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The Tattler "Tales from the Farm"
May, 2002 Vol. 2, No. 5
Greetings Honey, Candles & Grape Enthusiasts!
Direct from the farm!
That is the theme at Honeyflow Farm. In September, if you visit our farm
roadside market, you can pick from more than 20 varieties of grapes!
You can fill your containers with honey
from a 55 gallon barrel! You can purchase candles made
from pure beeswax! If you come to our farm & happen to see some
guy standing around with a camera talking about bees,
grapes, winemaking
& candles - this
would be me. If you purchase candles
or honey from our website you will know that this is not like doing business
with an impersonal major retailer.
This is not Walmart - This is a family farm!
This is the May 2002
issue of our monthly newsletter.
Through our web site you can
purchase candles and honey products throughout the year.
To view past issues of our newsletter, please visit our Newsletter Archive.
If you do not wish to receive our monthly newsletter please visit the "edit subscription link" at the bottom of the page to be removed from our mailing list.
We need
your advice & input!
We are constantly making changes to our newsletter and our website and very much want any comment you have to improve it, any thing new you would like, anything you do not like, etc. Please click here with any comments.
Please
Send In Recipes or Comments!
We publish lots of grape or honey recipes that our readers send in.
If you have a unique grape recipe, winemaking recipe, honey recipe or any beekeeping
or winemaking story or comments you would like to say regarding beekeeping,
honey or candles, PLEASE
CLICK HERE AND SEND THEM TO ME! I would like to hear from
you & reprint them in our newsletter. See the Comments
from our Readers section below.
May with the honeybees.
Our SMR queens have arrived and were installed in our queen breeder yard. I will use them to raise new queens that I will use to replace older queens (if they get old the hive does not produce as much honey) or make splits (new hives). Click here for pictures.
With the hazards of agriculture sometimes things do not always go smoothly and one was not accepted by the bees and was killed a few days later. That is the reason I purchased TWO breeder queens. I only really need one the additional queen was insurance.
These
breeder queens, called SMR (or smart queens) have just been developed
and many people hope that the genes from these bees will start to spread accross
the country to help control the devastating loss from the varroa mite.
Click here for more information about "smart" queens.
Click here to see how we install
and raise new queens.
We are starting a pictorial page that will show where honey comes from and what we do to our honeybees each month throughout the year. Watch a field of flowers become honey.
May is
a big month for pollination - All the fruit trees are in bloom and honeybees
are the best pollinator. Click
here for a great article on the value of pollination.
May honey recipes - Spicy Honey Applesauce Cake
Cream honey and butter. Blend in eggs, vanilla and applesauce. In separate bowl, combine dry ingredients, then stir gradually into creamed mixture. Add to a greased 9 x 13 inch pan. Bake at 325 degrees for 25-40 minutes. E. Ballard, Dryden Michigan
Do you have a great honey recipe - please send it to me and we will put it in our newsletter.
The hazards of agriculture in Michigan! Spring Frost!
The very warm weather we had a few weeks ago did not do the vines any good. Reports from the Paw Paw area on the west side of the state show 90% damage. I think our damage was a lot less. Click here for a report from West Michigan!
Some of the varieties reacted to the warm weather and their buds were beginning to swell and grow a little earlier that we would like. Some of the buds were damaged on the morning of Tuesday April 23. (pictures). I hope the damage will be minimal. The growing area on the west side of the state is about 1 week ahead of us and their vines were much further along. Fortunately the weather has remained cooler after the frost so the vine growth is now somewhat normal. Stay tuned for next months newsletter since we should have lots of leaf growth (and more pictures) by then.
Here is a picture of frozen shoots from a late spring frost last year on Mothers Day, 2001. This damage was VERY SEVERE and we lost about 2/3 of our crop. Fortunately this does not happen very often. This is somewhat like what happened to the Michigan Paw Paw area this year.
Here is a good article on how much cold temperatures grapes buds can survive in the spring. How Cold Can Grapes Go?
