Fall Events: Beekeeping & Canning Workshops, Harvest Festivals & Hereford Farm Market

Our regular market, Hereford Farm Market, is about halfway through its season. We’re there once a month this year, which is working for us. I miss being there every week, but we had a lot of scheduling conflicts this summer, so I’ve been grateful for the Saturdays we’ve been able to sell there. We’ll be at HFM again tomorrow, September 6^th from 9:00 a.m. to noon. Most of our crystallized honey is gone but we’ll have honey from this year’s harvest, as well as cut flowers (zinnias and dahlias) and the last of this year’s handstitched OOAK upcycled aprons, which can be used for cooking or gardening.

Upcoming workshops & fall fests – Come see us!

Beekeeping Workshop at Hereford Library – Sept. 13th 2-3 pm

Introduction to Beekeeping

Humans have been keeping bees and harvesting honey for thousands of years and you can too! An experienced beekeeper discusses the basics of backyard beekeeping – the equipment you’ll need, best practices and common challenges. This workshop provides a simple overview of honeybee anatomy, a hands-on demonstration of how a Langstroth hive works, tips for honey extraction and where to find more information. There is an observation hive with live honeybees, so participants can spot the queen, and a Q&A session. Weather permitting, the program may be held outside.

Craig & I + one of our queens will be the hosts for this workshop.

Canning Workshop at Norrisville Library – Sept. 16th 6-7 pm

Water Bath Canning Basics

Learn how to safely preserve fresh fruit in sealed jars using traditional water bath canning. We’ll discuss the types of fruit home canners can safely can, the process and best practices, the equipment needed to get started, how to find trustworthy recipes, and more.

I’ll be hosting this workshop solo. If you’ve ever wanted to know how to can like your granny once did, now’s your chance!

Oregon Ridge Honey Harvest Festival – Oct. 5th 10 am – 4 pm

Join us on Sunday, October 5th, for our annual family-friendly event that celebrates all things honey and nature-related in the bucolic setting of Oregon Ridge Nature Center!

Enjoy a variety of food trucks offering artisanal beer, crabcakes, burgers, donuts and ice cream. Shop from over 25 local craft vendors and honey farms offering a plethora of honey products and happy to talk about the practice of beekeeping. Visit the goats in the petting zoo or join a sing-a-long in our “1,000 Acre Woods”.

The Central Maryland Beekeepers Association will lead the honey extractions as we learn about all things honeybees – from pollinators to beeswax. Relax and listen to local musicians as your children do crafts, play lawn games or get up-close and personal with animals – from raptors to turtles to chickens. Take a tour through our historic tenant house and learn about the history of Oregon Ridge.

Craig & I + Mandi & Rob (Rosie Posie) will be sharing a table for this event. Mandi will have all sorts of colorful, fun, seasonal knit items and we’ll have lots of HONEY!!

Dejon Vineyard Harvest Festival – Oct. 11th 12 – 5 pm

13th Annual Harvest Day! A Family Fun Day!
$10 Adult Admission Upon Arrival – FREE Entry for Kids
Live Bluegrass Music from PORCH SETTERS UNION!
Hayrides, pumpkins, more local vendors. Delicious Wine!
BYO PICNIC/FOOD

Craig & me for this one. In past years, this has been a beautiful, laid back event. Hope to see you there – or at one of the other places we’ll be this fall!

Adding raised beds to our garden

Our biggest outdoor project this summer was building, filling, planting, and growing in raised beds. We decided to experiment with them because I thought it would help with the weeds and insane garden chaos that usually happened in years past. It worked! The beds turned out beautifully. They were a ton of work to build and fill, but planting and growing in them was much easier than when we planted directly in the ground. Our garden is still a work-in-progress, but I love the changes we made this season.

Before…

During…

After…

Other fun stuff…

After a worrisome late start, the dahlias turned out beautifully! We also grew some cactus flower zinnias. Love their “Raggedy Anne” look. Our milkweed came up again and we saw at least two caterpillars and a chrysallis. Unfortunately, we didn’t get to see the chrysallis transform into a monarch. Maybe next year!

Hope everyone had a wonderful summer and is looking forward to a fun Fall! See you soon!!

