We've been eating it on tacos and by the bucket load with chips. We stopped in a Whole Foods today and I was pretty pleased to see I grew every variety of heirloom tomato they were selling. Our favorite by far is Cherokee Purple, the flavor is unparalleled. They do produce less than other varieties, but I think we will mostly grow them next year. Whole Paycheck was charging $4.00/lb for them! We estimate we grew over 200 pounds of tomatoes this year from 25 plants and very few went to waste. We sauced, canned, BLT'd and shared.
Speaking of good food we went on the Hood River Fruit Loop on Saturday for the Pear Festival and sampled lots of good local foods. We also found some good deals along the way - pears for $0.25/lb! Big ears of corn for $0.25/ear! The first Honey Crisps of the year and some baby alpaca yarn to make Aaron a winter hat.
Today we began preparing the bees for winter by treating them for mites with Api Life Var. This contains thymol and works as a fumigant in the hive. It comes in crystalline wafers which we cut into quarters, then wrapped them in aluminum screen to prevent the bees from just hauling them out the front door before they could do their job.
Then placed them on top of the brood chamber. We will switch them out in 7-10 days, then again 7-10 days after that, then remove the final ones for the winter. We saw a ton of mites this summer, so to keep them going strong through the winter we are going to knock those mite numbers down.
Our queenless hive is gone, there were just a few yellow jackets flying around in there today. It looks like they just massacred the bees left in there. We broke the hive down and brought it in for the winter.
Some good news to end on - Camilla laid an egg today! It had been over 4 months since she laid her last. Luckily I love that little chicken and we are not just going for egg production over here, but I am happy to have eggs from her again. They are perfect for those recipes that you halve that call for 1 egg.
5 comments:
I love reading about your bee adventures. Ever since Fried Green Tomatoes I've wanted bees. And now I really want to grow tomatoes. You guys are awesome!
Thanks Katie! Well you've got a bee mentor here if you want one...Winter is the best time to read up to be ready for spring!
love the bee adventures too! it's so fascinating to me. so sad about the one hive though :(
hooray for another camilla egg! they are just so tiny and cute.
I love those camilla eggs, and so does Tuesday! Is the 25 cents a pound for organic pears?!?! If you do end up coming down to can/hang out I might have to have you do the buying. I am going to look around this weekend, at the markets and see what I can find. I went through 40 pounds of apples a lot faster than I thought I would/could. The tomatoes need to be picked again, but so far I'm keeping up with those. Next year more heirlooms for me and more basil!
And I'll just keep getting my honey from you :)
Amber - I think you'd be hard pressed to find organic pears around here, although there are a few places to go. Spraying fruit trees is mandatory in Hood River, even on property like ours. If a disease got out here it could ruin people's livelihoods.
I want to get some plums and make prunes!
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