Sweet as Can Bee Corn Maze

Mark is reading the latest issue of American Bee Journal. In it he found a photo of a corn maze at The Farmstead in Idaho. 

That looks like crazy fun!

Thanks, Loresco!

Thanks to Loresco and the Tatum family, Mark and I spent part of the weekend bottling, labeling, and packaging 168 one-pound bottles of honey for delivery to their clients and friends. This corporate holiday gift will be sent all over the U.S. and the world. 14 international shipments mean our honey is going far, far away.

We're excited our honey was such a hit with the Tatums that they wanted to share it with others. We appreciate Chip for his support. A special thanks to his fantastic assistant, Stephanie, who efficiently organized the various batches, printed all the labels, and provided such clear instructions.

Below I've included some photos of our heated bottling tank (it has a double wall to hold water that gets heated to the temperature we choose!) with its drip-less valve. Mark *loves* it. He bottled 150 pounds in no time!  It sits on a special, welded steel table capable of holding two tanks full of honey (300+ pounds a piece) which has a food-grade powder coat finish. Thanks to Paul Yeatman for the welding and True Grit for the powder coat.

Sugared honey is no  match for Bessie the Bottling Tank!

When we're finished with our Loresco order and one other corporate order, I'll have a good idea of how much honey we have left to sell for this year's harvest. Thank you to all of our customers for your continued support.

My favorite beekeeper.

Another take on the "Is it really honey?" controversy

National Public Radio says the blog post about honey being ultra-filtered to remove pollen in order to disguise the country of origin is suspicious. I wrote about it here.

Regardless of the reason to ban Chinese honey (undercutting American beekeepers with low prices or issues of contaminants), buying local honey is still better for you, in my humble opinion.

We're bottling the last of our harvest.  I'll let you know what we have when we get a final count!