May 4, 2025July 9, 2025

Welcome back! Spring 2025 Update

A rainy Sunday seems like a good day to reach out to everyone with an update for this season. Below the first couple pics is info on where we’ll be selling this year, some new things we’ll be offering, and news about our bees, hives, and honey. Opening Day for our regular market is next Saturday, May 10th. Hope to see you there!

WHERE WE’LL BE THIS SEASON

Confirmed Places and Dates

May 10 – Hereford Farm Market Opening Day

June 7 – Oregon Ridge Music in the Woods

June 21 – Hereford Farm Market

August 9 – Hereford Farm Market

September 6 – Hereford Farm Market

October 4 – Hereford Farm Market

October 11 – Dejon Vineyard Harvest Festival

November 15 – Hereford Farm Market

Still Firming Up Plans…

Other possible places we might be later this year include the Maryland State Fair, the Bel Air Farmers Market, Oregon Ridge Honey Harvest, Hereford Fall Festival, and possibly some other places. I’ll keep everyone posted and will update our “Where to Find Us” page as our plans firm up.

What we’ll have this spring & early summer

HONEY

We only sell raw, unadulterated wildflower honey. We don’t add anything to it and, since our apiary is small, we have no idea which flowers or plants our bees are getting their nectar from. So, each small home-harvested batch is unique. Its taste and color are always slightly different from the last batch we harvested.

All raw, unadulterated honey will naturally crystallize over time. This means it slowly transitions from a liquid state to a semi-solid state. This does not mean it is bad. Raw, unadulterated honey that is properly stored is shelf stable for an indefinite period of time. It never spoils!

If your honey crystalizes, but you need it to be liquid again, just gently heat it in a double boiler. Or heat some water, take it off the stove, make sure it is well below boiling temp, and set your honey jar in it for a few minutes. Do not microwave your honey! It will destroy all of its natural goodness.

If you use your honey for toast, tea, or oatmeal, you could just use it in its crystalized form. Scoop it out with a knife the way you would peanut butter. Some people even prefer crystalized honey because it is less messy.

We’ll have at least three different honey choices for you at our table this season: crystalized honey, Windtree Valley Honey, and Apple Valley honey. Technically, they are all the same honey (raw, unadulterated honey), but they’re all different batches, so they have different characteristics.

The Windtree Valley honey was harvested from bees who foraged in Windtree Valley and the Apple Valley honey was harvested from bees who foraged in… yes, you guessed it, Apple Valley, which is a neighborhood about a mile from us. The Apple Valley honey has a darker color and a more robust flavor.

Each raw wildflower honey batch has a different color and taste, depending on where the bees forage for nectar.

Jam & Jelly

Strawberry Agave Jam – a chunky jam sweetened with agave. If you like your jam with bits of fruit and sweetened with something other than sugar, this is the jam for you.

Blueberry Lavender Jam – a smooth jam sweetened with honey and flavored with a pinch of dried lavender flowers (the kind you make tea with). Turned out beautifully – looks pretty and tastes great!

Rhubarb Hibiscus Jam – I adore rhubarb! Someday, I’d like to grow it, but for now I have to resort to calling all the stores in my area every spring to check if it’s in. Picked up a couple pounds of it down at Mom’s organic market. This recipe is lightly flavored with hibiscus tea. A gorgeous sweet tart jam I’ll only be offering once. When it’s gone, it’s gone!

Pomegranate Jelly: Pomegranates symbolize the cycle of life, rebirth, and abundance – so I thought this jelly would be perfect for spring. Made with fresh pressed, 100% organic pomegranate juice.

Mimosa Jelly: No alcohol in this jam. It’s made with fresh squeezed orange juice and reminds me of Spring & Summer Sunday brunches.

Home-Stitched Aprons

Each one of these is a work of art. Home-sewn by my daughter, she used all sorts of repurposed fabric: freshly laundered men’s button down shirts, vintage tablecloths, old lace, second-hand scraps, and a bunch of bee-themed fabric she bought at a Joann Fabrics going-out-of-business sale (RIP – we’ll miss that store!). You could use the half aprons for cooking or gardening.

Cut Flowers

Later this summer, I’ll hopefully have some zinnias and dahlias to offer. I ordered a few dahlia seedlings from Burpee and hope to level up my gardening skills this year by learning how to collect and store dahlia tubers. Fingers crossed this small project will be successful.

