Honey!

We don't have the room to keep bees, but even if we did, and I was prepared to put the time and effort in, I don't think I would. I LOVE the idea of it, but whenever I've read those 'Is Beekeeping For You' articles - there is one sticking point. Beekeepers get stung. (I know, I know, it makes no sense - I've given birth to two children, but I'm scared of the pain of a bee sting.)

Having resigned myself to never producing my own honey, this might be the next best thing - buying complete frames of raw comb honey, and doing my own processing.

You see, Deb and Ian at Nature Foods have just started supplying some delicious locally grown honey from 'Windy Bottom Farm'. If you haven't seen the Nature Foods website, take a look. There are all sorts of interesting, healthy, and yummy foods there. (They may not have put the honey up yet, but just enquire if you're interested.)

Some of the Windy Bottom Farm honey that they stock will be raw, some finely filtered, and some coarsely filtered - depending on what's available at the time.

I've got us some finely filtered manuka honey, some coarsely filtered kamahi honey, and of course that raw frame, which the grower says was 'collected in the Battle Hill area and so will be a mixture of pasture (clover) and bush honey, with probably also a high manuka content.'
It is absolutely oozing with honey, and our entire household has been tasting the drips, and exclaiming over their heavenliness. I have no idea why, but it is so much yummier than 'ordinary' honey.

My son may have nailed it when he said, 'Actually THIS is ordinary honey, and the stuff you buy in containers in a shop isn't. That's why this is yummier.'

Well, wish me luck with my processing. These are the grower's instructions:

The raw honey can be separated from the comb by squeezing the honeycomb in your hands over a collecting vessel (bowl) and the honey will run through your fingers to the bowl and you will be left with a lump of wax in your hand. This is how it's still done in some countries in South America.

If anyone reading this has done it before and has any tips - I'd love to hear them!

The frame weighs about 3kgs. I can't wait to see how much honey and how much wax I get from it. I'm looking forward to the wax almost as much as the honey, and yes, every one will be getting home-made balms for birthday presents during 2009!

Worm farm taken

Have found a good home for worm farm 2 now - that was quick!

Anyone want a worm farm?

Until a few days ago, I had never been offered a free worm farm. But over the past week I have been offered - out of the blue - not one, but two, on completely separate occasions by completely unrelated friends.

I guess it's the season for it?

I had already accepted the first one, when the second offer came in. So if anyone would like it - and could pick it up from a very nice person in Island Bay - drop me a line at johanna dot knox at gmail.com - and I will put you in touch!

Transition Towners in World Sweet World

Also in the latest issue of World Sweet World is an article I wrote about the Transition Towns (TT) movement in New Zealand. It contains micro-interviews with a small selection of TT members from around the country.

Most of them have their own personal websites and blogs:

James Samuel - NZ's national TT co-ordinator - lives on Waiheke Island. His blog is Yesterday's Future.

Deirdre Kent is an amazing woman and a long-time sustainability activist with particular expertise in alternative currencies. Her blog, which focuses on her book Healthy Money Healthy Planet, is Local Currencies.

Hirini Reedy is a compelling voice and has his website here.

Kazel Cass is a young mum who co-ordinates the Opotiki TT group. She makes use of the blog facility on the national TT website here.

Rimu Atkinson co-ordinates my local TT group (Wellington South). When I'm out I often see him whizzing past on his electric scooter. His TT blog is here. He also has another blog which I don't think you will understand a word of unless you are a computer geek. :)

Nikki is a member of TT in Kapiti, and I'm always linking to her blog for many and varied reasons. :) But here she is again - at A Satisfying Journey Towards Simplicity.

Summer World Sweet World

It's out! This lovely magazine has made it to Issue 4, and thus through one whole year - with ever increasing distribution figures.

As usual, WSW is full of brilliant, creative ideas - including a scheme for Carbon Action Brownie Badges

I have an article in there on using wild blackberries. Since it was mid-spring when I wrote it, I had to trial the recipes using bought, packaged, frozen ones. They were nice, but had seeds the size of pebbles! And they were 'Packed from New Zealand and/or imported ingredients' - so they were undoubtedly injected with melamine, painted with lead paint, and treated with formaldehyde.

But at least they were 'Supervised and Approved as Kosher'.

I can't wait for the true blackberry season to arrive. Shouldn't be long. The blackberry bushes near our house already have some flowers ...

Food illustrated

Sarah, from my writing group, is a renaissance woman. Seriously. Not only is she a writer, but an illustrator, a designer, a musician, a crafter, a gardener and a cook. (And I'm bound to have missed something.)

