Winding down harvest

Scratching wax cappings off a honey frame

What's new on the farm:

And just like that, it's September.

We have done two rounds of harvesting so far and we are starting our third round this week.

For each round, we visit each of our bee yards and remove the honey boxes (called "honey supers") for extraction.

We also replace the full supers with empty ones for the bees to fill up again.

In the last few years of drought, we harvested only two rounds in total. There wasn't enough nectar for the bees to fill up a third round.

So we're grateful that the nectar flow has continued long enough to get one more round of honey!

Andrew has noticed in the third round that the honey has a noticeable scent and color that's different from our first two rounds.

At this time of season, the primary nectar is coming from the wildflowers in the fields and ditches.

There is a lot of sowthistle, goldenrod, aster, and some sweet clover.

This honey tends to be more "fruity" and has a light orange hue rather than our regular white honey. It reminds me of apricots!

The third round is our smallest one. It will be only 10% of our total production this year. Since we don't blend our honeys, we will be able to package a small batch of our wildflower honey.

I'm really excited about it because we haven't been able to get this special wildflower honey for the last +5 years!

The honey is still in the supers now but in the next week or so we will extract and bottle it. Keep your eyes peeled when we announce that it's available!

In the Kitchen

Thanks to everyone who has ordered the new Strawberry Honey!

Orders are on the way and some of you should already have them in hand now.

If you've tried it, let me know how you're using it! I've currently got a slice of fresh bread slathered with salted butter and our strawberry honey next to me.

If you haven't gotten a jar yet, we are almost sold out of our first batch!

Honey-Balsamic Glazed Brussels Sprouts

Brussels sprouts are in season and I love eating them roasted with honey or maple syrup drizzled over them.

Even better is our Spicy honey which has a sweet and spicy kick.

Try this recipe from Delish for the perfect fall dish!