How are the bees??

Better than expected after that crazy winter we had. I’d been complaining for years that Maryland never gets a winter anymore (I love all four seasons). But this year, we did! It wasn’t endless months of blizzards, but there were a lot of really, really cold days and a lot of extreme temperature swings, which aren’t good for the bees. But most of the hives made it!!

And Craig has once again been able to repopulate our apiary with naturally occurring, spring-caught swarms. Due to the generosity of another local beekeeper, our own bees, and Mother Nature, our apiary is looking good! Touch wood that our bees’ good luck continues.

Bonus Spring Pics

Beachcombing at Calvert Beach – my daughter who made the aprons
“The Old Woman and the Bay” – hahaha (me looking out over the Chesapeake)
Calvert Beach – we didn’t find any shark teeth but did find some fossilized shells, coral, barnacles, turtle shell pieces, and a possible ancient arrowhead??
Oak Spring Farm
Oak Spring Farm
Oak Spring Farm
This hive box needs a new tenant
This Oak Spring hive made it through winter!
Magnolia – one of our neighbor’s grandchildren is named after this tree!
Cherry trees – one of the best signs of spring
Forsythia – we’re thinking of adding more even though the bees are indifferent to it
More gorgeous cherry trees
Spoiled rotten!!

Thanks so much for sticking with us through the winter! Hope to see everyone at Opening Day for Hereford Farm Market on May 10th!! Come and buy something for Mom! Happy Spring, all!

September 13, 2024

This season’s butterflies

As we head into fall, I’m taking note of all the amazing butterflies I’ve seen this season, both near and far. Most of the butterflies I saw this year were native to Maryland, but a few were spotted in more exotic locales. I captured photos of beautiful North and Central American butterflies in a Mexican ecopark, on a Costa Rican coffee estate, and, of course, in Harford County.

Native Butterflies at Ladew

Ladew Gardens Butterfly House is open for another week or so. There’s still time for a visit. Although the butterflies are shifting into fall mode, there’s still a lot to see there and you can pick up tips for planting or improving your pollinator garden next spring!

The Butterfly House was designed to look like a butterfly

Black Swallowtails

Fennel is one of the host plants for Maryland’s Black Swallowtail butterflies (anything in the carrot family will do). Love that the caterpillar below was checking out his own sign! 🙂 The butterfly on the right is a male — you can tell because it has more yellow and less blue.

Buckeyes and Clouded Sulfurs

I still occasionally get the Clouded Sulfur and the Cloudless Sulfur mixed up. I tend to focus on the spots, but I think the defining characteristic between the two might be the wing edging.

Monarchs and Eastern Tiger Swallowtails

Like last year, the Butterfly House had a lot of monarchs in all stages. Keep planting that milkweed! 🙂

Monarch and Eastern Tiger Swallowtail on Joe Pye Weed

Pearl Crescents and Variegated Fritillaries

I get these two confused a lot. It’s easy to see why. I’m hoping my careful notes here in this post will help me get up to speed quickly next year.

Silver-spotted Skipper

For some reason, I always forget this one’s name… This is a butterfly, not a moth, even though it has a thicker body and is less colorful than many butterflies.

Spicebush Swallowtails

I love these butterflies for many reasons: their host plant is incredibly easy to remember (spicebush — haha), their caterpillar stage is adorably cute (they have big faux eyes and like to “taco” or curl up inside spicebush leaves for protection), and they are beautiful in the butterfly stage!

There’s a spicebush caterpillar curled up inside that leaf…

Zebra Swallowtails

These are really neat and dramatic looking. Their host plant is the Pawpaw tree, which is native to Maryland. Have you ever eaten pawpaws? They are an interesting fruit, kind of like a banana in consistency but hard to describe in taste. You can find them at farmer’s markets and specialty stores when they’re in season. I’ve heard pawpaw ice cream is the best, but haven’t had a chance to try it yet.

Eggs and baby caterpillars are tiny!

When I see how small butterfly eggs and baby caterpillars are, I always think they could easily be mistaken for disease, an invasive infestation, or even insect or bird poop. But these little ones will eventually turn into gorgeous and majestic butterflies!

