Orange Nectar

Our sweet ladies making orange honey in California and in Florida this spring!

Jenn, Queen Grafting

ANDREW, our son, preparing artificial queen cels for Jenn to do the grafting. We are learning cool stuff here!

Jenn is the queen grafter.

Jenn pulling out the 3 day old egg, the tiny white tip on the end of her tool.

Dropping the egg in the artificial queen cell cup.

Bees working too!

Placing the grafted queen cells in a nuc hive for the young nurse bees to rear.

Queen grafting takes incredible vision! You cannot imagine how tiny these eggs are. Jenn is really fast and good at this. The most amazing thing is that a few years ago, Jenn, was legally blind. She could not see the big E on the vision charts! She was blessed with the gift of laser surgery and now she does this incredible work, so valuable. It was a great class for all of us.

Heavy Gold

Look at this little lady's heavy gold bags(hanging on her legs). She does not work for Brinks! This is pollen collected from flowers, carried on the bee's legs. The pollen is stored in cells just like honey. It is used to feed the brood. It is an excellent source of amino acids (protein building blocks). Pollen is also what gives many people hay fever and allergies. Strengthen your immune system. Sneezing, watery eyes, is an overreaction to pollen in the air. 

Nectarine Pollination...gorgeous isn't it?

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Our busy little ladies...it's almost Spring!!

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Busy little creatures...

Olive Oil Special this Week!

Our California Gold Blend Extra Virgin Olive Oil - ON SALE!

20% off coupon for you today. Promotional code at checkout: EVOO2014

Discount applied during the checkout process. Gift packaging and cards available, leave special instructions and a phone number, we can customize anything. 

Have a blessed and delicious day!

Rain is a blessing!

We are so thankful for the rain! It is tricky business moving bees into almond orchards, in the night, and in the rain, but we are not complaining because rain means the spring flowers can produce nectar. Without moisture in the ground and without the warm sunshine, nectar does not flow. No nectar, no honey! 

Our Honey Granola Recipe

STEP 1

Mix in a large bowl:

24 C Old Fashioned Oats (or 1 bag Costco Quaker Oats out of the twin pack)

4 C Shredded Coconut, unsweetened, any size

2 Raw Whole Almonds or other nuts

STEP 2

Blend till creamy:

6 bananas

2 1/2 C honey (I used Christmas Berry Honey this time notice it is almost a fluorescent yellow this last crop!)

1 tsp salt

1 tsp vanilla or almond extract

You should end up with 6 cups liquid. If you have a small blender divide in half or it will kill your blender. Make sure your honey is liquid. Put your jar in hot water or in the sunshine. 

STEP 3:

Pour the blended mixture into the dry mixture and mix very well, hands are best. 

STEP 4

Spread on 4 cookie sheets, about an inch thick. Do not pat it down, fluff it or rake through it with your fingers to get air into it if you packed it down by mistake. Bake at 185' in a convection for 7 hours,If you don't have convection just put it on 175' overnight in any oven. You don't need to worry about it at that low heat, you will all wake up hungry!

STEP 5:

Remove from oven, check for crispy texture, there should be no moist feeling. I  usually turn the oven off and let it cool down with the granola in it because this continues the dehydrate process. Sprinkle with raisins or dry cranberries etc.

STEP 6:

Store in airtight containers. We got 2 1/2 of these today.

We make granola roughly once a month. Very nourishing.

Making our Sweetheart baskets

Sweetheart Trifecta of honey on sale now, add special gift wrap, we will ship it to your honey! 

Sweetheart basket - "You are My Gem"

Bees are loving this Sunny day

All over the flower pots outside the kitchen! So happy to get nectar.