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Soapmaking for Beginners with Jan Jackson

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Jan Jackson came and presented a lesson in soap making for beginners. Many in our group have been waiting for someone to come and show the basic process since several people had a concern over working with lye. Jan over-delivered by showing us all the basic equipment and the process she uses to make her goat’s milk soaps. She also brought in a good selection of her products for us to see how she packages it. For those of us who sell at farmers markets, this presentation was a hit!

Many questions were posed related to working with lye… and also the difference between regular lye and food-grade lye. While it was agreed that it was important to use food-grade lye for soaps, or products that will be applied to the skin, we learned that there are lyes that are not food-grade, and made for soapmaking too. Thanks to everyone who came for a lot of great questions!

After the presentation, many attendees purchased Jan’s soaps to try out for themselves. If you missed it, then, please enjoy the video below!

Larry Kemerly talks harvesting bee pollen

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Larry Kemmerly from the Indiana State Beekeepers Association (ISBA) speaks to Southeast Indiana Beekeepers about collecting and processing pollen for consumption and sale at farmers markets. Larry collects and sells about 50 lbs of pollen per year. While Larry’s methods are by no means the defacto, we asked him to explain how he does it, and he did in great detail.

He also showed and described various types of pollen traps and answered our questions. Theories on pollen benefits include helping skin, cardio-vascular functions, prostate, allergy relief, and more. If you are interested in collecting pollen from your hives, watch the entire 45-minute presentation. A lot is covered. Larry graciously volunteered to make the drive out to us and there were 60mph winds (and snow flurries) outside that night. So our group passed the hat to pay for his gas and efforts.

Enjoy, and comment below!

Using Paper Chromatography to Monitor MLF in Wine

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This year, I grabbed 300 pounds of Petite Sirah grapes. I’ve found that these single varietal dry reds use quite a different process than fruit wines. The vineyard will wait to harvest the grape until it reaches the ideal brix for that varietal so to the winemaker the variables are a bit more controlled than that of a typical fruit wine where the variables are all over the place.

One of the things we do in red wine is undergo malolactic fermentation. This is where malic acid is converted to lactic acid… contributing to more rounded flavors and mouth-feel.

We need to know when malolactic fermentation is completed and we do this through the use of paper chromatography. In this video, I demonstrate the test and explain it as best I can. Hope it’s helpful.

A story of Petite Sirah, from the truck to the carboy

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I hope to make wine from my own grapes one year, but until I do, I have to buy them. I’ve been growing grapes, planting a new row and variety each year, for about 5 years now. I battle with the deer, the black rot… you name it, just about everything has prevented me from bringing in the bounty. This year, however, I brought in my first lot of Concord grapes, but there wasn’t enough worth making wine with, so we made pies and jams and froze the rest.

Speaking of buying grapes, I brought home the last bounty on Saturday. 300 pounds of Petite Sirah and I am very excited about this one. It feels like–ok, it’ time to stop messing around and make some good, red grape wine. So, this Petite Sirah has been somewhat of a project for me delving back into books, picking brains and talking to people.

I really appreciate the access to the winemakers in the CVC. When I was in Art School, we were told to “copy the masters”. Doing so may not make complete sense at the time, in fact it seemed like plagiarism, but looking back, I found that it brought me up to a plateau where I could look back to where I was to see where I did good, or bad. For me, I’m a quick study in most things, mainly because I have no problem admitting that I don’t know it all and then ask someone to tell me everything they know.

Ultimately, I choose to stay on that higher plateau because afterall, it’s the place to be, right? Knowing what I know now… is better then what I never knew. You heard that here first.

Here’s my story from the truck to the carboy. I just pressed the grapes off the skins today and it’s rollin’ in the cellar. I already can’t wait to do it again next year. But next year, I think we’ll shoot for a clean 500 lbs. Anyway, I hope you enjoy these pics of the fine people I get to mingle with when we take off on a cold morning to smash grapes, eat pizza and drink wine! Cheers.

 

Make a winter candy board to overwinter honey bees

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We think a candy board is kind of like a cheap insurance policy. The benefits of a candy board, made correctly adds many benefits to help the beehive over the winter. The candy board is simply a hardened sugar mixture that lives in a 2-3 inch frame body and uses 1/2″ hardware cloth on the bottom to hold the “candy” up. I said 1/2″ hardware cloth, not 1/4″. This is important. We also put a pollen patty in the top so that it’s there in February (around the time for brood-rearing to begin.) It sits on the top hive body just under the inner cover.

Let’s consider some benefits:

  1. If the bees deplete all the honey stores, they hit the candy board and this may help feed them for the remainder of the winter, or at least until you look in the hive again.
  2. Condensation is a big concern in the hive. Cold air outside and warm bees inside make moisture. This moisture can collect on the top of the hive. The candy board will absorb most, if not all the moisture into the sugar and likely keep it from dropping back down on to the cluster. Wet bees will die.
  3. There is also a hole that passes up through the candy board and a 5/8 inch hole is drilled through the front. See the pictures, and the video. This allows warm humid air from inside the hive to exit out this hole to prevent condensation in the hive.

To us, these benefits alone merit putting a candy board on the top of each hive. Watch the video to see how you can make your own candy board. Click here for the ingredients and recipe/directions.

As of this posting, not two weeks after putting the candy board on top of the hive, my bees have eaten a hole up through the top. I had to play patch-work with a new batch of sugar and filled in the hole in the candy board. The idea is that around late Jan or Feb, when the bees may have depleted their stores, they hit the candy board. So, I’m thinking we may want to put the candy board on later… when it’s mostly cold and the bees don’t want to break cluster. This may make the board last into the cold times when you need it most. Keep your logs and see what works best for you.

I also noticed a little mouse nibbling on the front of my entrance reducer. I’ll surround those little openings with sheet metal ASAP.

Here’s a recent video I did when our winter bee meeting was cancelled due to inclement weather.

Here’s a video we did back in 2010 at our bee meeting location. It has good information, and it’s fun to see how far we have come since then.

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Did you know?

The queen bee doesn’t decide what happens in a colony. The workers do. They adjust her feeding to make her do what the majority says. The queen can’t feed herself.