Melting Bees Wax

The Third Grade took apart our empty bee hive and melted down the empty comb to make beeswax products.

 The children chose the cleanest part of the comb for melting. 




After the wax melted, the children strained it in cheesecloth.

There was lots of dark matter left behind. The official name for this is "slumgum". It includes the pupal lining of the comb and excrement from the larvae. This means we were melting brood comb, as opposed to honey comb which is cleaner. Apparently slumgum warmed by the sun is used to attract swarms of bees when a hive needs to be filled. Bees are very attracted to it. Slumgum can also be a great fertilizer.

These photos show our clean wax hardening, and below, our final lip balm gifts.

Garden Items for the Winter Fair

This year the children and I prepared things to sell at the Winter Fair to benefit our school. 

We put together a collection of seedlings appropriate for winter planting. The flat contains lettuce and broccoli. 

We also put together our well liked herbal tea. You can see our garden ingredients listed. When we don't have enough of a plant, I do augment with organic teas from the Rainbow Grocery bulk tea bins. Usually it's just the nettles and peppermint we're low on.

Next to the collection of tea bags, you'll see a glass jar of sea salt herb rub. We grew those ingredients and the Third Grade loved mixing it all up. The courtyard around the Third Grade garden smelled amazing! 

The funny thing was, at the Winter Fair we did not specify that this salt rub was for cooking. After the Fair, I heard of at least one person who bought it for their bath. The rub won't hurt them, but the garlic wafting from the tub's waters might be an unwelcome surprise.

In Season

Here are some photos of our most recent harvest. You see two typical cool weather crops - radish and snap peas. Surprisingly, hiding in the pile are also some green beans. Our beans hung on (no pun intended!) a long time this year. We are just taking our last Scarlet Runners off the vine.

Below, take a look at this split radish. It's a lovely photo, but not an ideal radish outcome. Research indicates that radishes split for two reasons. One, they are past their prime. Two, they received a bounty of moisture after a relatively dry period. They root takes the water up so quickly, it literally pops!