Some really cool native Maryland moths – Cecropias & Clearwings

The clearwing hummingbird moth is one of my favorites in the Butterfly House. They truly look like small hummingbirds when they fly from flower to flower. You can see in the picture below that their wings are see-through. (Maybe hemaris thysbe was the inspo for Wonder Woman’s invisible plane? 😉 )

Shoutout to some other amazing North and Central American Butterflies

I love Ladew Gardens Butterfly House because it allows Marylanders to see all the beautiful butterflies our state has. But I was lucky enough to see some exotic butterflies this season in their own native areas.

Costa Rican butterflies

Blue morphos were everywhere! No need to go to a butterfly house to see them, but I was excited to check out the butterfly garden at Hacienda Doka and one in San Ramon. It was inspiring to see how Costa Ricans have embraced ecotourism and really want to rightfully show off all the natural wonder and beauty of their country.

Pura Vida is hard to translate but it’s a saying that seems to be equal parts carpe diem, joie de vivre, and stop and smell the flowers (or watch the butterflies). But it could also be used to express gentle acceptance of something that didn’t go as well as you wanted it to, gratitude, or simple acknowledgement.

Mexican Kite Swallowtails

Saw these beauties at Cenote Zapote in the heart of the Yucatan. There were clouds of them “puddling” near the water. They have really long tails, a neat aqua color and kite shape, and are constantly fluttering. My encounter with them felt ethereal and was truly magical. I’m both awestruck and not surprised that these creatures have been on planet Earth for 100 million years!!

Fashion Institute of Technology Textile Design Student Emily Chibnik’s “Mariposa”

Last picture in this post, but my first butterfly sighting of this season. Was collecting Ellie from school last spring and we went to see the student exhibits at the Pomerantz Art and Design Center. This embroidered design was one of my favorites, showing that nature continues to inspire whimsical, delightful art.

That’s a wrap for my 2024 butterfly season ~ More lepidoptera next year!

If you’ve read this far, you deserve a high five and a discount on honey or a free t-shirt! Stop by our table this weekend and tell me your favorite butterfly or moth and I’ll give you a dollar off a jar of honey or a free Windtree Bee t-shirt (while supplies last — I only have a handful left). See you tomorrow at the market!

September 11, 2024

This Sat: We’ll be at the Hereford Farm Market with wellness expert, Karen Dubs

Wellness expert and yoga instructor Karen Dubs has taught the Terps basketball team and the Ravens. She is also an author, animal lover turned dog rescuer, and all around awesome person! She’ll be at our table this Saturday to answer questions and share seasonal wellness tips. Bring your dogs! They’re welcome at the market and we’d love to meet them. Below is more information about some of Karen’s upcoming classes and events, as well as what Mandi and I will have at our “Hats & Honey” table. Hope to see you this weekend!

Flexible Warrior’s 6-week Yoga Cross Train series: 9/23 – 10/28

These classes will be a 20/20/20 format, so you’ll get the ultimate combo of cardio dance, yoga & Pilates with weights for strength and balance + restorative yoga stretch for flexibility. (If you’re not a cardio dancer, you can take a 20 min trail run or walk during our dance time.) Themed classes during the series are:

9/23 – Autumn Equinox Warrior Walk
9/30 – New Moon Intention Setting
10/14 – Full Moon Yoga
10/28 – Halloween Yoga & Monster Mash

Click here to sign up for classes or stop by our table this Saturday with questions for Karen! She offers a student rate for Hereford Zone kids and is happy to chat with any of you about offering classes to local sports teams or clubs.

Other reasons to come see us this Saturday…

Adorable hand-knit baby booties

Gorgeous fall hats!

Pumpkins and honey that never spoil!

We’ll have hand-knit pumpkins and local honey, both of which have a shelf life of FOREVER! 🙂

Hope you are all enjoying this wonderful fall weather and that we will see you soon!

September 5, 2024

Where to Find Windtree Bee Honey

We’re a bit past halfway through this season, and it’s been terrific! The bees were very generous to us this year. Below are all the places you can find us and our honey. Stock up for winter! HONEY NEVER SPOILS! It will keep forever. So get your jars now for winter tea, oatmeal, pancakes, peanut butter & banana sandwiches, etc.

