Planting garlic bulbs in fall

This year, I’ve decided to plant garlic in fall. To me, this is a bit of an experiment – because I’ve only ever planted garlic in January. Garlic is a hardy crop that withstands cold very well and doesn’t suffer from many diseases. Most critters that threaten tulips, or other decorative bulbs, don’t touch garlic…

Some first fall activities

As a beekeeper, I start preparing for the autumn/winter season innnn June/July… That would lead one to believe we’d be all finished by September? Well, that’s wrong. I’m still feeding bees -which I started doing in August- and applying oxalic acid treatments to get the varroa population down. September is one of the first months…

Queen rearing and weather

This year I made my first attempt at rearing queens. In previous years, I let nucs & hives raise their own queens and this was quite successful. Only, this method doesn’t really work when you intend to plan your nucs & splits, or want queens with certain characteristics. I got my larvae from a pure…

Dealing with no-show customers

A lot of us who have larger gardens, small farms, or otherwise consider themselves part of the ‘homesteader’-group, have probably dealt with customers who don’t show up for their purchase. In the past I’ve sold rabbits, chickens, ducks and garden seeds. Usually customers find me through listings on sites devoted to poultry and small livestock…

Drought improving in the new year?

I’m celebrating the new year in a new garden and in a new area. Luckily, I can start this year on a positive note. The last three years have given us very dry summers and warm winters. The situation had become so serious that the rain, which we normally have too much of, did not…

Honeybee mortality and robbing

It hasn’t just been 2020 for humans. My apiary has had lots of robbing problems this year. From what I’ve learnt, robbing occurs mostly during summer. The main reason for it is a lack of nectar sources in the vicinity of the hive and a large crowd of older forager bees. The problem should disappear…

Mirabelles jam

Mirabelles jam is one of my favorite things to make. Because of the dry weather, a lot of white and yellow prune/plum varieties don’t taste as great as they do most years. Most batches I bought and received have contained many dry-ish fruits that aren’t nearly as sweet as they should be. No problem, I…

Drought resistant garden additions

The past three summers we’ve had have been incredibly hot and dry by Belgian standards. Many naturally occurring nectar producing flowers, plants and trees are feeling the burden of the changed weather and are blooming earlier than usual, or not at all. The effect this has on honeybees is easy to see for a beekeeper….

Robber bees

An annoying and frustrating part of honeybee behaviour, is that of ‘robbing’. When hives have many forager-bees and can’t find good sources of nectar, these foragers might go looking for that nectar in other hives. In most of north-western Europe, July and August are the months where it is most common for this behaviour to…

New garden!

During the last few months, my apiary and I have moved to a new location. Moving during a pandemic was certainly a bit of a strange situation, especially with lockdown measures in place. Luckily, these have lessened and I have completely moved. So! What’s this new garden situation we’re dealing with? I’ve ended up in…

White chocolate tiramisu

I love white chocolate! I would put white chocolate in everything if I could. This particular addition of white chocolate to tiramisu has turned out great. The only tricky part of this recipe is melting the chocolate without burning it. White chocolate burns much easier than milk, or dark chocolate. You don’t want to heat…

Will my hive make it through winter?

It’s wasn’t December yet when I made this discovery, but I think one of my nucs from this spring is going to have a hard time getting through winter. When I checked the hive by looking up through the wire-screen on the bottom, I saw hundreds of dead bees. All my other hives clean the…

Traditional Flemish witloof -Belgian endive- casserole

Witloof is a very common vegetable in Belgium and the Netherlands. Outside these two countries it’s less common, but not completely unknown. Witloof is a relative to radicchio but is grown in the dark. This is probably the reason why it’s a difficult vegetable to completely forget. Roots are given a season to grow outside…

What have I done?! (Beekeeping)

This has been my first year with ‘real grown-up’ beehives. This meant I needed to make new colonies, nucs, artificial swarms, to prevent my bees from swarming. Although I haven’t lost any colonies and I’m now up to six working hives, I really should have put more care into selecting queens. I now have two…

Simple creamy zucchini soup

Unless the squash bugs destroyed your zucchini plants before they gave you any fruits, you’re probably drowning in summer squash by now. Zucchini are one of the easiest crops to grow and they seem to produce lots and lots of fruits, no matter what weather they get. It’s always great to be able to eat…

Pear-rhubarb turnover-cake with honey

The summer honey-crop has been harvested last week, and I am busy processing and preparing the honey to be ready to sell. This involves skimming the impurities off the top of the honey in the buckets. I’m too proud of my first honey crop to just throw this honey away. Even though there are some…

Multiplying hives and growing new colonies

Since May, the three beehives I got as nucs last year have been giving me opportunities to make new colonies. Making new colonies is a normal part of the development in a production hive, as it mimics the natural way bees reproduce. In nature, honeybees would swarm. This would mean growing their original hive to…

Our first ducklings this year!

Earlier this week I was very discouraged about how my nests were doing. There has been more light-and noise pollution in our neighborhood and it had an impact on the way my animals behaved. I was worried more than one broody duck/chicken had abandoned her nest. Sorry about the shaky footage, but those are my…

Blueberry crumble cake

I normally don’t use blueberries in cakes or pies, but I wanted to give this recipe a try. It isn’t a very high-maintenance cake, you don’t have to cut any parchment paper to size and there isn’t any complicated decorating to be done. Just blueberries and a simple crumble topping. If I had to improve…

Sweet potato and tomato soup

This recipe is the last one I’ll be making with the tomato sauce I canned from last year’s harvest. I always try to preserve a lot of tomatoes as sauce for spaghetti, soup, or tomato pie. The herbs I’m using are fresh from the garden, but I’m still buying sweet potatoes from the supermarket. Despite…