A living museum of bees - what a great idea!

Here is the laboratory when honey can be analysed. The next picture shows the extraction room where the honey is extracted from the combs. On the next floor down were the settling tanks. The honey flowed into these using natural gravity.

The bottling room.

A demonstration of how bees, when left alone, will build up their own comb.

The workshop - Frames with comb.

An old chestnut hive.

A cross section of a hive.

A replica of an apiary in the mountains built within a stone wall to keep the bears out. Note the use of chestnut stumps for hives

Outside apiaries.

Did the donkey get stung?

The patron saints of beekeepers.

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Bee Keepers Excursion - Cooperativa de Erica mel

We set off on our trip which was part of the organic beekeepers course organised by the local agricultural school. First stop was the honey cooperative which was an interesting insight into how honey from many different sources is managed and produced under the Miel de Galicia label.

The honey is poured into a large tank where it is heated to a specified temperature - This particular batch was mixed flower honey but both Chestnut and Eucalyptus honey were produced.

It then passess through several filters to ensure purity.

It was then passed through via pumps to be bottled and labelled.

Making Cider

Can't seem to do enough with all these apples! My Uncle's simple cider recipe came in very handy - I hope it tastes as good as his. We don't have a cider press so this recipe is ideal and neighbours have been asking for it.

Step 1 - cut the apples into quarters

Step 2 - pop them into the mixer if you have one to chop them finely if not it's a longer job by hand

Step 3 - put the apple into a large bucket and add the water, sugar, lemon juice and rind and grated root ginger if wanted

Step 4 - Stir twice daily for 3 weeks

The proportions of the recipe given to me were as follows:-

Steve's Cider Recipe

3 lbs apples

3 lemons

2 lb sugar
fresh grated ginger (optional)

Chop complete apples and put through blender

Place in bucket/ container add 6 pints water,lemon zest& juice and sugar

Stir twice daily for 3 weeks

Sieve and bottle (not too early as very lively...)

I actually multiplied it all to do 30 pounds of apples.

Will let you know how it turns out!

The grape harvest - Vendimia

I was fortunate enough to be offered some temporary work harvesting the grapes on the banks of the river Sil. Having no other income at the moment it was welcome. This is the famous Amandi region with some very steep precipices which had me wondering why I had cancelled my life assurance. The views were amazing. We were taken to different vineyards in different parts of the Amandi. I had never picked grapes before and it was hard work! We started at 8.15am and on one day finished at 8pm. We were fed four course meals with as much wine, beer and liqueurs or water as we wanted. After two and half days (I did it at the same time as the beekeeping course) I was covered in bruises and sliced my finger but the company was good and the scenery amazing. There were four different nationalities in the grape picking force which also made a nice mixture. How wine is sold so cheaply though I do not know as we scrambled over the rocky terraces and boxes of grapes were carried up and down the steep descents.

Organic Beekeeping Course Practical

Bee hives were being introduced to the local agricultural college with the objective being that they are good environmental scensors. I am a little concerned for them having been told by the tutor that the college still uses the chemical that has been banned from France due to colony collapse mentioned in my previous beekeeping post. The tutors at the college are trying to get the powers that be to change to organic methods but they are encountering some resistance. It is through supporting courses such as this organic beekeeping course that may persuade them to change. Let's hope so.
The session started with a novel way of fitting the wax sheets into the frames using a 2 Euro section of wire attached to the car battery. This was then attached to the metal threads running through the wax which expanded as it was heated fitting it snuggly in place. Biodynamic beekeepers prefer to let the bees make their own wax rather than buy in foundation, which seems to make sense to me and what I would like to give them a chance to do
in the future as it seems a natural part of their process.



Here a practical solution for the lone beekeeper is being demonstrated as the Supers can get heavy. To be honest it seemed to be a bit too much hastle for my liking.

Here you can see frames being transfered from the nucleus (a small colony of bees divided this year) to a full sized hive.

This frame is loaded with honey stores - just the thing to get the bees through winter.

Here you can see a frame with brood on being held up to the sunlight. We were not fortunate enought to spot the queen despite several experienced beekeepers being with us. I had failed to spot my own a couple of days before so didn't feel such a novice.

One colony of bees happily marched up into their new hive which was probably an indication that they could sense that the queen was already in their. The other colonly had to be persuaded to get going with a little bit of smoke.

The course has been really useful to link up with other organic beekeepers some with many years of experience who have already invited me to go and visit their apiaries and use their extractors when I need to. I have learnt beekeeping vocabulary in Gallego and Spanish and more importantly I have learnt how crucial it is to go organic and give bees a chance to build up a natural resistance rather than bombard them with antibiotics and chemicals at the first sign of trouble.

Young Beekeeper, masonry stoves and Transition Totnes

Can you spot the young beekeeper? Having looked on the Internet to find that beekeeper suits for youngsters cost £40 + we improvised. Not practical but for observing the bees coming and going it was perfect. While we sat watching the bees do their stuff we saw one of them throwing out a coddling moth grub - at least I think it was. No sooner had it been thrown out than a wasp desended upon it and seemed to make a meal of it.

My copy of the Permaculture magazine arrived today and it makes great reading. We have been looking at masonry stoves as an ecological option to heat our home but the costs have placed them out of our reach so to see a home build example in the magazine was perfect timing. If your're interested then look at http://www.envisioneer.net/ is the website of the reader who sent it in.

It was also great to read about the progress of Totnes as a Transition Town and all the positive things that are happening there particularly the beginnings of their own local currency. Wouldn't it be great if each town had its own currency! More local buying - more local enterprise - more people looking at living sustainably? To know more take a look at

www.transitionculture.org

Polytunnels and potatoes!

I gave a friend some chilli pepper plants back in Spring. She is fortunate enough to have a large polytunnel and I couldn't believe the difference in growth between her plants and mine so I decided to do a mini polytunnel using what I could find. The big one comes later! I am the least practical person known to my friends who are a little suprised at what I'm doing. I picked up a piece of tubing and a metal pipe. Cut the metal pipe in four and the tubing in two and together with an old plastic sheet had the makings of a polytunnel. Can you use a hacksaw to cut metal? Is that what they are for? It worked. Ok so it sags a little in the middle but it does the job.

Slight back ache yesterday after recovering from helping my neighbour get his potatoes in. I never imagined there were so many in his little plot. The so called small ones that we separated out for his pigs would have been sold as good new potatoes back home. He kindly gave me two large sacks of potatoes that will see us through winter and beyond and I was then fed the usual galician empanada (meat pie), roast lamb, salad and organic red wine. I then had to attend my organic beekeeping course which was in Gallego and for some strange reason (the wine?) I understood perfectly!