We’ve been furiously busy putting the finishing touches on the next issue of the magazine, so haven’t had much bee time (except for the occasional stress-relieving short visit). But today we were finally able to go out to the bees. They’re doing so well. Califia is filling her top bar hive admirably; she now has built perfect natural comb on [...]
Monthly Archives: May 2009
Spring garden prepares for harvest
The cooks are putting the final touches on the menu, and I’m once again preparing to part with a garden that’s all grown up. Here’s how the One Block spring menu has come to life: The radishes are looking pretty wimpy. They’re getting fried in this heat! We already enjoyed the first succession a few weeks ago. It’s a bummer [...]
Backyard chickens: Is the trend real or fake?
I’m feeling ruffled. Jack Shafer, the increasingly cranky media critic over at Slate.com, wrote a column yesterday suggesting that raising backyard chickens is a bogus trend. (Busting bogus trends is his thing—a point of pride.) Shafer cited recent articles from newspapers around the country that he calls “all-feather, no-bone journalism,” including pieces from The Oregonian, Arizona Republic, Chicago Tribune, the [...]
Pouring honey
Just another day with Sunset’s Team Bee. Kimberley Burch, our team’s queen bee, bottles an unexpected honey harvest. We pulled a few frames from Midge, and bottled 32 3 oz. bottles (and ate a fair amount before bottling). Since one frame had enough honey to fill 22 bottles, I guess we ate more than a fair amount. It was delicious—light [...]
