Our stained glass, one-of-a-kind, artisan suncatchers are 20% off!
I’m offering 20% off my remaining suncatchers this Saturday at Hereford Farm Market. We have maybe a half-dozen or so of them left. Each one is handmade by my niece and nephew’s grandmother, Mary Nolan. No two are alike. There are suncatchers with bee charms, honeybees made of glass, and guardian angels. I often refer to the angel as St. Gobnait, who was the patron saint of bees and beekeepers. They make an excellent, thoughtful, unique hostess or holiday gift for nature lovers and gardeners!
The market season is winding down…
This Saturday is the last day we’ll be at the Hereford Farm Market this year. It’s been a terrific season!! Thank you to each and every one of you who came to the market and supported us and the bees! I have a handful of jars left of most everything I brought last week: wildflower honey, mulled cider jelly, pumpkin-pie spiced pear jam, honey-maple cranberry sauce, smoky chipotle berry jam, and loose leaf chai tea. I’ll also be selling Mandi’s adorable knit pumpkins and pumpkin hats.
It’s been an amazing biking season too!
Changing seasons on the trail
I’ve been biking since March, trying to reach my mileage goal for this year. This week, I finally did — 1,000+ miles for 2022!! Most of those miles were logged on the NCR/Heritage Rail Trail, but I did a few organized rides too. Next week, I’ll take my bike down to the shop for a much needed tune up. 🙂
The Heritage Trail up near Seven Valleys, the Howard Tunnel, and an apropos pic of my bike on Home Road on my last day of biking this year.
Happy Halloween!!
After tomorrow, we hope to do one final event this year — a Christmas Bazaar down at the Federal Armored Museum on December 4th. I’ll keep everyone posted on that. In the meantime, we wish everyone a safe and wonderful Halloween and an amazing, gratitude-filled Thanksgiving! WE ARE GRATEFUL FOR YOU AND YOUR SUPPORT!!! 🙂 🙂 🙂
Our honey, hives, and a Kindness Rocks message Craig and I found on the trail
We’ll be at the Hereford Farm Market, 17004 York Road, in Parkton, Maryland, from 9:00 a.m. until noon this Saturday. Look for us at the “Hats & Honey” table beside The Contented Rooster.
Tomorrow, we’ll be at our regular market — Hereford Farm Market — from 9:00 a.m. to noon. And then on Sunday, we’re vending at Oak Spring Farm’s Chili Feast. For anyone who hasn’t yet heard of Oak Spring, it’s an organic CSA farm in north Baltimore County run by Lisa Duff. She and her farm are awesome! We’ve been CSA members for years. We also keep a few hives over there. You can find us there on Sunday from 2:00-6:00 p.m. NON-CSA MEMBERS ARE WELCOME AND ENCOURAGED TO ATTEND!
Let's celebrate YOU, our amazing CSA Members who helped us make this season an absolute success, with a chili feast and potluck!
SUNDAY, October 23rd, 2022 from 2pm - 6pm
We will provide two BIG pots of chili - one meat based and the other suitable for vegans and vegetarians. Please bring a dish to share, whether it is more chili, a chili-friendly side like cornbread, chips, or crackers, or other toppings like sour cream, cheese, fritos, etc. You're also welcome to bring dessert, drinks, and of course BYOB. Anything is welcome, and we encourage you to use as local and sustainable as possible!
There will be LIVE MUSIC, family friendly GAMES, and a RAFFLE for CSA members to win $100 off of their 2023 Season CSA Share!
Bring your picnic blankets, chairs, family, friends, dogs, and good spirit. We can't wait to see you.
***Non-CSA members are absolutely welcome to come!!***
What are we bringing this weekend?
We still have a few jars of honey left, but they are going fast. I also still have little 4 oz jars of mulled cider jelly left, some spiced pear jam, and — new for this week!! — HONEY MAPLE CRANBERRY SAUCE, SMOKY CHIPOTLE BERRY JAM, and OUR LOOSE LEAF CHAI TEA BLEND.
The cranberry sauce recipe I use is THE BEST. It’s a whole cranberry sauce with a smooth texture. Sweetened with my two favorite natural sweeteners, honey & maple syrup, and seasoned with cinnamon and a pinch of lemon zest, it is sublime!! Makes a perfect hostess gift for the holidays!
