Straight from the Farm

I suspect bee keeping may just be my coolest hobby to date.  I’m not sure just yet if it tops the belly dancing I did in my early 20s, but it’s pretty darn close and a good bit more practical (in most settings at least).  After just one afternoon of working with the hives, I’m hooked.  All I can think about since is “BEES!”

Actually, my first act as bee keeper was to deconstruct a hive that had died over the winter.  I was fortunate enough to get the help of Matt, a current coworker who has some very applicable experience (he took care of the same hives just a few years back), otherwise I wouldn’t have had a clue what to do. We started by taking apart the “supers”, which are the stack of boxes that provide the exterior framework for the hives; in other words the outside walls.  Then we wiggled out the comb frames, some of which were filled with dead bees, some that were just plain empty, and, most importantly, some that still had lots of honey in them.  

Since this hive was dead, we didn’t have to worry about getting stung for this part of the process.  Later we did add a new “super” to the living hive and checked out its status.  Working with the live bees required the classic bee keeper’s gear (netted hat) and an old-fashioned smoker to control the buzz factor.  Watching the bees when the smoke hit them was pretty interesting…as Matt described it they dive for the combs of honey, jam their heads right in there and drink themselves silly, trying to take as much honey with them since they think the hive is on fire.  However, since they drink so much honey that their bellies are literally bulging, they can’t fly straight, and thus they become much less of a threat to the bee keeper. 

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I’m learning a very valuable life lesson these days.  Change, for the better or for the worse, is strangely easier to deal with in larger quantities. I’ve already mentioned the big change I made recently in careers. If I’d had my druthers, that change would have been more than enough for me for a year or so.  But following close behind it, much to my initial dread, was another big change.  D and I bought a house and moved into it this past weekend.  So now, in about a month’s time, both my job and my home are completely different. 

Moving to the new house was looming in my head for the past month.  Don’t get me wrong, I helped pick it out so I was happy with the new house.  I just didn’t want to leave the old one, what with the four years of junk stored up in the basement and the kitchen I’d come to love so much.  I don’t think I posted many pictures on here of my old kitchen, but it was adorably retro with red walls and a decidedly Asian flair that I had carefully cultivated.  I’d moved in there while I was still single so everything was arranged just the way I liked it.  The one downside though was its size: 8 feet by 10 feet.  Ouch.  When we picked out the new house, the kitchen was top priority for me. 

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Sometimes it’s the little things that tickle a person.  Things that make the corners of your mouth turn up just a notch and put a gleam in your eyes.  That’s what happened when Farmer Dave asked me to play around with a new crop on Weavers Way Farm.  I was tickled because it was, whether he realized it to be or not, a little pat on the back that said “Hey, you’re pretty much an expert at figuring out how to use farm produce so naturally I’d ask you to create a recipe for me.”  

This mystery ingredient, however, was completely new to me too.  Edible Chrysanthemum is known by many names (Garland Chrysanthemum, Crown Daisy, Shingiku, Choy Suy Green, Tong Ho, Ssukgat, etc.) around the world and is used mostly in Asian dishes, from what I could gather.  It is different from the ornamental mums you put out in your flower beds or deck containers each fall.  Its leaves do look similar though.  Farmer Dave was asking me to play around with the stuff since he didn’t know what to tell customers at market who asked how to use it.  Well, those customers weren’t the only ones without a clue.

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Aw, they’re so cute!  Look at my little babies!  All the seeds I put in trays last Monday have germinated, much to my relief. 

I tacked on the “much to my relief” part there because I had a few casualties in the “directly sown department” out in the garden.  Both my radishes and my sugar snap peas seemed to have failed in that 80+ degree arid weather we’ve been having here in southeastern Pennsylvania.   I knew it was a long shot for the peas in particular, but I had thought the radishes would make a go of it.  Another culprit for them might have been the clay soil turning rock hard as it baked in the sun, keeping the little leaves from poking their heads out. 

But enough about the what-might-have-beens and more about these little cuties.  Now that they have germinated, I’ll be watching closely for their true leaves to appear (the ones that come after their initial set of leaves, sorta like baby teeth).  Once that happens, I’ll be thinning out any extras that are crowding the trays and then start hardening them off in about another two or three weeks, depending on each crop.

Of all the little thrills and victories in the garden, nothing quite beats seeing the seedlings come up!  I’m now dreaming of arrangements of chartreuse green “Envy” zinnias and the beautiful blue salvia I just bought from the nursery.  Sigh….  

That trip to the nursery was quite fun in-and-of-itself.  There were little wagons to pull around that I got to fill with all manner of perennials, annuals, and biennials.  My favorite find was a new herb (to me) called stevia that I am in love with now.  Can’t wait to get back in the kitchen and start making some sweet dishes with it.  By the way, I swear there’ll be a new recipe up on here sometime soon!  Thanks for being understanding about the little lull.

How are your gardens doing this spring?  Is everyone as dry as we are here?  There’s been only an inch of rain in the last six-seven weeks.  Now’s a great time to think about hunting out more native plants for your gardens since native varieties are often much more drought tolerant than those species that have been brought in from elsewhere. 

It rained!!  Finally!  April was a very dry and hot month up until the last weekend.  And while it may have been pouring kittens and puppies outside, a nicely organized and supplied potting shed was at hand.  As such I got several seeds started on April 28th, including two varieties (’Polar Bear’ and ‘Granny’s Bouquet’) of zinnias for my cutting garden, a mix of cherry tomatoes, a mix of heirloom tomatoes, lemon cucumbers, round zucchini, and some chamomile for my tea garden.  

I know it’s okay to direct sow the cucumbers and zucchini, but thought I’d try starting them in the greenhouse to get a headstart on these summer crops.  Frankly, I’m not wild about growing either of them in this particular garden since they take up so much space (I do like eating them though). But if I get them producing early enough, I’m hoping they’ll finish in plenty of time to pull out and make space for some of the fall crops I’m aiming to grow.  

It was nice to finally get some stuff on my bench in the greenhouse.  Since these few trays took up residence there, I’ve almost filled up the rest of the bench with plant material I scavenged from around the area, more trays of seeds (another post on those later), some herbs bought during a trip to the Brooklyn Botanical Gardens last week, and transplants I got from the farm (it’s nice to have connections).  Now I’m just really antsy to see these seeds start germinating!  

And since it was rainy outside, I also took the opportunity to take a few artsy-fartsy photos of the stuff in the potting shed.  Not all were that great (awfully poor lighting in the rain in there), but I like these two.  Makes gardening look a little less messy, ya know?