Some thoughts on mead and pre-industrial bee keeping

So, in a lot of mead recipes there's the direction to boil the honey with water and skim off the scum, which sterilizes it a bit and removes impurities. With modern beekeeping methods there's very little in the way of impurities, so this always seemed like a slightly redundant step to me. Until two days ago when I had to clean up a mess I let build up in a hive, and I ended up with almost 2kg of honey, and the associated wax... and a bunch of dead bees in it. Pro tip- bees are busy little creatures, and if you leave a bit of extra space on top for any reason they will build right up into it lickety-split.

How to attract Bumblebees to your garden

According to Hinterland Who's Who Bumblebees are native to North America (unlike honey bees which did not exist here until Colonists brought them over). They are large and fuzzy, and non-aggressive, unless you disturb their nest or swat at them (or step on them). Their stinger isn't barbed, unlike the honey bee, so they can sting multiple times if they need to. The drones (males) do not have a stinger at all. Bumblebees see in UV light so they are more attracted to blue and purple flowers, but they will happily feed off of any flowers they find.

Only 45 species of bumblebees are social, meaning that they live in hives of up to 200 individuals, whereas honeybees have colonies of up to 40,000. Bumblebees make very little honey as all but the new queens die off over the winter. They usually nest underground in abandoned rodent burrows, and they can be found in sub-Arctic to sub-Tropical climates.

Parmesan garlic basil crisps

It's as easy as this- Preheat the oven to 350F, line a baking pan with baking paper, drop tablespoons full of real, grated parmesan (not the kind from the shaker) onto the paper and flatten out a bit. Sprinkle with dried basil and garlic powder. Bake for 5 minutes. Let it cool. Eat.

You can make as many or as few as you want. Keeps for a week in the fridge in an airtight container.

Sorry I've been offline for a while

In mid-February I fell on the ice and hit my head. I haven't been able to be online to work on anything, including checking my email.

I hope to be back soon.

Dandelion Wine

I swear that I'm going to try it this year. I like this method as it looks plausibly medieval.

Ingredients

• 10 cups dandelion blossoms (leaves only, no green part or it will be too bitter)
• 3.7 litres (or 1 gallon, or 16 cups) water
• 2 oranges with peel (if I'm eating the peel I really prefer organic)
• 1 lemon with peel
• 6 cups sugar
• 1 pkg wine yeast
• 0.45 kg (or 1 lb) raisins

Why do my houseplants die? (A tale of unnecessary woe)

Or, humans can't live on bread and water alone, and neither can plants...


I have some friends who swear up and down that they have a brown thumb. Every plant they take in dies a long, slow, horrible death. Sometimes it's because they forget to water enough (and even more rarely, too much). Usually when I ask them what happens, they say they don't know.


tl;dr- Buy a good liquid plant food and add it to your plant water as directed. Sometimes you need to re-pot your plants in new soil. Ask at your local garden centre what they suggest. Sometimes your plant has outgrown its pot and needs a slightly bigger one, but if you don't give food to your plant it will likely never get to this point.


If you actually want to learn something about it, read on...

Mend your own clothes- patching jeans and shirts

I took patching my jeans to spectacular new heights in high school. I had one pair that was more patch than jean. They fit like a glove... mostly because I remade them that way. I would pin the patch onto my jeans while wearing them (safety pins of course), take them off, and then sew the patch like that. Usually with contrasting thread and embroidery floss.

I'm not that radical anymore, but I still enjoy a good patch on a knee or two. Elbow patches on sweaters are endearing. Inner thigh patches are a little bit embarrassing, mostly because I don't really want to draw attention to that spot, and patches tend to draw the eye.

That said, I must be a little more gentle on my clothes than I used to be. I almost never blow out the knees of my jeans. I mostly need to patch the outside edges where the fabric wears from use along the seam at my hip. Or moth holes in my favourite wool sweaters. (Bloody moths)