Honey Harvest

As some of my readers know, my Dad took up beekeeping a few years ago in order to look into Colony collapse disorder, and because, you know, it's in the top five for Things You Can Put On Toast. I too have become an apiarist. A few days ago there was a ball of bees clustered outside the entrance to the hive. There are are almost always bees outside the entrance, particular during the daytime in the summer, but we're talking thousands of bees. At first he thought they were about to swarm, but after explaining the symptoms to his beekeeping mentor it was decided that more likely the bees had completely filled the hive with honey to the point where they had driven themselves out. Which means: honey harvest!

We've already harvested about 30 lbs of honey of the 100 lbs available in the hive. My Dad doesn't take any more than a generous estimate of what the bees themselves will need, so he would be considered an ethical beekeeper. The 100 lbs of honey is top of what the hive needs to sustain itself during the winter.

One comb was full of pollen, about one in seven compartments packed full of it. The tangy pollen-laden honey has completely spoiled me for anything else. Bee pollen is around 40% protein and rich in B-vitamins (mustn't... make... pun). I really wanted to make a pun there, but ultimately I decided against. Anyway, it is particularly useful to eat pollen from local beekeepers if you suffer from allergies, because it exposes you to local flora in minute quantities.

Green Juice, again.

Yes, more green juice. These consisted of celery, cucumber, swiss chard, mixed greens. I made these up for me and my parents, because the tables have turned and I am now the one insisting they eat-...er, drink their vegetables. The two on either side of the picture also contained an apple each, but I didn't put one in mine (middle) because I am a juicing masochist, OBV. Lower glycemic index!

Vegetarian Salmon

This isn't salmon. Oh no. We finally cooked up the vegetarian mock salmon as seen here. A friend of a friend of mine got this at Lotus Pond, a vegan Buddhist restaurant. It's not vegan itself because it contains whey powder. As I said, I love that they bothered to replicate salmon skin using nori. Step 2: Replicating the little bones you are at risk of choking on.

Root Bake

This is the second root bake I have made in the past month, but putting a layer of sliced tomatoes on top definitely improved it. Love those nightshades. This consisted of yams, turnips, potatoes, celery, red pepper, onions, and carrots.

Black Bean Burgers

I made these ages ago, but thought them blogworthy since I have rarely been making anything besides salads and stirfrys. I'll post the recipe soon since they were delicious.

Blog Shoutout: Heather Eats Almond Butter

Heather Eats Almond Butter is pretty much my new favourite blog.

This is possibly because it reminds me of my answer to possibly the most intimate question one can ask a person: If you could only eat one food forever, what would it be? The rules of this questions are as follows:
a. It must be a single food, not a combination food eg. pizza
2. The food can only be prepared in one way.
iii. The nutritional value of the food does not need to sustain you. This is a taste-centric fantasy.

My answer is, without hesitation, almond butter. It's not often that I read a blog in its entirety. The author has a great whole food, no sugar approach to eating that isn't carb heavy. I get so many meal ideas from her. The pictures are also inspiring and she manages to make oatmeal look beautiful, which I can tell you is quite a feat.