~Whole Wheat Rolls and Bread~

Posted on July 24, 2012 by Callens Honey Farm

Here is another whole wheat bread recipe that I have also been using.  Give it a try.  Make sure you have your oven pre heated before you put the buns in, so that they don’t “fall”.

Dissolve:

2    Tablespoons yeast or 2 packages

2 cups of warm water

Add:

1/4 cup melted butter

2 beaten eggs

1/3 cup honey

Blend:

2   Teaspoons salt

6 cups whole wheat flour

Dissolve the yeast in warm water.  Add butter to the yeast.  When melted, add eggs and honey.  Mix well.  Blend in the salt and flour.  Knead the dough on a floured surface for around 5 minutes.  It will be kind of wet but not bad.  Use your own method on how to knead it whether you use wet hands, oily hands or a bit of flour.  You don’t want this dry though, so the buns will be soft and moist:)  Place the dough in a greased bowl, cover and let it rise until doubled in size.    Punch down later and form into balls; do not flatten the balls.  Place on a well-greased cookie sheet around 3 inches apart.  Cover and let rise again for around a half hour or so.  You judge! Preheat oven to 400 degrees and then bake for 12 to 15 minutes depending on your oven.   Mine is propane.  Remove and cool on a rack when they are a golden brown.  

If you have a large family go ahead and double or triple this recipe.  I triple it every time but thought it may look intimidating if I posted it that large!   Enjoy………..

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~Calves in Training etc..~

Posted on July 14, 2012 by Callens Honey Farm

I was able to get some photo’s of the girls working the young steers the other day. These calves seem to work and listen better than the pure bred Jersey calves the girls have trained in the past.   The calves are Holstein crossed with Jersey and are 6 months old.

This time they did not fit into their old smaller hand-carved yoke that Fred made.  The twins had to put them into the larger yoke that Fred carved.     

Choosing the right calves for training is very important; these were the best in that group of calves showing some intelligence, good behavior and sound conformation.

Some miscellaneous photo’s taken during the week.  Hold your mouse over the photo’s for an explanation.

Here is one of our new queens we reared out of the Minnesota Hygienic mother colony.  She is now settled in with her colony and laying well.

 

 

Stay tuned, soon I will be posting photos of our new chicken house the kids built this week.  I already showed Nonna and she figures it’s good enough to live in.  You have an open invitation mom!

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~Happy Independence Day~

Posted on July 4, 2012 by Callens Honey Farm

Stay Cool!  Know that life is good by golly and well worth living. 

 

Don’t eat too much junk!  No pigging out:)

 

Have fun hanging out with friends and family!

 

See the beauty that surrounds you and thank those who gave their lives for our freedom.

 

Give your smile to somebody and receive a smile back!

 

Father’s, spend time with your children!  It does not matter what you are doing as long as it is together.

 

Children are a blessing; be open to life and see how fun it is:)

 

Good friends make the world go around.  Here are two of the best!

 

Live, Love and Laugh, it’s good for the soul!

 

May God bless you abundantly! 

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~Nicot System Queen Rearing~

Posted on July 2, 2012 by Callens Honey Farm

These photos are already out dating themselves on this farm:)  Time has been going by way too quickly and while I take a ton of photos, I don’t have time to upload them.  What we have been up to on the bee side of farming is trying to learn how to raise queens.  In the photo above we were stealing brood in order to create a cell builder colony. 

We split quite a few of the already established colonies this year in order to make 15 new hives.  So far one hive did not make it.  Time will tell how the others do.  It has been and continues to be a great learning experience for our kids.  The idea is to get good enough at this to not have to purchase queens or packages because it is expensive.  It would be nice to eventually be able to sell locally, in Minnesota, queens, package bees and possibly hives ready to go.  Again, we’ll see how that goes. 

The girls chose the very best colony we have to steal eggs from for our queens; this hive is the mother colony.  These bees are Minnesota Hygienics, and are very gentle, fairly disease and mite resistant, they don’t build burr comb and they are very productive honey producers.  The photo below is of the mother colony and shows the girls removing the Nicot frame with eggs from our selected queen. 

Each one of the brown cell cups (above) contains one tiny larvae.  We chose to pull the cups and place them within the frame inside our vehicle in order to keep them from drying out or getting cold.  All of this is time sensitive and is not exactly easy!

Next we covered the frame of larvae with a towel and rushed them over to the cell builder hive as seen in the photo below.

After hatching, the virgin queens are released into the new hives to be mated and hopefully start laying.  They are located near our best hives in hopes that the good drones will do the mating! Below is a photo of an empty cell inside of a queen cage from which a queen emerged.

