The Old Folks Home

[Alaskan]

BB2K and I are trying an experiment. There is a wild grape vine all up in an ornamental cherry tree in our side yard, and it is bearing like nobody's business. We've decided to try our hands at making jelly. So far, we've picked 15 pounds of grapes, and there's still a lot more up there.

BB2K has accused me of deliberately bombing her with grapeshot; I wouldn't do that, would I? Not me. . .

We've got enough "owies" around here; had the vet out yesterday for the horses' fall shots. Betsy and Blondie both react badly to the shots, so they are pretty sore today. We'll be doing banamine for the next couple of days with them. Shots and Coggins tests for 5 horses - that's a major "yeeouch" for the ol' wallet, too.

If you include some hard green grapes, then you do not need any commercial pectin.

With jelly, follow recipe, enough green grapes and it jells perfectly.

For jam, keep the green ones separate in a cheese cloth bag when boiling them all.... After they have been boiled, remove bag of green grapes, squish all possible juice into pot, then discard.

As to ratio.... Ah......ah...... Maybe about 20 to 1

 

[Alaskan]

@superchemicalgirl

Didn't you get three times that much last year?

Sure looks good though!

It keeps temping me to buy local real honey... But then
I look at the price.

 

[superchemicalgirl]

@superchemicalgirl

Didn't you get three times that much last year?

Sure looks good though!

It keeps temping me to buy local real honey... But then
I look at the price.

Nope I got about 12 pints last year, I got about 11.5 this year. That's about what you get out of one hive with a medium super. If our season was a bit longer or my hive was healthier I could get more, but we got a really late start this year and I had to start both hives over again. At least the new bees could still use the frames the dead hive had made into comb, or else I wouldn't have gotten honey this year. It takes a lot of bee energy to make comb.

You should get a hive yourself. It's about 500$ to start - which includes everything that you need. I really enjoy having them. I love watching them go in and out, collecting pollen, etc. My garden does amazingly well now that I have bees (I haven't had to hand pollinate since getting bees) and the local wild blackberries also go crazy when we have hives. My neighbor has gotten bumper crops of blackberries the last 2 years.

 

[Alaskan]

I dunno.... Supposedly you need to buy an entirely new setup every spring, they don't overwinter.

 

[superchemicalgirl]

Your winter is a lot more harsh than ours. We have, on average, 50% losses of hives over the winter in this state. This past winter it was 70%.

 

[perchie.girl]

I dunno.... Supposedly you need to buy an entirely new setup every spring, they don't overwinter.

I am curious What are the natural pollinators in Alaska?

deb

 

[ronott1]

Ron, those look phenomenal. You always make such yummy breads.


I got my act together and got the supers off the hives today. The stronger hive (red) had some honey to extract, and as predicted, the very weak blue hive had not a drop to harvest. It's amazing how well the one hive did with almost no human interaction this year. I suspect the other hive would have done good, too, had they had a queen that was effective.

I got 1.4 gallons of honey from the good hive. Because it's later in the season, the honey is darker and richer than last years (I prefer the light colored honey, but this is very tasty, too).

That is great looking honey!

It would go great with the English Muffins too.

 

[Alaskan]

I dunno.... Supposedly you need to buy an entirely new setup every spring, they don't overwinter.

I am curious What are the natural pollinators in Alaska?

deb

Bees.... But we have ground nesting bees... They are solitary and make tunnels into the dirt.. Lay a bunch of eggs, then die. I think there are a few different kinds of bees... But none that make hives, all of the kinds that we have die before winter leaving eggs that hatch in the spring.

Male mosquitos pollinate a bunch

And there are also some flies that look a bunch like bees... They also pollinate.

 

[Alaskan]

Oh.. We also get some crazy hummingbirds.

 

[chickadoodles]

Ron your english muffins look so good. I love english muffins.

Scg your honey looks very tasty.

I only use honey for honey mustard but here the only honey I find is called ambrosia honey (yuck)!

We are going to T-town tomorrow I need to look for some real honey. Wisher any suggestions where to find some good honey?

We have some bees here but they are also in the ground.