The smoky chipotle berry jam is a traditional blackberry jam with a hint of chipotle chili powder. It turns my ever-popular berry jam into a specialty spread that is perfect for turkey sandwiches, grown-up grilled cheese, or as an addition to your weekend charcuterie tray. This jam would pair excellently with gouda, goat cheese, or Brie. I’m offering it in little 4 oz jars — a perfect size for sampling.
My loose leaf chai tea blend is back on the menu too! Just in time for cooler weather! Stock up!! (My favorite way to sweeten it is to use honey, of course, but maple syrup works wonderfully too.
The weather looks great! Mandi and I will be there with expanded offerings. I’m bringing honey, caramel apple coffee jam, mulled cider jelly, pumpkin pie spiced pear drizzle, chewy almond granola with currants & coconut, and HONEY!! Mandi is bringing hand-knit pumpkins, pumpkin beanies, sushi scarves, and felted GNOMES!!
We’ve been vending at Hereford Fall Fest for years and it’s always a blast. There’s food trucks, beer & wine. There are hay wagons, ponies, helicopter rides, and a mechanical bull. ATM on site. Bring your dog! For more info, click here. It’s Sat from 10-6 and Sun from 10-5.
CHEWY ALMOND GRANOLA WITH CURRANTS & COCONUT
The recipe I used for this weekend’s granola batch was adapted from the Countess of Carnarvon’s recipe for “Good-for-you Granola” in SEASONS AT HIGHCLERE: Gardening, growing, and cooking through the year at THE REAL DOWNTON ABBEY. What’s different? I used whole almonds, eliminated the chia seeds, and my berry of choice was the aforementioned currants. It’s chewier than the batches I’ve made and sold before but — I gotta say — absolutely delish!!
Fall Fest 2021
Speaking of gnomes… White Hall has one of the best collections of garden gnomes in this area. One of the homeowners along the Torrey C. Brown rail trail (the NCR) has created an amazing community of gnomes. Check it out for yourself! Park at the White Hall parking lot and go about a mile north.
GNOME HILL IN WHITE HALL
Where have we been?
We weren’t able to make it to the Hereford Farm Market for the past couple weekends because we’ve been celebrating and waxing nostalgic about the good ole days.
Craig and I celebrated our 25th wedding anniversary. We met at Penn State and our older daughter goes there now, so we met some of our college friends up there for the Penn State Northwestern game. It was RAINY!!!! Of course, we’re used to that kind of tailgating in State College. (We’re used to hanging out in the rain under a tent in Hereford too. Hahaha.)
Jill and Craig September 1997PSU v Northwestern October 2022
I also went back to Pittsburgh for my 35th high school reunion. Was fun seeing people I haven’t seen in years, but one of the biggest highlights was taking a mushroom hike with the Western Pennsylvania Mushroom Club (my bestie that I grew up with is a member).
The wild and woolly world of fungi
Craig’s also been getting the bees ready for winter
This year, we’re doing what we did last year because it seemed to work well. Fall means a hat trick of hive prep: varroa treatment, feeding, and insulating. Treating for varroa is always done after we harvest. It’s a pain but necessary. Feeding just means trying to make sure the bees have enough food to overwinter. We leave honey in the hives, so Craig evens that out. If some hives have a lot left and some don’t, he’ll take some from the strong hive and give it to the weak. Fall is the time when beekeepers can also supplement with sugar water, although we try to keep that to a minimum. For insulation, Craig builds a little winter wrap for each hive out of foam board.
NOW is the time to start winter prayers for Boudica II, Æthelflæd, Buffy the Varroa Mite Slayer, and all the rest!
Late Fall Garden: Flowers were left for the pollinators but will be cleared soon.
We’ll be at the Hereford Farm Market Saturday, September 24th, from 9:00 a.m. to noon. This week’s batch is gingerbread-spiced pear drizzle. It is pure pear awesomeness — little bits of cooked pears in a cinnamon, ginger, nutmeg, allspice syrup offered in tiny 4 oz jars. Perfect for drizzling on ice cream, yogurt, pancakes, French toast… or add it to a cheese board… or use it in a grown-up grilled cheese with baguette and brie.
