Sally's GF3 thread

[cavemanrich]

Sally PB​

Since you posted those Salsa recipes I can handle both versions, just wanted to run this by you.
BTW,, I don't make any myself,, but do eat quite a bit.
Quite a while ago,, a person that has roots south of our border made a home made salsa. She diced up tomatoes, onions, peppers, and a few Jalapenos. (there may have been some other veggies ,,, long ago) Added some salt, and black pepper,. and refrigerated the well mixed contents for at least one or two days. The tomatoes were regular with quite a bit of liquid in them. The salsa (fresh) was delicious The liquid from the tomatoes seemed to distribute the flavors throughout the salsa. No cooking down necessary. This is of course made to be eaten fresh, and stored inside refrigerator.
I know you cook yours down and can.....
I wonder how this fresh salsa, just canned, but not pureed would turn out.

 

[Sally PB]

I wonder how this fresh salsa, just canned, but not pureed would turn out.

Delicious, for sure. The taste would be different, since it would be cooked. For instance, I put some cilantro in a couple years, and you couldn't taste it in the canned salsa. I don't know if I did something wrong, or if that is what happens when cilantro is cooked.

I should make fresh salsa. The excuse for not doing so is that when we have all the ingredients from our own garden, it's about this time a year. (The habaneros are being buttheads and not cooperating.) Gobs of everything, and I want to preserve it for the long winter ahead.

I could still do it.... hmmmmm... There are still ripe tomatoes on the table in the mudroom, and I could buy some hot peppers at the store...

Because canning is quite the production, I want to do it, and get it done. Then move on to the next thing.

 

[Sally PB]

Another great Michigan Irish Music Festival in the books. Mark your calendars now for next year: Sept 12-15th.

Crossbow was excellent. Moxie Strings was excellent.

And we found another good group: Colm and Laura Keegan. We'll be looking to hear them again, for sure. Hubby looked for CDs today, but they were sold out. He'll order online. I'm glad they were sold out... merch sales can really help the artists.

 

[Sally PB]

In Michigan, you have to be 21 to buy alcohol. You have to be 18 to sell it. So the checkout person who is under 18 cannot ring up your bottle of wine, 6-pack of beer, or bottle of scotch.

At the store where I shop, they put a neon pink sign on a stand by any lane that has a checkout person under 18. It is very noticeable. TA DAAAA! it proclaims! Here is a young person, possibly working their first "real" job, and learning how life works. They can't ring up your booze. We, as a company, can't let them. Please get in a different lane with your alcohol purchases. (Not their wording; my interpretation. You get the point.)

But the lady in front of me had a two bottles of wine. EEEEEEERRRRRRT! Screeching halt to the line. The pleasant young man who was ringing up her order had to call someone else over to ring up her two bottles of wine. That person is now not doing her job, whatever it was.

Ok, so it didn't take long, but it was Sunday morning, which is a VERY busy shopping time at that store. So many things I wanted to say. Mostly along the lines of ... well... nothing nice, so fill in the blank however you'd like.

 

[cavemanrich]

My neighbor/friend brought over a small jar of honey. I took a pix of it on my window ledge to have natural light.
What is even more delicious to me,, some of that honey, the bees made from the pollen and whatever else they collected from my flowers.
He will gather more honey in a few weeks, and I will purchase for myself, as well as to give to my family members.
Maybe I should hint a discount since I have been feeding his bees

Sally,,, how are you going to prepare your hive for the coming cold season???? I know its your first year,, and understand you were not planning to harvest any honey just jet.
I know you attend some meetings about bee keeping. Read that on other posts.

 

[Sally PB]

What a beautiful jar of honey (with some comb!)!! You go, girls!

Our next bee meeting is about what to do to prepare the hive for winter. At our last meeting, however, they said that by then (Oct. 4), most of the winter prep should be done. Well.... uh...

Everyone there who has been keeping bees for a while is very approachable and helpful. (Just like here on BYC.) So there has been some discussion about winterizing already.

Right now, we have 2 deep brood boxes, topped with a queen excluder and a medium honey super. (Boxes are referred to as "supers" because they go on top of the hive.) My "bee guy," someone I knew through the local gun club, has been involved with bees for 60+ years, so I've been using him as a resource.

He recommended removing the queen excluder. We put it there to keep the honey free of any brood, but since we're not harvesting any, there is no reason to keep the queen out. The cold makes the bees "cluster" into a tight group, with the queen at the center. Since heat rises, we should let them into the top box. And if it's full of food, all the better.

But, to get to your question... We plan to wrap the hive with tar paper (we have several rolls). When to do that... not sure. I need to talk to my bee guy. I've read that the queen can lay eggs into mid-October. These are the bees that will help take the hive through the winter. As long as the days get into the mid-50s for temps, bees might go out and about. If not to find food, then to take out the trash.

We'll also put a "mouse excluder" over the main hive opening, which stays open for ventilation. Just like with a chicken coop, a hive needs ventilation to prevent excess moisture which can lead to mold and other issues.

The mouse excluder is a strip of metal with bee-sized holes. Bees can go through, but mice can't. And mice would love a nice warm box full of honey as a winter home.

The hive is in a bit of a valley. It's sheltered from direct east and west winds, fairly well sheltered from the south. The north is the most open side, but there is a good tree line about 150 yards away. Over water, that distance would be called "fetch," but I don't know if that term translates to land.

One of my gardens is in that valley, and I can attest to the lack of breeze down there. Up on the hill, totally different story.

 

[cavemanrich]

My "bee guy," someone I knew through the local gun club, has been involved with bees for 60+ years, so I've been using him as a resource.

Great to have him as a bee mentor....

 

[NanaK]

We plan to wrap the hive with tar paper (we have several rolls).

Just curious and learning...do you know at what temps /agricultural zones this is not necessary? or is it done anywhere there are below 32* winters?

 

[Sally PB]

or is it done anywhere there are below 32* winters?

I think that's pretty much the guideline, below freezing for weeks at a time. Bees become inactive at temps around 55 F. They stay in the hive. If their body temperature drops to about 45F, they die of hypothermia. When they cluster, the vibrate their wings to generate heat. The queen stays in the middle. The outer layer is the coolest. The bees change places, moving closer to the center our farther out, so that they can keep warm.

The bees I bought last spring came from Georgia, I think. It was a semi truck FULL of boxes of bees.

Renting out hives to pollinate crops is big business. Almond growers in California pay about $200 per hive, and they need about two hives' worth of bees for every acre of the almond orchard. There aren't enough bees in CA to do the job, so they bring in "migrant workers" to do some of it.

 

[NanaK]

Thank you!