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!
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!
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.
Craig’s been hard at work getting the bees ready for winter. The three biggest things that need to be done before winter are treating for varroa, making sure the bees have enough honey to last until spring, and making sure the hive is prepared for lower temps, freezing rain, and snow. Moisture in a hive during the winter will kill them.
Back in 2019, I posted about our process for winterizing the hives. The biggest difference between then and now is that we’ve upped the varroa treatment and this year, for the first time, Craig decided to insulate the hives. After losing all our hives in 2020, we’ve been wondering what else we can do to help our bees overwinter. After much hand-wringing, soul-searching, bellyaching, and griping to anyone who would listen about the plight of bees over the winter, we stumbled on the Honey Bee Obscura Podcast with Kim and Jim. They convinced us to insulate. We’ll keep everyone posted, but prayers for our bees might also help!!
Ready for Winter
Still have to fill my squirrel house with nuts, but hopefully we’ve done enough for our bees!Wye Oak Descendant & Late Autumn Garden
Did anyone else see last night’s lunar eclipse?
It was amazing! Our whole family got up at 3:45 a.m. to watch. I wasn’t sure if it would be worth it, but it was. Even though it wasn’t a full lunar eclipse, the long period of time the moon was nearly fully eclipsed gave us time to look through our little telescope and take pictures. My younger daughter took these with her iPhone. Neat, huh? If you missed it, the next lunar eclipse will be in the spring.
2021 Frost Moon Eclipse
Reverse image of 11.19.21 eclipse taken through a 60mm refractor telescope
Last Saturday for the Hereford Farm Market!
Tomorrow is the LAST DAY OF THE SEASON for selling at the Hereford Farm Market. Wow!! It has been a terrific season!!! When I started selling jam back in May, my only goal was to simply sit at the “Hats & Honey” table so that I could chat with people in my community again. I had no idea if I would be able to sell enough jam to justify being at the market every week as a vendor. I figured, if my jam didn’t sell, I’d just be a guest vendor when our honey was finally harvested. But that didn’t happen. The jam sold, I went nearly every week, and it’s all because of YOU!!!
If you’re one of the people who bought jam, honey, or other items from us this season — THANK YOU FROM THE BOTTOM OF MY HEART!!!!! It was truly a pleasure coming to the market every week. It was fun finding new recipes and making new batches, but even better was being able to talk about bees, honey, jam, farm markets, Hereford, kids, dogs — you name it! — with anyone and everyone who stopped by our table.
Special Shout Out to Mandi!
Mandi, owner of Rosie Posie Design Co., is my table partner and the other half of “Hats & Honey.” She was a HUGE part of the success of this season. She and her husband, Rob, are super laid back, fun, and easy going. Selling was never stressful with them. Although Windtree Bee’s season is winding down, Rosie Posie’s is in high gear. Her hats and knit accessories are the perfect handmade gift for friends and family this winter. If you haven’t already, check out her website. She has all sorts of winter goodies still available: hats, beanies, cowls, mittens, and the most adorable miniature hats that double as ornaments or wine toppers. She offers knitting kits and her own designs for knitters too.
Rosie Posie’s Bitty Beanies
What am I bringing to the market?
Because it’s the last day, I went a little overboard this week and made double what I usually make. I really wanted to make some things with fresh cranberries, which can be hard to find sometimes, and also pie filling, which is more time consuming than basic jam or jelly, but worth it. Here’s what I’ll have:
Honey Maple Cranberry Sauce: Made with fresh cranberries, organic apple cider, honey and maple syrup, this isn’t your typical store-bought canned cranberry sauce.
Spiced Cranberries: Made with organic cranberries, orange juice, sugar, and a trio of autumn spices, this is another great choice if you want something different than tin can cranberry sauce.
Caramel Apple Coffee Jam: I made this at the very beginning of the season and reprised it because it’s so darn good. The perfect jam for coffee lovers!
Spiced Apple Pie Filling: This is available in one pint jars. Most traditional pie tins take two pints to fill. One jar is perfect for a personal pie pan or for filling apple tarts. This stuff makes pies easy! Just buy premade pie crust, roll it out, and add this. Or make your own crust, pour this in, and still have a 100% homemade pie.
CranApple Jelly: Made with Pomona’s Pectin, so there is a much lower sugar content than traditional jellies have. Plus, no high fructose corn sweetener. This jelly has only three ingredients — fruit juice, sugar, and pectin. Super simple but not super sweet.
“Black & Blue” Jelly: Black currant, blueberry, and apple jelly. Also made with Pomona’s Pectin, so a lower sugar alternative to store-bought jellies.
Special order over the winter!
If you want to buy jam, jelly, marmalade, preserves, or conserves this winter (or dog treats! 🙂 ) click HERE for my new special orders page.
After this weekend, I won’t be blogging as frequently as I did during the market season, but I will post from time to time. I have several winter projects I’ll be working on and I’m looking forward to sharing them.
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 