August 30, 2011

Honey Bee Bee Bee Bee Bee Bee

My dad has become a beekeeper and it's probably one of the coolest things I have ever experienced. Whenever I travel home, we venture out to the bee hive in our paper white hasmat suits to check the bees out. They are always busy bees, collecting pollen to bring back to the hive. This last trip, I got the privilege of helping my parents harvest the honey. We snapped some photos to show the process...

Beehive full of honey. We harvested the right side of this box. We only took 1/8 of the actual bee hive. 

All the honey comb with some stray bees



Bees removed from honey comb

Mashing comb with hands to get all the honey out
Pouring mash through a screen to filter out waxy comb
                                     

Letting the honey, strainer, and comb siting in the greenhouse to warm up and flow faster\




Our harvest! We got about a gallon of honey this time.
The final product, ready to go on our shelves and in out tummies!!!
Literally one of the most amazing experiences. I am convinced that I will be a beekeeper one day as well when my neighbors don't live so close...

August 4, 2011

Kombucha what?


Have you ever had Kombucha? I had never heard of it until I moved to Portland. Although there is little research to prove the health benefits of Kombucha, there are many claims that it provides a wealth of health benefits to your body. It can serve as a digestive aid, detoxifies, your body, increases energy, and so on. I really enjoy kombucha. It is a little funky at first, being that it is fermented tea, so you get a little fermented flavor plus a few bubbles. It i typically made with green or black tea but I assume you could use any tea you'd like. Anyways, Tom got my a Kombucha starter kit this Christmas a I thought I'd give it a shot. 
Below you can see the big jar, tea bag, kombucha starter (sometimes called the Mother, basically a piece of the bacteria that ferments the tea), and sugar for the bacteria to eat.
It is very simple to make. You first brew the tea and add the sugar, then you wait until it has cooled to room temperature and add the Mother. It is really gross looking but I got over it.
The tea itself has to sit and ferment for about 2 weeks and then it will be ready to drink. Below you can kinda see the shadow/outline of the mother that had grown larger to cove the top of the jar.
After the tea was done, I was still pretty cautious of drinking it. I tasted it and it seemed normal but I was still worried that I had done something wrong and the growing mother was actually bad bacteria. I kinda freaked myself out.....So, I dumped the tea and kept the mother so I could try again. Although I never drank the tea, it was a fun experience and I am super stoked to try it again.