I also tried to make a fig and pear jam that sounded absolutely delicious. It was a disaster. It’s the second time I’ve had bad luck trying to make a fig jam. The first time was with dried figs, these were fresh. Maybe third time’s the charm? We’ll see… It will be a while before I try again. Why am I telling you about my epic fails? Because (1) everyone makes mistakes; and (2) sometimes epic fails make for good stories. The fig fails were kind of boring, but click here if you want to read about a cherry fail and how I almost got arrested for bootlegging. 😉
Fall Biking
I’m still chasing my goal of 1,000 miles this season. Current mileage? 760 miles. I do a lot of riding on the NCR and Heritage Rail Trails, but I’ve also participated in a few organized rides this season. Last Sunday, I did the Yellow Breeches Ramble and the Kings Gap Climb as part of Harrisburg’s Bicycle Club’s Three Creek Century Ride. It was terrific! Beautiful routes, friendly SAG support (thankfully not needed, but their presence was appreciated), and an incredibly brutal 4-mile uphill slog (at least I thought it was brutal — hahaha — more experienced riders were blowing past me on the regular) to the Kings Gap Environmental Educational Center. But sooooo worth it! Gorgeous views and an incredible ride back down!!
Monarch sightings
I’ve spotted six so far this season (not a lot, frankly), most while biking, but one in our garden earlier this evening. Craig and I want to plant milkweed next year and truly give them a place of R&R in our yard. How about you? Any monarch sightings this year?
We’ll be at the Hereford Farm Market, 17004 York Road, in Parkton, Maryland, from 9:00 a.m. until noon this Saturday. Look for us at the “Hats & Honey” table beside The Contented Rooster.
Hereford Farm Market is tomorrow! 9:00 to noon. We’ll be there with fresh cut zinnias, home-harvested honey, fruit jams, smoky-spicy applesauce, and artisan suncatchers.
If you buy honey, flowers, or a suncatcher, you get $2.00 off one of our homemade jams AND zinnias are $1.00 each (min $5.00 purchase; the jar is included).
Tomorrow may be the last day I sell flowers at HFM this year, so if you want a Windtree Bee cottage bouquet, don’t wait to stop by our table!! 😀
Mandi’s back too, and she’ll have her adorable knitted pumpkins available. Look for our “Hats & Honey” banner, across from the Contented Rooster at HFM tomorrow — 17004 York Road, Parkton, Maryland.
Are you grilling for Labor Day?Make homemade honey BBQ sauce with Windtree Bee honey!
After a two week hiatus, we’ll be back at Hereford Farm Market tomorrow with a new batch of jam — Blackberry! I bought a flat from Krista at Foggy Bottom Farm in White Hall earlier this week. The berries were perfection!! A half-dozen kids taste-tested them over the past two days and I canned the rest using a delicious recipe from Marissa McClellan, the Food in Jars lady. Her recipe has hints of cinnamon and nutmeg, so the whole batch smelled amazing, kind of like late summer meets early fall.
There has been a bit of brouhaha over parking at the market. Don’t be fooled by what you may have heard on Facebook. There is plenty of parking! FREE PARKING is available at 16951 York Road, 17010 York Road, and at the First Baptist Church at 9 Mt. Carmel Road.
We’ll be in our usual place across from the Contented Rooster. Look for our Windtree Bee banner. Hope to see you there!
First things first… we’ll be at Hereford Farm Market tomorrow with a new jam flavor, Black Raspberry! I bought the berries from Krista at Foggy Bottom Farm in White Hall and the jam turned out perfect. It’s a small batch, so stop by our table early if you want a jar. If black raspberry is not your thing, I still have blueberry, berry ale, and honey-sweetened strawberry jams + mimosa jelly and smoky bbq applesauce. Unopened, the jars are shelf-stable for up to a year, so stock up!
Craig and I try to keep our yard neat and tidy, but sometimes there are areas that get neglected. When I find out that some small creature made a home in some wild part of our yard, it makes me feel better – like my failure to weed or rake leaves was intentional. Below is a nest we found in our shed’s old flower box. Not sure what kind of bird is making her home here. She’s raising chicks, which is why we didn’t approach the nest again. Godspeed, little ones!
One of my favorite things to do in the summer is ride my bike. We have so many awesome rail trails in Maryland, especially the Torrey C. Brown Trail (a.k.a. the “NCR”). Because I live near it, I’ve biked it (and PA’s Heritage Trail) many, many times. I still love it, but was looking for a way to add interest to my rides, so I joined the Baltimore Bike Club. Last weekend, I rode with them down around North Point State Park and Fort Howard. The Bay is just as gorgeous as north Baltimore County, and it was neat riding in a different part of the county than I usually do.