HEREFORD FARM MARKET

Our regular market is HFM, which is held every Saturday from 9:00 am to noon in the Hereford High School parking lot. Look for us at the “Hats & Honey” table with Mandi from Rosie Posie Design Co. Regular vendors include produce farmers, dairy farmers, fruit growers, flower growers & florists, fiber artists, pottery artists, fungi aficionados, bakers, beekeepers & honey sellers + plenty of pepper sellers (hot, specialty, etc.) There’s usually live music, a food truck, and fresh, organic juices. More information on HFM can be found on its website or Facebook page.

OAK SPRING FARM STORE

Craig is the beekeeper for Oak Spring Farm, so we keep two of our hives there. For anyone who isn’t already familiar with Lisa Duff’s awesome CSA farm, check out her website. Members can pick up their share at the farm on Tuesdays from 1:00-6:00 pm. During that time, Lisa sells extras and other goodies, including our honey, at her farm store. 20633 Mt. Zion Road in Freeland.

OREGON RIDGE HONEY HARVEST FESTIVAL

This local festival is on Sunday, October 6th, at the Oregon Ridge Nature Center from 11:00am – 4:00 pm. They’ll have education stations, children’s crafts, animal encounters, pumpkin painting, cider making, and of course — lots of beekeepers and honey! For more info, check out the event page.

HEREFORD FALL FESTIVAL

October 19th (10:00 a.m. – 6:00 p.m.) & October 20th (10:00 a.m. – 5:00 p.m.) This year is the 25th Hereford Fall Fest. 24 Mt. Carmel Road in Parkton, behind the Royal Farms. We’ve participated in this event for years and it’s always fun. It’s a fundraiser for the Hereford Volunteer Fire Company. They’ll have food trucks, beer trucks, craft vendors, and live music. Past years have offered helicopter rides, mechanical bulls, and monster trucks. Wear shoes that can get muddy and dress for blustery autumn weather!

FEDERAL ARMORED MUSEUM CHRISTMAS BAZAAR

On Sunday, December 8th, from 1:00 – 4:00 p.m. at 130 Lakefront Drive in Hunt Valley. This is a FREE event. Santa will be there, so your kids can come with their lists and you can get pictures with little to no wait. Music majors at Towson University will be singing carols and they’ll be vendors selling jewelry, ornaments, stained glass, candles, cards — and honey! My winter jars will have holiday quilt square toppers. Our honey makes a great gift for teachers, neighbors, friends, family, and coworkers! More info on the museum can be found on its website.

OTHER VENUES…?

I’m actively searching for some additional markets for our honey — both in-person events and small, boutique retail stores. If you know of a place where home-harvested honey would be a welcome addition to the offerings, please reach out. I’ll be posting here if/when we add more places and events to our calendar.

OTHER UPDATES SOON

It’s been a busy year! Be on the lookout for future updates on: our hives and queen bees, local and exotic butterflies, beeswax candle making, and Apple Valley honey (a fun partnership with Karen Dubs of Flexible Warrior Yoga).

April 19, 2024April 19, 2024

Earth Day Celebration!

We’re kicking off the season tomorrow at Dejon Vineyard. They’re hosting an Earth Day event with BBQ, corn hole, and lots of wine! There will be cute, friendly farm animals, live music, and we’ll have honey!

Craig and I bottled about 80 pounds of spring harvested honey this week and it tastes amazing!! We’ll also have some Windtree Bee t-shirts and can answer any questions you might have from “What should you do if you see bees swarm in your yard?” to “How do you start beekeeping in Baltimore County?” No admission fee for the event but bring your own camp chairs if you want to sit outside. Hope to see you there!

What else have we been up to?

The American Museum of Natural History

This spring, I visited the AMNH near Central Park in NYC. It’s a huge museum! I limited myself to only the insect-related exhibits and I still didn’t see everything. (I forgot to reserve tix for the “What’s in a Name?” exhibit, a collection of rare books, entomological illustrations, Warhol art, and the “surreptitiously displayed” “whimsical” Withus oragainstus longhorn beetle. Sounds intriguing – a must for next time!)

The exhibits I saw were excellent:

The Davis Family Butterfly Vivarium – an exotic butterfly house with a pupae incubator. It was magical, although my favorite butterfly houses are still native ones like Ladew Gardens’.

