Snap shot: Fine spring day

                                                     
                                                        The weather was perfect today! :)

BEES!

Well, I have once again been bad and neglected the blog. Sorry about that.  I have been very busy though.  And I wanted to share with you my first beehive. Below are the photos taken today.  This is just after two weeks time from the initial installation of the bee package. We brought a pure European queen and intend on keeping the hive free of African genetics, which is of course a concern in our area. My buddy Geoffrey (partner in bee crime) took these excellent photos.  Enjoy!

Here you see the purchased foundation (wax sheet) and thicker comb that bees did more or less freeform 

Here I'm examining comb that is mostly honey

These cells are stores for a great variety of local pollens

Holding the frame to the sun allows me to see the comb very clearly

We left too much space between frames initially and the bees made this big comb by attaching it to the lid of the hive, it fell off when I opened the hive.  

Same large section of comb that is not attached to a frame.  You can see honey and capped brood cells!

Same comb, upper section close-up, lots of yummy honey.  I later wired this comb into a frame. Conform damn it!

another frame

Here I'm gently brushing the bees away from the comb.  Notice the centrally located brood cells.  We have a good queen!

Capped and uncapped brood cells

This frame has from top to bottom: uncapped honey, pollen stores and empty drawn out comb

Here she is, the queen has a gold mark on her back.  Even though I have set this frame aside she doesn't stop laying for a second.

More queen action

Here some spilled honey is being conserved (gobbled up) by this worker. Geoffrey and I had a little taste. You could tell the honey wasn't quite ready but it was delicious and decidedly HONEY!

HONEY HONEY HONEY!

Golden goodness

Another nice close-up. Did I mention how proud we are of our girls?!

:)

Creamed corn

Am I the only person that thinks wisteria smells like creamed corn?

Talk amongst yourselves.

Kraut chronically...err.. I mean chronicles

October a seed is planted
November a seedling transplanted
February a kraut fermented



For those of you who give a crap about cabbage, today would have given you joy. Waiting this long has really build up a lot of anticipation.  They have become like family pets, sitting, waiting out there. If only they knew what I had planned for them...

A brutal beheading happened here today, I callously cut three likely heads of cabbage from my patch.

I'm salivating at the thought of the alchemy that is sauerkraut. Essentially sauerkraut is only these two things; cabbage, and salt.  Everything else is created by microorganisms and time, beautiful right?  There are multiple organisms needed to take plain cabbage to the state that is sauerkraut, all of which are naturally present on cabbage (thank you kraut goddesses).


The sauerkraut process is simple:

Shred a cabbage (or three).
Add salt.
Pound into a container.
Keep air off proto-kraut ( I can make up my own words if I want).
Store in a place that isn't too cold.
Wait a week or so.
Enjoy.

basking

Another beautiful day here in Southern California. Poppy plants and Buddhas basking in the sunny warm weather.

Shorts, t-shirt and flip flops were called for today.  Who needs summer when you can have a winter like this?!

Winter slice

Apricot blooming in azure skies

Sweet peas: so called "fragrant mix", I think I'll stick with 'Cupani' next year

Howdy,

Our non-winter winter has sprung and early. Perhaps you keen gardeners here in So Cal have seen this too. Things are early.  One plant that seems so regular to me was pink jasmine, Jasminum polyanthum.  I started to see this guy blooming a month ago, when normally it begins to grace us with its banana-bubble gum fragrance in the later half of February.

Anyway, I'm totally enjoying the warm weather all the same, even if it has plants out of what I think is their normal cycle.  Today I was enjoying the early blooms of my apricot trees and sweet peas. Actually the sweet peas are pretty much on time, since I started them early autumn and put them in my sunniest winter spot to get early bloooms. I was disappointed with this "fragrant mix" that was so not fragrant.  Next year I go back to 'Cupani' the original sweet pea from Italy. 'Cupani' may have short legs (stems are so short sometimes hard to put in a vase) but damn what a awesome smell!

One other thing I will mention, I'm a bit worried about the apricot, as I see no bees around.  No bees, no apricots!  Maybe they are making their visits surreptitiously. All I can do is hope.

Winter beauties

Hiya!

Guess this is now a series... as I cannot stop with the cabbage posts.  Like a kid waiting for Christmas morning I can't stand the tension.  I've been watching these heads swell for quite some time.  When will they be ready?!!  To tell the truth I have never grown cabbage before.  Normally I focus on more expensive things to grow in the garden. But this year I thought cabbage patch, one to capture our perfect winter growing season and two to make sauerkraut.

So when will they be ready?  I feel like some are ready now. But will they get bigger still? Dunno.  Some are already firm and seem dense. That's good right? And when do cabbages bolt!!?

Cole crazily yours,

Dustin

Red Acre

Danish Market

Cabbage patch update

Hey there!

I thought it was about time I did a quick update on my cabbage patch.  Things are really moving with this unusually nice warm weather here.   Sauerkraut is on the top of my list for these babies.  Also you will notice big artichoke plants in there. Believe it or not these were from a 6 pack only a few months ago. I will doubtless have a bumper crop in the first year! Oh and of course more of that Nero Toscano kale that is so good.

Enjoy!

Luculia sp. aff. pinceana

Happy 2012!

Instead of staying home in summery weather, I went Back East to enjoy the New Years festivities.  When I got home today I was surprised by the amount of growth that had occurred over a five day period.  My peas grew at least a foot and are now in bloom.  The kale expanded. The cabbage unfurled. And the dill is suddenly looking geriatric.

But the nicest surprise from being away was the full bloom of my Luculia.  Summer before last I went to Far Reaches Farm in Port Townsend WA to see what kinds of great rarities they had. They experiment with all sorts of plants there and are always looking to push the boundaries of zone.  Fortunately they had some plants that were not going to be hardy... and what could they do but give this frost free gardener a little gift.  On top of that the plant came from seed that a friend collected.  I have known Josh of Phyto Photo for many years now, and even though he no longer works as a propagator extraordinaire, he does botanize while out in the field taking photos. And a recent trip yielded this beautiful shrub, Luculia.

At the end of my trip to the Pacific Northwest I crammed my plants in my suitcase and lugged them home.  I proceeded to neglect the poor plant for a year and a half until recently when I finally plunked it down along the fence line in a momentary act of kindness.

I'm not certain which Luculia it is, but I believe it to be L. pinceana.  Not only does it have attractive foliage and lovely pale pink flowers, it's also jasmine-ly fragrant and on top of all that, it blooms in the fall and winter seasons.

Guess who's taking cuttings in spring??!!

Plant purchase: Urginea maritima

I broke down and spent some moola yesterday.  Roger's Gardens really does keep things interesting.  It's not everyday that I spend $17 on a single bulb but I was inspired.  Mind you, the bulb probably weighs about 5 pounds, really a whopper.

Urginea maritima is native to the Mediterranean, so it should do well for me. I hope I will see bloom the first year since it's such a large bulb.  I'll be ready for it when it shoots up with a huge spike of white flowers.

Here's my new baby