North Point State Park and Fort HowardLooking across the Bay toward Rock HallBack on the NCR/Heritage Trail
The Bee Report
Boudica: Boudica I swarmed in the spring and we thought the remaining hive might not make it. But they did! Boudica II is doing a great job! No honey from this hive this year though because these survivors will need all their honey for winter.
Elizabeth II: Solid hive. Two supers. We might be able to harvest from this hive…
Cleopatra: Kinda meh… maybe we’ll get some honey from this hive…?
Pandora: Also suffered some early losses, possibly a swarm, but now it’s really strong. Fingers crossed, there’s potential here for a good harvest, but we’ll have to see…
Æthelflæd, the Undead: We thought she was dead, but She. Is. Alive!!!! She managed to somehow work her way back to health (along with her hive, who arrived sickly in the spring). That’s why we gave her the “Undead” epithet… because she refused to die. Long live Æthelflæd! 🙂
Buffy, the Varroa Mite Slayer: It’s Crazy Town in this hive! Had two queens for a while. How is that possible?! Because Buffy was reigning beneath a “queen excluder” and somehow one of her daughters decided to establish her own kingdom on top of the queen excluder. This was nuts! Never happened to any of our hives before. Craig took the second queen (Buffy’s daughter) to Oak Spring Farm, where she can establish her own hive in a healthier way.
Elphaba: this was our newest hive this spring — a captured swarm. We crowd-sourced the name, hahaha. ELPHABA IS BAD ASS!!! Boudica was our strongest queen this spring, but Elphaba has overtaken Boudica as the Queen of Queens. Her hive is always bustling and bearding. There are so many bees in it, it’s practically bursting. We’re wondering if she will swarm again, but hoping not.
Tempest: Killer! She is awesome and amazing!! She is nearly as badass as Elphaba. But there can only be one!!! So, currently, the Queen of Queens title stays with Elphaba. But who knows what will happen during the rest of the season?!
Gaia: Died. RIP Gaia. Craig took some queen cells from Tempest and gave them to Gaia’s hive. Hopefully, they will use them to requeen their hive. If so, Rocking Awesome Tempest and her daughter will be reigning side by side at Lisa’s.
The Secret Decoder Ring
Wondering about some of the terms I used to describe what was happening in the hives? Here’s the scoop:
Swarm: this happens when a hive reproduces itself. The queen takes the oldest bees and a lot of the honey and leaves. It can be sad but it’s also the sign of a healthy hive. Beekeepers love catching swarms!
Super: Special-sized box that is part of the hive “palace” that is used by the beekeeper to extract honey. Think of it as a pantry. You don’t live in your pantry, but you store your food there. When beekeepers harvest honey, they are basically raiding the bees’ pantry.
Varroa Mites: A terrible scourge. Vampires to bees. Invasive pests.
Queen excluder: A part of the hive palace that keeps the queen from laying eggs in the honey. (You wouldn’t want your baby nursery in your pantry, right? Well, sometimes queens get confused — they are overworked after all — so they need help knowing which rooms in their palace should be used for what.)
Bearding: when the bees come out of the hive in very hot weather. They do this when the hive is crowded and hot. They often turn their wings so that their collective wing gusts cool the hive.
Oak Spring Farm: a fantastic CSA Farm up here owned and operated by Lisa Duff.
We’ll be at the Hereford Farm Market, 17004 York Road, in Parkton, Maryland, from 9:00 a.m. until noon tomorrow. Look for us at the “Hats & Honey” table beside The Contented Rooster.
We’ll be at the Hereford Farm Market tomorrow from 9:00 a.m. to noon. Two new jam batches this week: Blueberry & honey-sweetened strawberry. Either (or both) would make the perfect gift to bring to a neighbor’s backyard BBQ! Have a safe and happy holiday weekend, everyone! 🙂
On Friday, June 17th, from 10:00 a.m. to 3:00 p.m., we’ll be down at the Ag Center’s farm market, which is located at 1114 Shawan Road in Cockeysville. It’s right across from the Oregon Grille. We’ll have our Windtree Bee table banner up, so please come find us!
