OCTOBER 2002
October - The month of the show!
In late September Paul and Dad went to the monthly beekeepers meeting
at Murton about preparing honey for a show. The next local beekeepers
honey show was to be held on 16th October. We decided to enter some of
our honey and honey based products in the show.
There are many catagories of honey and honey-based products at a show
from light to set honey to honey cakes to sweet or dry mead; we decided
to enter as many catagories as we could.
Up till a week before the beekeepers show, the oven was hot and sweet
with experimental cakes and the kitchen filled with molten wax.
On the 13th - the weekend before the beekeepers show at Murton - we started
filling jars with this years crop, choosing the best to take to the show.
Lynn & John with our bottled Honey
Two days before Mum had baked two fine cakes - one to a set recipe and
one using a recipe of her own choice. At the last minute Dad filtered
a bottle of his first attempt at making Sweet mead and tried to cream
honey.
And so, on the day of the show, Dad and Paul set off for Murton with a
box full of their exhibits leaving John and Mum at home to hold the fort.
They returned three hours later, triumphant having done rather well.
1st prize - honey cake, made to standard recipe.
1st prize - honey cake, made to own recipe.
1st prize - sweet mead.
1st prize - bees-wax block over 1 lb.
1st prize - bees-wax block under 1 lb.
2nd prize - clear medium honey
3rd prize - set honey
These totalled scores gave us 2nd prize over all. Not bad for a first
attempt!!!
Now we really can say - we sell prize-winning honey!
Our prize winning honey, cakes, mead and wax
I don't think mum quite believed it!
Paul couldn't resist toasting our victory with mead
Now that the bees have settled down for the Winter the last job was for Paul and Dad to put mouseguards on the hives.
The reduced hive opening is replaced by a zinc mouseguard
ready for Winter
We continued bottling the rest of the honey into jars on 20th October.
We have also designed a new label for this years jars.