We have had many people ask about how to enter their wine in the Michigan State Fair Contest. Here is some first hand information from one of last years winners, W C "Sandy" Paetz .
Dear Bill,
Regarding your query on the Michigan State Fair all entries would be welcomed.
Here is all that needs to be done: Write Michigan State Fair and ask for a
copy of the Community Arts and Crafts Premium Book. This has the
rules, schedule and premium list. In this book is Department III canning and
preserving: Section 8 is wine. To obtain this book and the entry information:
Write to: Michigan Department
of Agriculture
Michigan State Fair
1120 West State Fair Avenue
Detroit, Michigan 48203-1040
or:Call the office at:313-369-8260 or Fax: 313-36-8499
or: www.michiganstatefair.net
.
Please note that only wines made with produce grown in Michigan are eligible
for entry in this competition. Such as grapes or honey from Honey Flow Farm.
The time to submit entries is in late July with Judging in August. (The deadlines
are published on the cover of the Premium Book) This is one of the friendliest
and most exciting programs an amateur wine maker can get involved in. It is
very gratifying, fun and educational. Please do all you can to increase the
number of contestants. There is no better way to spend an exciting summer
day then to watch the judging of this wine tasting and then see the many compelling
exhibits and thrilling events of the Michigan State Fair.
Last year the judges included
Mr. David Creighton who is a Promotional Specialist with the Michigan Grape
and Wine Industry Council and Linda Jones who is the Program Manager of the
Michigan Grape and Wine Industry Council. They both possess sophistication,
class and a grape sense of humor. Everyone in the audience enjoyed their comments
and learned the elements of judging first hand. I know that one of my wines,
a Niagara with high acid and intense flavor had the most incredible facial
expression from all of the judges, this was followed by a smile and the comment
"This is a very very interesting wine." There were no derogatory
remarks made about any of the wines so no one should feel intimidated. Once
the judges rendered their decisions for each class everyone could understand
the elements they were looking for.If you enjoy making new friends, the subject
of wine, or have a need to know....Don't miss this fun event. It is held in
doors in the Arts and Crafts Building. Starts early on a Saturday morning
and lasts about two hours depending on entries.
W C "Sandy" Paetz
The continuous story of Cayuga Row 34 and how it behaves during this growing season.
Meet Cayuga Row 34 (or really the first vine in this row). This will be one of the vines that we will focus on this year, taking pictures of it all during the growing season. You will see it shortly after it is pruned (around Easter), when the buds are swelling and bursting in May, when it blooms in June, when the berries dramatically increase in size in July, when the berries color (although Cayuga is a white grape) in August, and you may be the one to harvest it in September!
In (February) we were able to get a very nice picture of our cayuga vine covered with snow. Near the end of march we will start pruning this vine. We will add to this page during the season as the vine grows.
This is a picture of the same vine after being pruned and tied in late March 2002
This picture was taken May 6, 2001. It shows Cayuga buds in the "bud swell" stage. Cayuga starts its spring growth somewhat later than DeChaunac or Delaware and had very little frost damage.
Do you have a great grape recipe - please send it to me.
Comments/Questions/Recipes From Our Readers
This is a new section for Comments/Questions/Recipes from our readers. Please read the comments & feel free to put your 2 cents worth in. We had some questions on wine & honey vinegar - are there any vinegar makers reading this? Click here to send me a message.
Beeswax soap, botulism in beeswax?, ear candles, honey vinegar, melting granulated honey, Michigan State Fair Wine Contest. Click here to visit our "From our Readers" Page
I Need Your Help (Again)
I keep getting emails advertising expensive services to check our website for link errors, spelling mistakes, etc. I don't think anybody could do this job better than our readers. So WOULD YOU PLEASE BE MY EXPENSIVE PROGRAM and if you notice errors or anything that needs correction please click here and email the problem to me. I find that as our website and Newsletter grows that things can sometimes slip by and we miss lots of stuff. PLEASE HELP!!
Congratulations! May candle winner is = creativehairdesign@yahoo.com
Click here for the full list of winners!
