Archive for September, 2007
September 2, 2007 – Another Big Canning Day
Today was another big canning push.
We moved the stainless steel table out under the shade – the heat has returned, but not the humidity.
Today’s haul was 35 quarts of tomatoes and about 55 jars of raspberry jam. It’s not bad with many hands. One of Emma’s favorite tasks is blanching and cutting up tomatoes. Even after all this, we still snarfed down sliced tomatoes at dinner – it’s hard to get sick of something so good!
September 1, 2007 – Honey Extraction
Today is the day that beekeeper gj gets the rewards of her labors! We gather the frames in the middle of the day and put them in the back of the truck and park it miles away. After dark and the bees are in bed, we warm up the garage to about 85 degrees and start extracting.
The first step is to take the wax caps off the combs. Emma has grabbed a frame and is slicing off the caps (wax) with a warm knife.
The frames are put into the extractor, four at a time and spun around by hand.
At the bottom of the extractor, Martin is the “gatekeeper” and manages the honey coming out of the extractor and makes sure the filters don’t spill over.
