Honey Bees on Flowers again

Here is a whole bouquet of honey bees on flowers. This is the time of the main honey flow so the photos are coming fast and thick. We are hoping to harvest honey really soon - maybe even next week. Everyone is asking for honey and we want honey too. Can hardly wait for the hot sticky sweet days of extracting honey.

Natural Sun Screen

I've finally done it! Here's the label I just drew for our new product - Natural Sun Screen! Gavin took it to market on Saturday and sold a bunch of them. The zinc oxide is a physical barrier to the sun and coconut oil has natural sun screen properties. It's in a translucent twist up tube like a giant lip balm.

We have tons of wild raspberries taking over the garden. I've tried to get rid of them and even had my very kind brother and sister in law dig them all out a couple of years ago but they are back and covered in fruit. I've decided to enjoy them for now but I will have to keep mowing them down so they don't get out of control. Besides, I need more space for veggies. Raspberry shortcake with Nana's cake and plain yogurt and maple syrup on top ...... mmmmm....

Eating Flowers

Here we have Matias sampling some wildflowers. I'm getting ready to teach a workshop on identifying edible wild plants so I practiced on our friends who were visiting last weekend. Matias really enjoyed eating vetch but that's water mint he's biting in the photo. There's vetch in this bouquet - it's the purple flower sticking out the sides. Also appearing in this sweet little bouquet are leek flowers, cilantro flowers and an unusually variegated milkweed. We had lots of lavender bunches from The Prince Edward County Lavender Farm this week at market along with my $5 posies. We're selling lavender essential oil from them as well. That's what's in the little jars on the right.
This is my honey man doing his Bill Clinton impersonation. Actually, he's explaining how to put foundation into frames for the bee hives. Check out the piles of new equipment he's built. He's got an awesome tape deck hanging up there too.

Bees on Poppies

I discovered honey bees on the poppies in my garden the other day! What a discovery. They almost can't seem to figure out how to get into all those ruffly petals. I love sneaking around with my camera waiting for bees to land on flowers. I love the shot of the bee coming in for a landing. Here's a little video of a couple of our hives buzzing along nicely.

Elderflowers

This is another beautiful work group activity. Harvesting elderflowers to dry for our new tea for kids which will be called Tea Party. I'll post the label design once it's ready. Many of us also made a fizzy drink out of the fresh flowers. It's important to use the European elderflower. Here's the recipe -

Elderflower Sparkler
3 1/2 cups sugar
2 cups hot water
4 large fresh elderflower heads
2 Tbsp. white wine vinegar
juice and pared rind of 1 lemon
4 litres of water

Mix the sugar with the hot water. Pour into a large glass or plastic container. Add all the remaining ingredients. Stir well, cover and leave for about 5 days.
Strain off the liquid into sterilized screw-top glass or plastic bottles. Leave for a further week or so. Serve very cold. Tastes good mixed half and half with fizzy water.

Check out the work of this intriguing artist. Makes me want to try making little scenes to photograph. Alex Mcleod

Honey Bees on Flowers

This is the beginning of my attempt at photographing the honey bees on flowers. It involves lots of holding still and trying to be invisible. This purple flower at the bottom is creeping charlie. The pale purple is thyme and the pink is a rose from the climbing roses on our porch. I was so thrilled to catch the bees on the roses today. It's been raining so much lately I was afraid the roses would finish blooming before we got any sun.

Bouquets for market

I've started selling bouquets of flowers at the Green Barns Market in Toronto. They're $5.00 each and are either wildflowers, garden flowers or herbs. Hazel is holding a herbal bouquet with chive flowers, chamomile, mint, oregano, and lovage. They're going over well and it's lots of fun to see how they change each week.