From A to Bee(82)
For now, I would let the honey settle and then push it through a muslin, probably tomorrow. In the meantime, I had birthday duties to attend to.
SEPTEMBER 25
It's amazing what you can get done in a two-hour naptime once Sebastian goes down for a sleep. Jo and I rushed downstairs into the kitchen and immediately put a muslin over a ceramic bowl that we had sterilised that morning in the dishwasher. You use the muslin to take out most of the impurities, the wax cappings, for example. As Jo held the bowl in place I lifted up the litter tray to let the honey flow out onto the muslin. For the first time, as the honey was filtering through the muslin, I really got to see the colour of the honey, as the bright pink of the litter tray didn't really do it justice.
It was lovely and golden, and as I expected, it seemed to be the colour and consistency of that urban honey I had seen previously. It was however a little bit thicker than I imagined and hence I had a feeling this task might take a while.
After a few minutes it was pretty clogged up and so we lifted the muslin out of the bowl to take a look at the underside. None had dripped through and I feared I had used too fine a muslin but, as we were looking, a large drip dropped through, which was a most joyful sight. After that came another, but it was clear it was not going to be a quick job.
Jo and I therefore decided to leave the muslin in place for a while to let it all filter through. Securing the muslin in place using some books surrounding the bowl, we left it and let gravity do its work.
Coming back to it several hours later once Sebastian was in bed, we saw that most of the honey had now filtered through but there was still some stuck in amongst the wax cappings that were left there. I picked up the muslin, held it over the bowl and then did what came most naturally at the time; squeezed it as much as I could until I was satisfied there was no more honey that could come through.
Once this was done we could just go straight ahead and bottle up the honey. Looking in the bowl there was definitely enough for one small jar and we may have been lucky enough, in our ultra-crude way of working, to secure two small jars. I could hardly contain my excitement. As I held a jar, Jo very carefully started to pour the honey. It was the moment I had been waiting for and as the first stream of honey dribbled into the jar it all felt worth it. The jar slowly filled up and the honey was a beautiful golden colour but filled with miniscule air bubbles. If I had done it all properly, I should have left the honey to settle for a period of time, which causes the air bubbles to rise and escape, but I didn't really have the patience this time around, I was too desperate to try a little bit of it!
We quickly switched to the second jar which, with a bit of help from a spoon to encourage the last few droplets inside, meant we had two full jars of honey. I was chuffed to bits. Here in front of me were two jars of my own honey. I had to take some photos for posterity. I had succeeded.
Jo popped down the toaster and within two minutes out came two slices of toasted white farmhouse bread. Wasting no time to sit down, we spread over lashings of beautiful butter, watched it just melt into the toast and then, using a knife, we harvested the last dregs of honey from the bowl. As we spread it over the toast we got that wonderful waft of honey and Jo was straight in to her slice. Since she is not one to mince her words, it was lovely to hear her say how nice it tasted in just one word: 'Stunning'. I took an almighty mouthful myself, and it was immediately apparent how strong the flavour was. This wasn't a mild honey by any stretch of the imagination and was, honestly, one of the nicest honeys I have ever tasted. The fact that I have only tasted about five different varieties doesn't really matter. This was my honey – what a lovely thing to be able to say.
Jo and I just sat there smiling, accidentally putting another slice of bread in the toaster. It was a wonderful moment to share and while we waited in anticipation for the next slice I used a teaspoon and filled up the honeypot that David had given me, and prepared myself to fulfil my promise on Monday at the cafe.
SEPTEMBER 26
When I started this journey into beekeeping I viewed it as an education for both Jo and I but also for Sebastian. I want him, and hopefully baby number two, to grow up and understand where food comes from and hence why I am passionate about growing my own fruit and vegetables as well. Beekeeping seemed a natural step for me in this quest as well as helping out bees at the same time.
I therefore had to sit with Sebastian on this relaxing Sunday morning, and take him through the same experience that Jo and I had last night. As he sat there in his high chair looking up at me I felt immensely proud of being a father to such a wonderful little boy.