How to Remove Bees from a Wall

October 5, 2015

.... Rounding up the stragglers Next comes the tedious task of convincing confused bees–who will insist on hanging out in cavity where the comb used to be–to go into the box. To do this we sprayed the bees with a sugar syrup made with a 50/50 mix of water and white sugar. This keeps the bees busy cleaning themselves so that you can gently brush them into a dust pan and transfer them into their new bee box. Some people use specially adapted vacuums to...

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What is Killing the Bees?

Mr. Homegrown

August 5, 2013

Animals, Bees

29 Comments

...s resistance to a common parasite Nosema ceranae. Bees exposed to a widely used agricultural fungicide, chlorothonatil, were more likely to succumb to nosema. The most provocative result for me was that bees exposed to fluvalinate, a miticide used by beekeepers on their own bees, were also likely to get nosema. Perhaps the villain in CCD is the beekepers themselves. Don’t get me wrong, pesticides probably play a role in CCD. But we must also remem...

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How to make hot sauce

Mrs. Homegrown

May 12, 2015

Fermentation, Food, Recipes

22 Comments

...and what type of vinegar, and whether you strain it or leave it chunky. We used fresh red peppers labeled Anaheim peppers (kind of like a red New Mexico chile), which are mild, and also some dried California peppers, which are also mild, but a little smokey. These peppers make your tongue tingle–they don’t burn. Our sauce is more like a mild salsa–enjoyable on everything, by everyone. Later this summer if I get my hands on some good hot chiles, I’...

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Daikon Radish Pickles

Mr. Homegrown

May 3, 2007

Fermentation, Food

13 Comments

...ok forward to trying this with cucumbers, but for this first experiment we used a big, pretty daikon from the farmers market. The entire process is amazingly simple: Stir up a brine solution of 2 Tablespoons sea salt (un-iodized salt) to 1 quart water. Note that you must use salt that has no additives-check the ingredients of your salt to make sure that it contains nothing but salt. Additives in salt can prevent the lacto-fermentation process from...

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How to Make Amazake

Mr. Homegrown

September 9, 2007

Fermentation, Food, Recipes

16 Comments

...boil in 2 cups of water. Turn down the heat and simmer for 50 minutes. We used sweet rice, but any kind of rice and if fact almost any grain will work. 3. Cool the rice down to 140º F (60º C). Mix in 2 cups of koji and put it in a sterilized wide-mouth jar. 4. At this point you need to incubate the concoction for 10 to 14 hours at 131º – 140º F (55º C – 60º C). We accomplished the incubation by placing the jar in a small cooler filled with water...

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