Category Archives: gardening

Stormy Day Tomatoes

11:09 AM May 9, 2023…….in about 20 minutes 1.5 inches of rain swamped my backyard garden. Once it clears a little more I need to stake up the Brandywine tomato vines.
One of the Brandywine green tomatoes. About fist size and yes I do have big hands.
Another heavy Brandywine drooped over and in need of support.
A cluster of smaller oblong shaped tomatoes and yes…..I have been snacking on them…

The rain will be heavy off and on over the next several days. I have cucumbers needing support along with tomato vines. My plans to lay sod are shot for the week so plan B is is to cut some plugs from healthy patches of grass and moving them into the more bare spots. Potatoes are looking very, very healthy. My poor bees….. foraging is greatly diminished, heavy rain reduces nectar available as well as the pollen. They will be put a little behind on my schedule……but my schedule is not on their calendar….LOL.

Our many dozens of customers wanting honey will hopefully be patient…..

TTFN

Bishop

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Brewing a SMaSH IPA

I’m in the backyard on a very pleasant day! Wearing short pants, T-shirt and the usual Crocs on my feet. The freezing weather is hopefully far behind us. Fingers crossed, I just planted sugar snap peas again – grrrr, freeze took care of my early planting, Blue Lake green beans and more beets. Yes, those comments belong in my garden blog but I couldn’t resist!

Started with 12 pounds of Marris Otter malt. It is a single infusion, batch sparged recipe with whole Mosaic hops and also dry hopped with 2 full ounces of the Mosaic hops! Fermented with White Labs WLP # WLP051 California Ale yeast. Yum! Tasters in about 30 days, just in time for my 67th Birthday.

Mash tun sitting full of grain waiting on the water to heat up. Looking to start with 15 qts of 164.8 degree F water. Now, sit back and wait!!!!! Just looked at the clock and Yee Haw, it is 12:10 PM. Beer time, a session IPA should go well with the wait!

One of my favorite session beers. The “Great Carnac” sees a clone of this beer on the horizon! Now an update on my Russian Imperial Stout.

It won’t be quite so Imperial nor stout, 7% or a little more ABV. The error is in my brewing technique! I won’t embarrass myself and give the details but it was something about my sparging that caused the problem. Taste is very good…..more like a Porter. I have added medium dark toasted oak spirals that had been soaked in bourbon for a bit of a more exotic flavor( intended for a Russian Imperial Stout). I will give it a few weeks and then bottle and age it for a few months.

My neighbors, Doug and Cindy, will be my taster’s panel. They love the Southern Star Brewery’s Buried Hatchet Stout! I also suspect they will be honest in their feedback.

Brewing process is on track. I will soon be boiling the wort and dropping in the hops and Irish Moss. Now, while the wort chills and before I pitch the yeast, I’ll make a bee run, feed and inspect my hives. A minor gardening chore along the way, at one of the apiary locations I help maintain a vegetable garden and I have some sugar snap peas and green beans that have been soaked and ready to plant! No, not in bourbon!

Drink Local and Drink Responsibly

Bishop

Bee Lining

This morning I did a little experiment in the Backyard Farm with “bee lining”. This is an old time method for finding a hive, hopefully a wild one, and not one of your neighbor’s hives. 

I have been doing some open feeding in the backyard as an act of kindness for the early spring  foragers. The bees have been mobbing the feeder. This indicates a whole lot of bees nearby! 

I went out with a fresh bottle of sugar water early this morning,  before the bees were up and out foraging. Then I waited. Once a few visitors showed up I marked one with a dot of orange paint. 


Using a stop watch timing the round trips, it appears that there is a colony/hive less than 200 yards from my yard. In less than 10 minutes the feeder was overwhelmed and it is impossible to time the round trips now!!!! 


My next experiment will be off in the woods. I want to see if I can find a wild hive and document the adventure. Keep your eyes open! 

TTFN

Bishop