the first honey

It's utterly amazing to have bees in the garden - honey bees - beautiful little creatures, so hard working and dedicated, it's unfanthomable. We were having a quick look in the hive the other day, seeing if everything was fine, and also taking a little bit of their honey.

Little S is a wonderfully attentive observer. He has a good grasp of what he sees, but also has an eye for the details. (Please note, that the next pictures were taken in a few seconds, in order not to disturb too much, and more importantly: not letting the temperature in the hive get too low).

See, how caring a bee is towards another bee, which has just been 'born'. If you enlarge the pictures, you can see the one one to the right is actually licking the other one. Little S spotted them instantly - amongst thousands and thousands of other bees ...

Here you can see a drone being 'born' (guess the right word is 'hatched', but I just like born better). You can see it's a drone (male) because he's bigger than the worker bees, and also the size of his eyes, which are much bigger than the eyes of the females.

Comb with honey. Glorious, golden, beautiful and sweet honey! We cut the comb out of the frame, and laid it in a sieve, so the honey could slowly drip from the comb. This way you don't ruin the honey, and all the incredible healthy stuff, that's in the honey, you get too. Given time, almost all the honey will drip from the comb, and the rest can be extracted by pressing. My husband had the clever idea, to use a potato ricer, and it worked fine. We did eat some of the comb with honey in it first, as candy and chewing gum. First you get this wonderful sweet and spicy mouthfull, and then you chew the beeswax as gum. The propolis in the beeswax makes it the healthiest candy you can get.

Little S made his first batch of crispbread - all on his own! Reading the recipe, measuring; everything. After tasting them, he deemed them suitable for making again, so he found a book to write down the recipe, and thereby started his very own cook book of favourite recipes. That makes a mummy proud!
They are so good, and even better with a dash of honey.

Today we made instant elder flower drinks. Poured boiling water over a handful of flowers. Let it cool. Strain. Add lemon juice and honey, and you have concentrated, liquified summer to delight in.

Update: I forgot, that we use to slice the lemon, and add them to the flowers - before the boiling water is added. It's better that way :)