Look What We Found!

Today we discovered something new on our property.  Hazelnuts!  Harold was doing some tilling in the pasture, and when he walked back home, he discovered a different kind of large bush he had never seen before.   He brought a branch back to the house and we looked it up.  We have a hazelnut bush!  A quick research on the internet told us that these nut bushes can and do grow in Minnesota, as well as Wisconsin, northern Michigan, and especially in Oregon and Washington.   Other states can have them, too, but these are the most prominent growing areas.   These wild hazelnuts are definitely edible.  Harold says the bush is just loaded with these nuts.  The bush is about 8 feet high, and about 10 feet across.  However right now, it is surrounded with high Canadian thistles and tall grasses, so getting to it is not easy.  When it's time to harvest the nuts, we'll have to get rid of the thistles!  We have heard that a person should pick them at the green stage, but fully grown, and they will brown up when they dry.   Then when they are thoroughly dry, you can crack them and eat them just like the ones you buy at the store.   Or you can roast them (we'll have to do some research on that one)  Our neighbor has eaten these and says you must pick them before the worms get into them.   So we'll have to keep a close eye on these, and learn something new!
     Here is a view of the branch Harold brought in:

The Hazelnuts grow in clusters with a curly outer layer.

A close up view of the nuts inside.  They need to grow for a few more weeks, I think.

Anyway, I will have to keep you posted on how we did with picking and drying these nuts.   There is always something new to learn in nature.   And I am anxious to taste these wild nuts.

On another note, this is canning season again, and I bought several boxes of Mrs. Smitcamp's canning peaches, which come from Cutler CA.  These are wonderful peaches and I have very good results every year canning up these lovely peaches.   A couple years ago I did a blog article on how to ripen peaches.  In case you missed it, or can't find the post I wrote back then, here again is the method.   First you must lay the peaches on linen, stem side down, and not touching each other.  Then cover with more linens.   The peach grower who taught me this method says to use Damask linens because they have good "breathability".  Yes, don't laugh, he said!  Old time damask linens can be bought at flea markets and antique stores for very little cost (because nobody wants them anymore!).  After a few days, the peaches are perfectly ripened and ready to can up.   Most peaches come in the box fairly green, and this method always produces juicy peaches that can up nicely! 

I put my peaches under damask linens to ripen for a couple days.

The perfectly ripened peaches ready to can.  You want the peaches to be only slightly soft, as they will cook somewhat during the canning process.   Some of these peaches have a little green left to them, and I will do them the following day, picking only the yellow ripe ones for canning tomorrow. 

I bought 3 large boxes of peaches this year, as I had some quarts left from last year.   Tomorrow and Wednesday I will be busy canning peaches!   They are easy to can up, and I always enjoy the process.   And they taste SO good in the winter when the snow is a couple feet deep and it is 30 below zero outside!

An Amazing Bee Miracle?

Today Harold checked out our 3 hives.  They are doing exceptionally well, and he needed to put on another honey super.  However, he had no sooner finished putting on a super and walking away after checking everything out, when one of the hives swarmed!   A huge swarm went into one of the trees behind the bee yard.   Harold could see where they landed, and he went to get his tractor loader to get a ladder up there and bring the hive back down and haul them off someplace else in another box.   But as he went to get the tractor an amazing thing happened!!  The swarm went back into the SAME hive box!  It's like they swarmed, and then came back home!  Within minutes!   This never happens.  Bees just don't do that.   Harold said a quick prayer when they swarmed (that he would be able to get the swarm into a box with no problems, to haul them off to the Miller farm, where we take all our swarms), and within minutes they all came back to the original hive.   Perhaps the Lord heard Harold's prayer and brought all our bees back to where they should be instead of swarming.    I tell you, this truly never happens -  that bees will swarm and come back to the same box!  We have never witnessed any such thing in all our 9 years of beekeeping.    Here are some photos of this morning's episode: 

Harold checks out one of our hives.   For a thorough checkup, he used the bee smoker this morning and suited up.

Lifting up a frame of bees and honey from the top super.

The frames look really good.   The bees are filling them up with honey.

Shortly after inspection the bees swarmed, and then came back.   Here is what THAT looked like:

The front of the hive was just covered with bees trying to get back in.

The bees were everywhere, waiting to get back into the hive.

Another view of the bees trying to get back into the hive they just swarmed out of.

They are all back home now and all is just like it originally was.    I wanted to get a photo of the swarm in the tree, but they weren't there long enough for me to get a good shot of them.  Sometimes a beekeeper just can't figure out bees!  But thanks be to God for bringing the bees back, and without us having to do anything!  We witnessed a very rare thing indeed!

Nanking Cherries!

My Nanking cherries are ready!   I have not had a good crop of these wonderful cherries for several years now.  For a few years we have had freezing temps when the bushes were in blossom, and all of the blossoms died.  And even this year I was afraid I would have none of them because of the tent caterpillars this spring.  But the birds took care of the bugs for me, and the good Lord blessed me with a truly bumper crop of these cherries this summer!  We planted these bush cherries about 8 years ago, starting with small bare root cuttings only about 15 inches high.  Now the bushes are about 7 feet tall and thick with branches.   I have 6 good sized cherry bushes.  Usually every summer the birds eat most of the crop, and even the deer and bears get them.  But this year I was able to harvest the fruit before any of the critters got to them!  And what a huge crop!  I am just thrilled, as these little tasty cherries make a wonderful juice, and even better jelly.   Nanking cherries are smaller than regular tree cherries, but they have an intense cherry flavor.  Today I picked a pail full of them, enough for a couple batches of jelly.   There is still plenty of fruit left on the bushes, not quite ripe, and if the birds don't beat me to them I will be able to pick another pail full later on next week.  I spent an hour picking these this morning, listening to the birds "scolding" me.

Nanking cherries do not 'hang' from the branch, but grow closely attached to the branches of the bush.  They are ready to pick when deep red, and when they taste sweet.  They are about 1/2 to 3/4 inch in diameter. 

Every branch of the bushes are just loaded with cherries!

One of the "farm hands" who came to "help" me.

A pail full of these sweet delicious beauties!