My honey is bottled, my wax is cleaned and candles molds are getting ready for pouring and my workbench is being readied for cosmetic making. Tomorrow I tuck the bees in for winter and store the supers in the shed and put the patio furniture away. Then Monday I hope to pick the last remaining figs and if I have enough I can make a batch of fig and honey jam to enter in the honey judging contest. There is nothing more satisfying than knowing you have used every morsel of the produce of your hives and gardens to create wonderful food and gifts for your family.

Thanks to rich Blohm for sending the results of the honey judging contest at the Long Island Fair in Old Bethpage Restoration. Congratulations to all the winners.

Long Island Fair 2008 Honey Judging Results at Old Bethpage Village Restoration

Commercial Growers
Class 10.501 – Extracted honey – Light: 1st – Pete Bizzoso
Class 10.502 – Extracted honey – Medium: 1st – Pete Bizzoso
Class 10.503 – Extracted honey – Dark: 1st – Pete Bizzoso
Class 10.504 – Comb Honey: 1st – Pete Bizzoso
Class 10.505 – Beeswax (min. 1 pound): 1st – Pete Bizzoso

Home Gardeners
Class 12.501 – Extracted – honey – Light
1st – Eleanor Bizzoso
2nd - Gisela Zanelli
3rd – Alfons Gruenthaler

Class 12.502 - Extracted honey – Medium
1st – Eleanor Bizzoso
2nd – Alfons Gruenthaler

Class 12.503 - Extracted honey – Dark
1st – Alfons Gruenthaler
2nd - Eleanor Bizzoso

Class 12.504 – Comb honey
1st – Eleanor Bizzoso

Class 12.505 – Beeswax (min. ½ pound)
1st – Eleanor Bizzoso
2nd – John Dodge

I don’t know how many of you might have watched two episodes of Martha Stewart last week. The first showed her opening her bee hives at her upstate home and removing the frames and demonstrating the smoker and demonstrating the process of going through the hive to remove the honey. Then later in the week she had Laura Rimmer from Wave Hill in the Bronx on the show and went through a more in depth demonstration of opening the hive, beeless this time, uncapping and extracting the honey. She gave a pretty good pitch for backyard beekeeping with plugs for Betterbee and Brushy Mountain. She recommended joining local organizations and finding mentors. You can go on line to www.MarthaStewart.com and click on Television and go to the link and it lists the entire program there.

We still have a few LIBC tee shirts left. If you want to give a holiday gift they are $20 and the sizes available are Small, Medium, Large and X-Large.