Our bees have been busy this year and we have once again we have lavender honey!
What’s the buzz? A worker bee gathers in her entire life 0.8 gram (0.0288 ounce) of honey and it requires 556 worker bees and a million flowers to gather a pound of honey. Bees normally fly once around the world to gather enough nectar for that pound of honey but we make it a bit easier for them by placing our hives in our lavender production field. Still, that’s a lot of flowers.
Bees at work at Serenity Lavender
Raw honey has been used as a folk remedy throughout history. But those old wives tales are true and honey has a variety of health benefits and medical uses. It’s chocked full of antioxidants, is heart healthy and tastes delicious too!
The bees arrived back on our property on June 7th and we have 8 hives this year. The bees were very busy with 2 blooms this summer and our first batch of honey was extracted on July 21st.
Taste the pure goodness of raw lavender honey
Lavender honey in the making
Sooooo golden in colour and the delicate floral scent of lavender flows through this pleasant, well balanced and rounded honey.
Our bees make terrific lavender honey – not infused
Lavender honey comb
And we just stocked our shelves with some gorgeous honeycomb. Eating honeycomb is one way to enjoy the full fruits of our bees’ labour. To produce one pound of wax the bees consume 6-8 lbs of honey. The wax is edible and honeycomb contains not just honey but also pollen and sometimes royal jelly. It’s the perfect addition to a bowl of oatmeal in the morning and you’ll find it on our charcuterie boards at the Bistro 42.
We’ll be saying goodbye to our bees soon as the evenings cool but we thought we’d share this old family recipe as our bee season winds down and they go into hibernation.
Polish Honey Spice Cookies (Pierniczki)
Ingredients
1 c sugar
¼ c water
1 c honey
2 tsp allspice
1 tsp cinnamon
½ tsp cloves
½ tsp nutmeg
4 tsp butter
4 c flour
1 whole egg plus 1 egg yolk
2 tsp baking soda
1/3 cup warm water
Icing
1 c confectioner’s sugar
1-2 Tbsp water depending on the thickness of the icing you want (glazed or piped)
½ teaspoon almond or peppermint extract
Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
In a saucepan measure out 2 Tbsp of sugar and ¼ cup of water stir until dissolved and carmelize over gentle heat stirring until it begins to turn a golden brown colour. Add the remaining sugar, honey, spices and butter. Stir continuously until the mixture begins to boil. Remove from the stovetop and set aside to cool.
In a large bowl beat the egg and mix in the flour, baking soda and water. Blend in the sugar add spice mixture . Knead the dough until smooth. Cover the bowl with a towel and let it rest 20 minutes.
On a flour dusted countertop roll out the dough into a rectangle. Cut the dough into shapes using your favourite cookie cutters and place on a parchment lined cookie sheet. Bake 350 degrees for 8-10 minutes. Let cookies cool. Ice the cookies.
Smacznego!
Schedule of Events
Thank you for joining us for Lavender Festival 2019 and helping us celebrate all things Lavender!
SATURDAY
10:00 am Tai Chi Demonstration
Fung Loy Kok Institute of Taoism
10:30 am Lavender Tour (free)
Meet at the Peace Garden/Labrinyth
11:00 am Cooking Demo
Learn the art of BBQ from Award winning competitive barbequer Wally Hayes. Meet at the Food tent
11:00 am Live Music – Max Marshall
-2:00 pm Grab some food, wine/beer and enjoy under the music tent
12:00 pm Lavender Wand Dem0
Meet at the Serenity Lavender booth
12:30 pm Lavender Tour (free)
Meet at the Peace Garden/Labrinyth
1:00 pm Paint and Sip Class
Prepaid tickets – meet under the canopy
1:00 pm What’s the Buzz? Bee tour
Pre sold tickets –Anderdon Apiaries stay tuned for future events
1:30 pm Decoupage Demo
Meet at the Serenity Lavender booth
2:00 pm Live Music- Aaron Furlotte
-5:00 pm Grab some food, wine/beer and enjoy under the music tent
2:00 pm Lavender Tour (free)
Meet at the Peace Garden/Labrinyth
2:30 pm What’s the Buzz? Bee tour
Pre sold tickets –Anderdon Apiaries stay tuned for future events
3:oo pm Wreath Making Demo
Meet at the Serenity Lavender booth
SUNDAY
10:30 am Lavender Tour (free)
Meet at the Peace Garden/Labrinyth
11:00 am Cooking Demo
Learn the art of BBQ from Award winning competitive barbequer Wally Hayes. Meet at the Food tent
11:00 am Live Music – James Staley
-2:00 pm Grab some food, wine/beer and enjoy under the music tent
12:00 pm Dried Flower Music Cone Demo
Meet at the Serenity Lavender booth
12:30 pm Lavender Tour (free)
Meet at the Peace Garden/Labrinyth
1:00 pm Paint and Sip Class
Prepaid tickets – meet under the canopy
1:00 pm What’s the Buzz? Bee tour
Pre sold tickets –Anderdon Apiaries stay tuned for future events
1:30 pm Decoupage Demo
Meet at the Serenity Lavender booth
2:00 pm Live Music-Garage Mahal
-5:00 pm Grab some food, wine/beer and enjoy under the music tent
2:00 pm Lavender Tour (free)
Meet at the Peace Garden/Labrinyth
2:30 pm What’s the Buzz? Bee tour
Pre sold tickets –Anderdon Apiaries stay tuned for future events
3:oo pm Felt Flower Wreath Demo
Meet at the Serenity Lavender booth
Thank you for your smiles and continued support!
In the New Year we teamed up with Anderdon Apiaries with the goal of bringing to you our customers some 100% natural lavender honey. Even though the spring was hard on our lavender plants that first crop of honey had the subtle delicate of lavender. The bees gathered the nectar from those little purple lavender flowers and it transformed the flavour of the honey perfectly. We have been wanting to offer lavender honey for a few years now and did not want to infuse the flavour of lavender into the honey. We wanted mother nature’s pure and natural version with the help of our friends, the honey bees. Our patience paid off and despite the damage we sustained to our lavender plants we were able to offer 100% natural unpasturized lavender honey, and boy was it delicious.
Once the lavender bloom was finished the bees moved onto to consuming the nectar from all those pretty wildflowers around the farm. This honey was collected, placed in jars and is still available in our retail shop. It’s a wonderful product too, for all you honey lovers.
As the season progressed our friends at Anderdon apiaries collected the honey comb and we are thrilled to announce that Honey comb is now in store!
Honey in the comb is pure, simple and its you to places liquid honey can’t. It’s totally safe to eat and people have been doing so for thousands of years. It’s fantastic over a bowl of oatmeal, slathered on a baguette with brie, finely chopped and topped on a salad with finely crumbled goat cheese or on your next charcuterie board. It keeps forever and you can store it at room temperature. Its good for you to. But best of all, it’s made from he nectar of the lavender plants and wildflowers at Serenity Lavender Farm and tastes delicious.
