sharp knife. The honey starts oozing out immediately ... at least ours did, as we were performing the operation inside a very hot greenhouse in order to encourage an easy flow of the stuff. Once all the cells are open you stick the whole thing in the extruder (ours is the kind you crank by hand), give it a spin – and out comes honey! We got a couple of gallons, which we'll be selling in little jars at a fundraising event at the garden at the end of this month. If you're in the area and would like to come, please get in touch! It's going to be lovely.

Re. bees – I've been fascinated by them for various reasons (so much to like about them) for many years, probably close to 20 years. Now that I'm finally learning a little bit about them, I'm realizing – hey, I could keep bees my very own self! So this winter I'll be starting a couple of hives. Keeping it small to begin, and hopefully having homegrown delicious raw organic fabulous honey to give to all my friends starting in the fall of 2007.

Something to look forward to.