!!!

This morning there was a happy accident that resulted in my very first extracted bottle of honey from my hives!  I broke a frame of drone brood and capped honey that was stored in my garage freezer, and after a lot of cursing at myself I realized what that meant.  I broke off the honey portion and set it in my kitchen to thaw.

It's embarassing, but I'm going to make a confession now and say that my heart actually starting beating faster when I saw this on the plate.  I will now agree with everyone that says I'm a freak about honey.  I have a problem.  If you're going to have an addiction (fetish? shhh....) this is a good one to have.

I extracted it the old-fashioned way by letting it drip into a bowl for a while, then crushed it up with my hands.  Such exquisite messiness!  Melanie was there, she can verify the ecstatic state that put me in.  Then into a warm oven it went to drain for a few hours. 

A pound and a half from one partial frame.  Look how beautiful. 

I didn't want to ruin the sweet beauty of the previous photos with this one, so at the end it goes.  This was the drone brood portion of the frame, broken up to give to the chickens.  Absolutely disgusting. 

There, all ugliness is forgotten.  I removed this frame from the hive months ago, so it is early season honey.  Light and very bright in your mouth.  Come by and try it!