 This was our third attempt at this Nicot method of queen rearing and we finally were able to call it a success!  I’ll give a report on our next attemt as well, although I don’t think it will be this season:)  Timing is probably the most important aspect of queen rearing and we hope to do much better on our next attempt!  It’s every bit as exciting as opening a package on Christmas morning.

Below is a photo of a bad case of burr comb building in a hive.  It is a very undesirable trait in honeybees.  We took this today and thought you might like to see how it looks.   The burr comb was immediately scraped off after the photo was taken.

Here is a photo of my grand daughter, Kallie Jo……….too cute not to share.  Hope it will make my mom, (you Nonna) want to come out to see all of us soon!!!  We all went to the Crystal Springs Rodeo and this was Kallie’s outfit.  ISN’T SHE DARLING?

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~Cherries~

Posted on June 19, 2012 by Callens Honey Farm

The cherry trees really out did themselves this year.  What a beautiful, blemish-free, abundant crop of pie cherries.  The bees did a good job, this year, pollinating our trees.  The frost didn’t get them either.  I’ll be processing a huge batch today, so this post will be very short!  We’ve got some cherry cordial brewing along with a batch of cherry wine, out in the butcher shop.  That should be some tasty stuff.

There is so much more going on around here.  I hope to post some of it eventually but this will have to do for now.  I’ve got some good photos of the queen bee rearing we’ve been experimenting with.  I hope everyone is having a great summer.

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~Bees, Swarms and Life~

Posted on May 26, 2012 by Callens Honey Farm

 

It’s been so busy around here that I have not been able to make a post.  Posting takes time.  Mostly we’ve been up to planting gardens, rotating the lambs and horses, moving fences, weeding and planting hops, hanging cable for the hops and working our bees.  The expansion of the bee hives has really taken up plenty of time but it’s such a great learning opportunity for the kids that I don’t mind at all.  It means more time for me in the kitchen though and that I don’t like!

We had two of our hives swarm and the girls were able to make new hives of them. Swarming is a natural occurrence in an overcrowded colony. The original queen leaves the hive with half of the worker bees, leaving a queen cell (or cells ) to replace her.  The bees take to the air and find a gathering place (usually wherever the queen decides to land) and wait there until their scout bees return with news of a new home location.  It was beginners luck catching them since this was a new experience for us.  One of the hives that swarmed had already been split!  With such a mild winter the over wintered hives have done quite well, a real blessing in such a cold climate.  The first swarm happened right here in our garden, the bees ending up almost at ground level in the cherry bush.  The other was thirty feet high and took some doing to catch.  Fred and Caleb to the rescue! 

Can you locate the queen in the photo below?

The attempt at queen rearing won’t be known as success or failure for some time, but if at first we don’t succeed, we will definitely try again.  Soon we shall see!  This year we did not purchase any new bee packages, hoping to save money, but we did invest in new queens that we added to the split hives.   Fred built the new hive boxes and we ordered some beekeeping tools including a new suit for me.  I really enjoy watching the bees right up close. They are absolutely amazing, especially when you are not afraid of getting stung.    Mario has shown a great interest in the bees and went with us today, all suited up!

 

Happy Anniversary to Jessica and Luke Dougherty.  4 years of marriage yesterday.  I can’t believe how fast those years have gone by.  May God continue to bless them in many ways.  Below is Jessica with Anya, Luke with Cael and Maura on the right.

 

The last thing that has been keeping us hopping is practicing the music for the BARN DANCE which is coming up on June 8.  We hope to see some of you there.  If you would like to see last years barn dance post click on the link below:

https://callenshoneyfarm.wordpress.com/2011/06/21/barn-dance-2011-the-making-of-a-dance/

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~Graduation Mass~

Posted on May 8, 2012 by Callens Honey Farm

Yesterday our church celebrated a Graduation Mass for our seniors.  There were 5 students from Canby High School and my two homeschooled girls, a fairly large group for out here in rural America.  Fr. Craig did a wonderful homily and it was right on, in my opinion.  I wish I could have written down what he spoke to the very hearts of these young people!   I sure hope the seniors were paying close attention because it was perfect advice that could make all the difference in their lives.   At one point, I had to smile when Mario turned around, in the balcony where we sing, and asked me if it was true what Father had just said!  I assured him that it was true!

Father explained that the seniors need to stay close to the Eucharist and be Pure in all areas of their lives and went on to give great explanations of both.  He was able to explain it all so well, especially the purity part.

I took with me the point that no matter what these young people become or do with their lives, no matter how successful in the eyes of the world or to themselves, it would not bear much fruit or even happiness without God there beside them.  These are not his words of course, but how I understood parts of them.   I entertained the thought briefly of walking over to the organ, where there are pencils and paper, to try to write down what he was saying but instead I remained glued to the pew! 

