THE BEES ARE HERE!

THE BEES ARE HERE!
Originally uploaded by linfrye

Daily Practice
Journal

Early yesterday morning, Tom brought two hives of bees to reside on our property! He placed them in the field near the edge of our poplar trees and our small orchard. The white boxes, each about 75 pounds, were carefully placed on cement supports he had brought out earlier this week. It took both he and his grandson to move them from the truck to the supports.

I watched him fill the feeders within the boxes so that the bees would have supplemental nectar while they became familiar with their new surroundings. I was surprised the cats weren't more curious - but they do stay away from the hives.

I sneak peeks at the hives every once in a while and noticed that the bees haven't ventured very far from the boxes as yet. Since my knowledge of bees and bee keeping is nominal, I am thrilled to be able to see this process close-up and imagine I'll be learning a lot over this year!

This sketch is from a photo reference, and I suppose I'll be painting more bees and planting more flowers. LOL!

The fig preserves are finished and stored, and I have one more set of jam to make today. As promised, here's C's recipe for Fig and Walnut Portabello:

Ingredients:
4 portabello mushroms, sliced thickly and placed in casserole dish

Sauce:

3/4 cup fig preserves
1/2 cup walnut halves
1/2 cup sliced reconstituted dried figs (you can use fresh too)
2/3 melted stick of butter (3 TBS)
1 TBS basalmic vinegar
2 TBS olive oil
salt and pepper to taste
pinch of garlic

Blend sauce ingredients; pour over mushrooms, marinate 30 min. Remove mushrooms from sauce, and cook in a frypan with 2 TBS butter and 1 TBS olive oil. Brown mushrooms on both sides. Add sauce, turning mushrooms to coat. Simmer 10-15 minutes turning mushrooms occasionally. Serve over rice.

YUM!

Lin Frye
North Carolina