We’ll also be at the Hereford Farm Market this Saturday, June 18th, from 9:00 a.m. to noon in our usual spot – the “Hats & Honey” table across from the Contented Rooster. Karen Dubs, a.k.a. the Flexible Warrior, is hosting drop-in, all-levels, family-friendly yoga. All proceeds support local rescue dogs. For more info, check out Karen’s Facebook page.
What are we bringing to the markets?
SMOKY BBQ APPLEAUCE: This is a savory applesauce that pairs well with meat dishes like pork chops or roasted chicken. Your kids can also use it as a dipping sauce for chicken nuggets or French fries.
BLACK COFFEE SPICE RUB: A new delicious steak rub! This one has a hint of cocoa powder in it. I’m offering this in small 4 oz jars, so each jar seasons approximately one steak (like a fillet or NY strip). If you want to season something bigger (like a flank steak or large porterhouse), use two jars.
Both the savory applesauce and/or the steak rub would make excellent Father’s Day gifts!
We’ll also have a few jars of strawberry preserves from last week and a nice selection of handcrafted one-of-a-kind artisan bee & honeycomb suncatchers. I think the sun will finally be shining, so hopefully I’ll be able to hang them from our tent!
What else in new at our apiary?
A black rat snake?! Craig used a swarm catching box to take him to his new home.
We had a visitor the other day. This little guy showed up at the edge of our property. He is harmless, but no one likes a snake too near their house, garden, or apiary, so Craig relocated him to a safe spot near the Gunpowder River. Tugg went along for the ride. He was pretty chill about the snake, which I was surprised by.
Hope to see you this weekend! To all the dads and dad-like dudes, happy Father’s Day!
Have you ever noticed how much more sweet-smelling and flavorful local, hand-picked strawberries are? I often buy organic strawberries from the supermarkets and they are big and beautiful but, by far, my favorite strawberries are the ones I buy from local farmers. They are often smaller, but are so much richer in terms of taste and color.
For this week’s batch of jams, I bought a flat of strawberries from Foggy Bottom Farm in White Hall, Maryland. They were hand-picked by Krista that day and I made this week’s batches within 48 hours of buying them. My kitchen smelled awesome the entire time, reminding me constantly of why everyone calls strawberries “nature’s candy.”
Strawberries from Foggy Bottom Farm
What I’m bringing to the market this week
Strawberries with honey and thymeStrawberry lemonade mixersStrawberries and coconut sugar
Honey-sweetened strawberry jam: No sugar, just organic honey + the fresh Foggy Bottom Farm berries, a few sprigs of thyme leaves and a splash of lemon juice. I’m offering these in little 4 oz jars. They are as precious as caviar – but not nearly as expensive! This was a very small batch, so I’ll likely sell out fast. Don’t wait to stop by our table if you want to buy!
Strawberry Cocoa Jam: same delicious strawberries, combined with cocoa, coconut sugar, and a whiff of vanilla. This jam would be perfect on waffles, croissants, or brioche (Wegman’s has it in the bread aisle). And amazing on s’mores!!
Strawberry lemonade mixer: only three ingredients – gorgeous, ripe, hand-picked local strawberries + organic lemon juice and sugar. That’s it! Use this to make the best strawberry lemonade you’ve ever had, as a mixer for a summer cocktail, or as an addition to your morning smoothie. To reconstitute this juice concentrate, mix one part water, tonic water, or ginger ale. Adjust to taste. Vodka optional. 🙂
Growing our own strawberries!
Craig and I are trying to grow our own strawberry patch. I ordered a bunch of live strawberry roots, which arrived in the mail a few months ago. They were adorable – little Baby Groots. I planted them in pots and stuck them under our grow lights in the basement. They thrived and were ready for planting sooner than we had anticipated. There was some mad scrambling on our end to get the raised beds ready, but we’re excited about this project and very hopeful we’ll have our own strawberries next summer.
Little baby strawberry plantsLooking good!Loving their new home!
We’ll be at the Hereford Farm Market, 17004 York Road, in Parkton, Maryland, from 9:00 a.m. until noon this Saturday. Look for us at the “Hats & Honey” table beside The Contented Rooster. (The farm market down at the Maryland Ag Center is not happening tomorrow. We’ll keep everyone posted about next week!)
Windtree Bee 