The Solomon Family Insectarium – really neat! There’s a huge honeycomb exhibit, lots of info on honeybees, other bee species, and all sorts of interesting insects + a ginormous leafcutter ant farm.

“Extinct & Endangered” – Levon Biss’ macrophotography, which is best appreciated up close and in person.

Erie Eclipse Trip

We were lucky enough to be able to travel to Erie, PA to see the total eclipse. Craig planned our trip nearly a year ago. We were worried we wouldn’t see much because of the cloud cover, but the clouds cleared enough at just the right time for us to see the totality and immerse ourselves in one of the most outstanding natural science moments of 2024.

Until this month, I had only ever seen a partial eclipse. The Totality was everything they said it would be – incredible!! Such a neat experience. Witnessed flocks of circling birds beforehand, felt the temp drop during the event (so much so that I had to put my jacket on), and was able to see Baily’s beads, solar prominences, and the stellar corona. Hard to capture with words how extraordinary those three and a half minutes were!

Lots of hiking, a bit of beachcombing, and prayers for our bees…

Unfortunately, our prayers turned out to be last rites because most of our bees did not survive winter. It’s always sad but not uncommon. We’re constantly trying to up their odds of winter survival. Beekeeping is both an art and a science… and a little bit of faith.

Queen Rebecca (a.k.a. Boudica II) survived! She is the sole queen to make it through winter. Her line continues to be robust and strong. Long live the Boudicas!! 😀

We’ve also been catching swarms, jarring honey, and getting ready for the 2024 Season!

I’ll update everyone on the new bees and the Hereford Farmers Market soon. In the meantime, hope everyone’s spring is going well and that we will see you soon! Maybe tomorrow at Dejon Vineyard?

December 11, 2023

The Colors of Fall 2023 + Thank You!

The first snow seems like a good time to post the last of my autumn pics. This year’s foliage was some of the best I’ve seen in years. The October Glories lived up to their name — and the Sugar Maples and Sycamores were beautiful too.

Our Fall 2023 Colors: Orange, Blue & White

Our older daughter is graduating this year, so we spent more weekends in State College than usual this fall. Loved every moment, but we are looking forward to visiting our younger daughter at FIT next semester. Look for some spring posts on NYC parks and urban beekeeping.

Windtree Bee Winter Jams

We’re out of honey, but if you would like to buy a case of small batch jam or jelly during our off-season, please contact me for pricing, etc. We can chat about flavors and personalized labels.

Thank You for a Wonderful Season!

Craig and I are very grateful for each and every one of you who reads these posts, stops by our table, and/or buys our honey, jam & flowers!! We loved selling at the Hereford Farm Market this year and look forward to continuing to sell there in 2024.

If you miss me this winter, you can find me down at Princeton Sports or hiking with the Maryland Mountain Club. Now that our bees are tucked in, we’re hoping for lots of snow!

Wishing You & Yours a Very Happy Holiday Season!

Fellow Beekeeper Chuck Elrich’s House just south of the old Parkton train stop. Lights go on at 5:30 p.m.

October 20, 2023December 11, 2023

Hereford Fall Fest + Season Wrap Up

This weekend, we’ll be at the Hereford Fall Fest. We’ve been vendors there for years and it’s always a great event. Weather should be typical fall weather here – cloudy and a bit windy. Bring your muck boots and a giant backpack for all the stuff you’re gonna buy! 😉

We’ll have:

Pumpkin Pie Spiced Applesauce – a favorite that was very popular last fall. This year’s batch was made with SweeTango and Cortland apples. I like to use at least two different varieties because I think it gives the applesauce a better flavor. (But, honestly, what isn’t good with cinnamon, nutmeg, ginger, allspice, and cloves added to it?) Even if you’ve had your fill of PPS drinks, no one ever gets sick of PPS applesauce!!

Caramel Apple Coffee Jam – for coffee lovers! Delicious all year long, but especially in the fall and winter. I simmer the apples in espresso before turning them into jam. The caramel flavor comes from the brown sugar I add to sweeten it. This jam is perfect for a Pumpkin-Shaped Baked Brie Puff Pastry.