Below is the prayer that Fr. Craig Timmerman  wrote for the graduates, having found other prayers somehow not to be exactly what he was looking for.  That’s just like him, to want to make things just right.

A Graduation Blessing

God our Father, before you formed us in our mother’s womb, you knew us. Before we were born, you gave us a name
… and called us to be a light to the nations.
You have blessed these, your sons and daughters, with your grace at every stage of their lives: they were born through baptism, forgiven in Confession, fed and nourished by the Body and Blood of your Son in the Eucharist. At their confirmation they received the fullness of the Holy Spirit to make them fully disciples of Jesus Christ. Now, as they finish this stage of life in high school, bless these graduates with Wisdom to know your will and Courage to follow it as they step out to discover the path you have set for their lives.
Give them friends to be loyal and keep them strong in faith. Bless them with knowledge of your loving presence, especially in times of darkness. Bless them with the gift of Counsel to make good decisions and the gift of purity so their love for you will continue to grow stronger through all their relationships.
May they always turn to your grace for the help they need, finding strength in the Eucharist and forgiveness in Confession and protection through the Saints.
And wherever they are going, Lord, whether right here in our community or halfway around the world, may there be a Catholic Church there to welcome them and continue to guide them to their true home in heaven.
We ask all this through Christ our Lord.
Amen

How lucky we are to have such a good and faithful Priest here at St. Leo.   The seeds of faith have been planted in our young people’s hearts and minds forever.  Pray that they never forget.

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~Feed My Sheep~

Posted on April 28, 2012 by Callens Honey Farm

We made it through lambing with another good year.  The herd was moved out to the pasture that we rotational graze a couple of days ago.  What  a beautiful site that is!  Yesterday the bottle lambs were moved into the sunshine in our hops yard.  We ended up with a 1.5 lamb crop average which we are happy with.   Last night it rained so Fred did not have to work and was he ever pleased.  He and Caleb headed out to an auction and I took time to take the twins’ senior pictures and make a new post here.

Our hogs are farrowing and they are so cute.  We are not quite finished but so far we have 48 of the cutest piglets.  They will be sold to Niman Ranch Pork and some of our local private sales.  The difference is definitely in the taste!  They are raised in a natural setting and do not receive hormones or shots of any kind.  The kids have been feeding the sows the buttermilk so that the moms will have plenty of milk for their young.

The men have been working very long hours.  This morning it was 5:00 a.m. and they usually don’t arrive home until after 10:00 or 11:00 p.m.  That makes putting in the hops irrigation system very slow.  What we need is a good rain that will maybe give them a break they will need to finish laying the lines.  They did get some of it started not too long ago.  Another big job they have to tackle is the placing of new poles.  We have so many more to do.

The onions from Dixondale are doing great and I thought I would post a photo of how the bunches look in the box.  Yesterday we took a huge bag of onions that we had stored up at Francesca’s house, she has a cool basement, and they are just as crisp as the day we put them in last Fall.  I was pleasantly surprised!  If they do start to get soggy now, I’ll just chop, bag and freeze them.

The girls planted two huge barrels of hops rhizomes this past week.  They filled in some of the winter kill spots, and then dug new rows.  If a person had to guess, I’d say there were maybe 250 some odd new plantings.  Thank God for the new post hole digger that made the job fairly easy and oh so fast!

I made up a batch of Blood Sausage from a hog that we butchered for a friend of ours.  This was the first time we stuffed the sausage in our own casings.  Usually I make it the way Fred’s mom did, baked in pans.  Haven’t had time to cook the frozen stuff yet, but the fresh stuff we tasted was very good.  The name is gross, I admit.  You either like Blood Sausage or you don’t!  Everyone was so busy that Fred and I ended up cutting and packing that hog alone on Sunday evening.  A no-no, working on Sunday, but in this case that hog needed to get into the freezer fast and he has to work off the farm………

The bottle lambs are using up my surplus milk, so for a short time I will have a break from making cheese.  For a time there, I was making up several large batches of cottage cheese to use in lasagna, see photos below.  They taste even better than they look!  It is also Nettle and Rhubarb season and we’ve been having our share of them.  So far, I have frozen 10- quart bags of rhubarb to make crisps later in the year, after we run out of the fresh stuff.  The nettles I make with pasta and also make the kids drink a strong tea made from the nettles and mint leaves.  It is supposed to be healthy, so I tell them!

Even with all the school and farm projects we do around here, we always make time for fun.  As of late, it has been fishing and canoeing.  I like the fishing best.

Adding this later………..we all had to laugh when Mario asked, as I served the Stinging Nettles and Pasta the other day, if we were eating “itch weed”again!!  The answer of course was YES!

SANDRA

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