Anyhow, she has a new blog - Garden Kitchen - where she cooks delicious (and eco-friendly) dishes and then draws them. It's beautiful!

For sourdough fans

I've been rummaging through cookbooks that used to be my grandmother's, and among the treasures is Any one Can Bake - a 1929 promotional publication from 'the Educational Department of the ROYAL BAKING POWDER CO.'

You might get a laugh from their version of the origin of leavened bread - from a longer article entitled, 'The Evolution of Baking Powder'.

The Royal Baking Powder Co tells us ...

Yeast came first
Very early in written history we come upon mention of both 'leavened' and 'unleavened' bread, so the actual origin of raised bread is obscure. Some prehistoric matron, perhaps, was not too careful about washing out the vessel in which she mixed the grain and water for her baking. A stray yeast cell lodged in the scrapings and developed in the next moist mixing so that the loaf grew astonishingly. It was porous and softer than her ordinary loaves.

She tasted this unusual mass - and found it good. She added a bit of the magic dough to her fresh mixture in the hope that it would impart its characteristics to the new loaves - and of course it did.

Thus began the leavening of grain mixtures, and for generations yeast in some form or another was the only leavening agent known.


What can I say? Let's all pay homage to that prehistoric slattern whose naughty lapse in hygiene turned out to be a blessing for us all. And thank heavens that a single yeast cell just happened to come along at the right time! :P

Elderflower and water kefir - a yummy duo!

Just had to share ...

On a whim, I mixed a bit of our elderflower syrup into some very tart already-brewed water kefir - and I tell you, it is DELICIOUS!

A quick google revealed that the combination of elderflower and kefir is not stunningly original, but it was new to me anyhow!

(And in passing I noticed some sites talking about the cosmetic applications of kefir . Anyone know anything much about that?)

Elderflowers galore

There only seem to be a couple of Elders in our immediate neighbourhood, but the other day my mother took my children and me to a spot where they grow prolifically. After my Mum asked permission from a property owner, we harvested two bagfuls of flowers.
There were many other Elder trees frustratingly out of reach - they were on someone else's property, probably not used by the owner, but we had no way of asking the owner at the time.

Home again, I made a few things, including syrup for elderflower cordial and even elderflower junket. (No one in the family liked that except me, but I am a junket addict, and I will eat it any way at all.)

The internet presents a bewildering array of recipes for elderflower cordial - as well as wine and champagne. Everyone likes to make it differently. Here are some thoughts on navigating through the confusion ...

Elderflower/sugar ratio
A big part of the trick with the cordial is to get the proportion of sugar to elderflower flavour right, but that's going to depend on your own personal tastes. If in doubt, err on the side of adding less sugar than you think you need. It's easy to add more sugar syrup at the end if you find you need it, but less easy to up the ratio of elderflower.

Lemons
It seems important not to skimp on the lemons. They add something really important to the flavour. In my first batch I didn't use enough lemon (to my taste anyway), so I've been adding an extra squeeze to each cup as I have it.

What I did
I used the method at Gastronomy Domine - but changed the proportions, and didn't use citric acid. I will freeze some to preserve it instead.

My proportions ...
Around 20 elderflower heads
1.5 litres of water
3 cups sugar
3 lemons

I also heeded advice from other websites to remove as much stem from the flowers as possible. Some little stems are okay, but not the big ones.


Bugs!
There are these tiny little black bugs that like to live in flowers round here. They mostly crawl very fast, and I can't quite tell if they have wings or not. If anyone knows what they are, please tell me! Anyway, we found heaps in our elderflowers. I've also found big communities of them in gorse flowers, apple blossoms and roses.

Often it's good not to wash any flowers before using them, because -
(a) it can damage the fragile petals
(b) flowers readily release their fragrant/flavoursome/active components into water, and you don't want to wash any of that valuable stuff away
and
(c) if you're making something like wine, where you want plenty of wild yeasts, you don't want to wash yeasts off.

SO - I stumbled on a way to get rid of these wee beings without washing the flowers. It's a little time-consuming, and there may be a better way, but anyhow, I'll post that on Wild Concoctions a bit later today.

Oh Good

My foraging article came out in Issue 4 of the wonderful Good Magazine this week. I like the dandelion smiley face they chose for it.

The article is sitting happily next to a delicious piece on Antipodean Christmas cake alternatives by Alessandra Zecchini - herself a foraging fan.

There is also a really rather inspiring editorial.