We’re also bringing:

Honey – the last of our 2023 harvest. We only have a couple dozen jars left. You know the deal, when they’re gone, they’re gone! Stock up on local, raw, minimally filtered, unprocessed, pure honey for your winter tea, oatmeal, toast, etc. It never goes bad. (Ever.) If it crystalizes, just gently heat it (do not boil) to bring it back to liquid form.

Summer jams – SALE! – I have a dozen or so “summer cocktail” jams that I’ll be selling at a discount. They’ll be shelf stable through the winter, so use them for thumbprint cookies come January when you need a sugar boost!

Windtree Bee Merch – SALE! – I’ll also be selling our #SupportLocalRoyalty bedazzled t-shirts at a discount. They are adorable and make great gifts!

Our Market Season is Wrapping Up

We really enjoyed selling at the Hereford Farm Market this year! We missed a lot of HFM weekends in September and early October due to various conflicts and commitments. After Fall Fest, however, we plan to return to HFM for Halloween weekend (Oct 28th).

What have we been up to?

Other fun pics of insects…

See you this weekend at Hereford Fall Fest!

August 11, 2023

2nd Honey Harvest, Cowboy Candy + Queen Scarlett Heads to Appalachia

Our second and last honey harvest for 2023 is ready for sale!! We jarred and labeled it and are bringing them to the Hereford Farm Market tomorrow. When they’re gone, they’re gone and we always sell out — so if you want honey, don’t wait to buy! We’ll also have cut flowers, seasonal jams, and homemade grape jelly for the kids and Orioles.

Candied Jalapenos, a.k.a. Cowboy Candy

This summer, we planted more flowers than vegetables, but we still had a lot of tomatoes, peppers, and eggplant. We’ve been eating tons of eggplant parm, tomato and mozz, and stuffed peppers. But we had soooooo many jalapenos, we wanted to make something new. Craig found The Pioneer Woman’s recipe for Cowboy Candy and we made it last Sunday, just before our Pittsburgh beekeeper buds arrived for a visit.

Queen Scarlett has left the building!

Our observation hive is no longer in residence at the Windtree Bee nuc yard. This is a good thing. We always knew our time with Queen Scarlett was going to be brief. The observation hive box isn’t something a hive can overwinter in. And, believe it or not, most beekeepers are already starting to think about winter. (Craig started treating our hives for varroa as soon as we finished harvesting the last batch of 2023 honey.)

We were going to give celebrity Queen Scarlett and her now experienced retinue to a local beekeeper for overwintering, but when our Pittsburgh beekeeper friends arrived last Sunday, it seemed like fate. They are both biology teachers and are working to have their beautiful two-acre property Audubon Certified. They had room for an extra hive, so we thought, PERFECT!! We bundled them up for travel in an extra-large mesh laundry bag and sent them west. Everyone arrived safely! They’ll be transferred to a Langstroth hive box that can be winterized later this week.

Kids, don’t try this at home! The observation hive bundled for a car’s backseat.

Hope everyone else had a nice week and stayed safe during the crazy storm we had. We had minimal damage – a leaky window, one downed tree limb, and an evening of candlelight reading due to the power outage. The weather looks great for tomorrow though, so stop by the market and see us! We’ll be at the “Hats & Honey” table near the musician’s tent.

August 3, 2023August 3, 2023

Maryland-inspired Favorites

This Saturday, we’ll be at the Hereford Farm Market with some homemade, home-inspired jelly and jam — please come see us! 🙂

Old Fashioned Grape Jelly: Ours has only three ingredients — unsweetened grape juice, pectin, and sugar — that’s it. You should buy two jars, one for your kids (or anyone in your house who loves PB&J) and one for the Orioles. The birds love it too!! We’re offering 8 oz jars and little 4 oz jars because you can put those right outside for the birds.

Savory Peach Jam made with Maryland’s Favorite Spice Mix: If you have to ask what the spice mix is, I’m guessing you’re not from around here. (Okay, yeah, there’s at least one other well known Maryland-based spice mix, so I’ll tell you… I put a pinch of McCormick’s Old Bay in this recipe.) This jam is divinely delicious!! Terrific as a chicken wing dipping sauce, pork chop glaze, or charcuterie board ensemble cast member. Or slather it on brie or cream cheese and eat with crackers or crostini.

We’ll also have cut flowers from our pollinator garden and some other seasonal jams. Hope to see you there!