Happy Fourth!

-posted by Jayne.

It’s been a beautiful July 4th so far, and the day can only get better, as I am done working. We had a farmer’s market in Worthington today (apparently some folks missed the memo, as it was one of our slowest we’ve had in years.) Nonetheless it was a beautiful, hot day and we celebrated America by buying corn, watermelon, cucumbers, and green beans. And honey!

This week, I received a message from an old college friend, Katie, who leads a Daisy girl scout troop of 6 year olds in Columbus. She mentioned they were reading a story about a bee garden and one of the activities was to visit a local garden or farmers market and ask them how they use resources wisely. She asked if I was willing to make a quick little video about bees and a way we “use our resources wisely.”

So I came up with this- the story about how we use beeswax cappings to create value added products from the hive, and uploaded the video to YouTube.

I realized after I watched the video that I had left out one important step. We actually pour the beeswax through a mesh screen filter in the first filtering process. It’s an important step I shouldn’t have left out if I was speaking at a beekeeping conference. I don’t think the 6 year old Daisy girl scouts will mind though.

I’ve also discovered a great recipe resource at www.beesource.com, a forum for beekeepers. They have an entire section designated for recipes, and this week I tried a delicious honey mustard dressing. If your summer garden is beginning to overflow with vegetables, and you need something a little tangy and sweet to dress them up- I highly recommend this recipe.

Homemade Honey Mustard Dressing

If you have any other honey recipes you’d like to share in the comments below- please do! We’d love to try them out. Have a great week.