2021 Maryland State Fair
Windtree Bee Honey Places in Top Five!
We entered our honey in the Small Beekeeper Class, Amber Category — and we won fifth place! This was our first time entering honey to be judged and I wasn’t sure how it would go.
How we judge our honey
The only things we care about are whether our bees, us, and our friends, family, and customers think our honey is ready for harvesting and at peak quality. The bees tell us when they think it’s ready by capping it (they seal the ends of the honeycomb when the moisture content is just right). Next, we bottle it in a clean kitchen using sterilized jars and cute packaging. Then, everyone else lets us know how tasty it is. 😉
Every batch of wildflower honey is unique and delicious. Similar to the way in which wine vintages are affected by the annual grape harvest, honey harvests are affected by the types of flowers the bees gather nectar and pollen from when they make that batch of honey. Neat, right? So, even if we wanted to, we could never again exactly produce the Windtree Bee Summer 2021 batch again. But what a batch!! We’ve been so happy with it! 🙂 🙂 🙂
How the Maryland State Fair & Agricultural Society Judges judge honey
The judges care about all the things I mentioned above, but they are meticulously exact about everything — as they should be. They judge each entrant’s honey on six criteria: containers, crystals, foam, accuracy of filling, density (water content), and flavor. We had top scores for nearly every criteria but so did the other beekeepers. The one area where we could improve is “accuracy of filling”. I didn’t even know that was a thing with honey! With my jellies, jams, and preserves, I’m insanely accurate about filling and I always measure the “headspace” of my jars. But we’ve never been quite that accurate with our honey because you don’t vacuum seal honey. We’ve always made sure it’s at least as full as a pound and if someone gets a little extra, no big deal.
So there you have it! Probably more than you ever wanted to know about how honey is judged! 😀
Early Fall Means Apples!
I wanted to go apple picking at Shaw’s last weekend but they’re closed on Sunday, so I drove down to Weber’s Cider Mill. I hadn’t been there since my kids were little. It wasn’t as busy as I remembered, but it could have been the weather (rainy) or the pandemic or… who knows? They have a nice little farm store where I was also able to pick up a gift for my neighbor.
For the market this week, I made a double batch of Apple Pie Jam with the apples from Weber’s. Craig said this jam is the best I’ve ever made. (While this makes me happy, he says this every time. Haha.) But it’s really delicious!
Use on cinnamon scones, blueberry bagels, graham crackers, oatmeal, and ice cream
New Granola Flavors!
I also made two new batches of granola for tomorrow: Nutty Apple and Peanut Butter Banana. I’m selling these in 16 oz jam jars, which is about two cups. That’s a lot of granola, but if you love granola, you could eat it straight out of the jar. (BYOM — bring you’re own milk; I’ll have spoons!)
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.
Windtree Bee 