Hops Hollow Farm

Saw my first dandelion of the season. This guy is early because he got a primo spot in a south facing garden wall. This is an important event for both the bee calendar and the orchard calendar. Significant for bee's because it's the start of the honey flow. For the orchard it is a good indicator of when pests start to emerge. There is a narrow window when you can safely use higher concentrations of neem oil before the blossoms pop.

Tis the season.... for local honey. Here are a few questions to ask your supplier. 1. Did the bees receive any varroa mite treatments during the honey flow ? We do not treat for mites till AFTER all honey has been harvested for the season. This insures the toxins used to treat for varroa mites will NOT be present in your honey. 2. Did the bees receive and supplemental feed ( sugar water ) while making honey. We don't feed our production hives ( the ones making honey ) unt...il AFTER all honey has been harvested for the season. This insures our honey has been made using only locally foraged nectar & pollen giving it the highest nutritional and medicinal value. Tastes better also. 3. How was the honey harvested & handled? We sell raw honey with the absolute minimum amount of heat treatment. We NEVER heat it above 125 F. and if you request we can provide honey that has never been subjected to any temp higher that normal hive temperatures. In our photos you will notice jars of honey in various stages of crystallization. At about 120 the crystalized honey will melt back to clear honey. Many folks believe that heat treated honey lacks some of its nutritional and medicinal value... and also affects its taste. Our honey is available for $15 /lb. We currently have 3 vintages 2018, 2019, 2020 each with a unique flavor profile. Later in the season we will be making some hot pepper infused honey.... it's an acquired taste... used in some mixed drinks and also as a glaze on dry rub barbecue.

This is my 5th season keeping bees, more and more of my friends and neighbors are interested in knowing about beekeeping and some would like to try their hand at it. I'm hoping sharing information about Hops Hollow Farm Apiary will help others learn about honeybees and decide if they'd like to try their hand at beekeeping. The following photos and captions chronicle the planning and execution of our 2020 Beekeeping Season.

Had a couple slices of toasted beer yeast rye bread for breakfast this morning. It's denser than previous loaves with a much heartier taste. The rye flour has a slight bitter note that complements the butter and honey. I could probably have left it in the oven a little longer the crust isn't as crunchy as previous loaves. I think the darker color of the whole wheat flour made me think it was more done than it was. Internal temp was 207F. when I took it out of the oven.

Been experimenting with rye flour in my sourdough breads. Today when I went to use the levain I started yesterday it was "flat" even though it had a wonderful sour character. This probably meant the lactic acid bacteria in my starter dominated the starter and the acidity inhibited the yeast. Wanting to bake bread today I considered going out to buy some bread yeast... but that would be too easy. Knowing that another chore for today was to rack off some cyser ( apple mead ), I decided I'd harvest some of the yeast from the bottom of the cyser bucket and use it in my sour dough bread. The following album will chronicle my experiment/debacle.