Category Archives: food

Bees Freeze Ice Cream

Last week I was lucky enough to be invited to a special tasting event to try out the new ice cream Round Rock Honey will be producing. The ice cream will be called Bees Freeze and will use liquid nitrogen to instantly freeze the ice cream base right before your eyes. It is an impressive setup even before the liquid nitrogen is turned on.

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Here are the tanks of liquid nitrogen.
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The real show is when the ice cream is being made. Here is their in-house chef Aimee Chauveron and Konrad making up a batch.
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A close up of the process.

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They made vanilla, strawberry, and chocolate that evening for tasting. It wasn’t all fun and games as we filled out data sheets for each flavor around texture, color, and taste as they continue to tweak their recipes leading up to the official launch. I like the fact they are using grass fed milk from Full Quiver Dairy and of course, they are using their own honey as a sweetener. I was a little skeptical at first since I’ve used honey in making my own homemade ice cream at home and sometimes the honey will overpower the other flavors. However, they have managed to strike the right balance so the honey compliments the other flavors instead of overwhelming them.

They will be making their debut at the Cedar Park Farmers Market on August 31st and Mueller Farmers Market on September 1st. If you are in the area, I would highly recommend checking them out.

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When life gives you Aphid Poop Honey…

After Jesse over at Dai Due used some of the honeydew honey I gave him to marinate some feral hog loins along with mustard grape vinegar and Texas olive oil, I was inspired to find some recipes that complimented this honey’s unique woodsy taste.

I hit the jackpot last night. These balsamic and honey glazed root vegetables are amazing and super easy to make as long as you have a few hours to roast them.

Ingredients:
1/2 cup extra-virgin olive oil plus extra for greasing baking dish
1/4 cup balsamic vinegar
2/3 cup honey (if you don’t have aphid poop on hand, a darker honey is probably better)
1 1/2 teaspoons chopped fresh rosemary
1 1/2 teaspoons chopped fresh thyme
1 teaspoon kosher salt
1/2 teaspoon ground peppercorns
3 lbs of root veggies (I used carrots, parsnips, and cipollini onions all cut roughly the same size)

Preheat oven to 400 degrees F. Grease a large baking dish with oil and set aside. Whisk the oil, vinegar, honey, rosemary, thyme, salt, and ground peppercorn in a large bowl. Add the veggies and toss with the glaze. Transfer to the baking dish and roast until the glaze is thick and bubbling, turning the veggies every 30 minutes for 1 1/2 to 2 hours.

Since Thanksgiving is right around the corner, this is truly a dish worthy of a holiday table. Bon Appétit!

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July 21st Dai Due Menu at the Market

Here is the menu for this Saturday’s breakfast and lunch at the Dai Due booth.

Kimchi Hot Dog with mayonnaise.
Shrimp and Grits with a fried egg.
Chicharrones in Tomatillo Sauce Taco with cortido.
Braised Lamb with Peppers on garlic naan bread with 200 yr. yogurt and Kuri squash chutney.
Wheat Crepes with pears, goat cheese and Worker Bee honey.
Cactus Fruit and Lime Agua Fresca.
Iced Cafe a la Olla. Boiled Mexican coffee with sorghum syrup, brown sugar, anise seed and cinnamon, served over ice.

I recommend getting there early if you want any of these items. I missed out on the fried rabbit with Worker Bee honey last weekend as it sold out super quick.

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Breakfast and Lunch at the Market

For those folks that will be at the Austin Farmers’ Market this Saturday in Republic Square, stop by the Dai Due both for either lunch or breakfast.

Here is the menu for Saturday July 7th:

Lamb in Chile Colorado Taco with cortido and jalapeno salsa.
Egg Salad + Bacon Sandwich with sliced tomatoes on wheat.
Fried Egg in Tomatillo Sauce with tostadas, refried beans, onions and queso fresco.
French Toast with Worker Bee honey, figs, cinnamon and pecans.
Peach and Blackberry Soda.
Iced Cafe a la Olla. Boiled Mexican coffee with sorghum syrup, brown sugar, anise seed and cinnamon, served over ice.

You’ll notice that Jesse’s french toast will be even better than usual with the addition of Worker Bee Honey.

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Summertime Inspection

After it hit 109 on the mercury this week, I was dreading the weekend inspection, but we had a small respite today with a possibility of some much needed rain.

Rosemary is trucking along, and I may need to add a 5th super this week. She is slowly but surely building up her honey stores, and I am very curious of what this honey from the community garden will taste like. It looks much darker than the recent South Austin harvest perhaps from all the sunflowers in the area. If I am able to take some honey from this hive, I think a pollen analysis is definitely in order.

Rosemary Honey Frame

She is also still laying tight brood patterns and is still a very gentle hive.

Rosemary Brood

Before heading over to Baab-Brock Farms, we stopped by the Dai Due booth at the Austin Farmer’s Market. I’m a big fan of anything Jesse prepares especially since he sources everything he can locally. I traded 2 gallons of the recent spring honey harvest for some of his delicious Venison/Pork Hot Dogs. You may see my honey in one of his breakfast creations at his stand so stayed tuned for updates.

The inspection at Baab-Brock Farms was straight forward. Both hives are doing well and still have a lot of honey packed away. I tend to be conservative when it comes to harvesting honey because you never know what the Austin summer will bring plus I’d rather not feed my bees in fall or winter if I can help it. Both hives are also bringing in a lot of pollen.

Knives Frame of Pollen

I’ll end this week’s post with a shot of something that represents the sound of summer in Austin.

That's not a bee!

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Busy as a Bee

I had a full day checking on my hives before heading over to Hope Farmers Market for Lemonade Day. My first stop was Sunshine Community Gardens to check in on Rosemary who is now officially on my bad list.

Rosemary driving me crazy

This hive loves building comb in the wrong spots. Even though the 1st super still only has about 5 frames of drawn out comb, I went ahead and added a 2nd super to hopefully encourage them to build comb somewhere other than the inner cover. I may come back mid-week to see how they are progressing.

Next stop was Baab-Brock farms to take a look at Rue’s hive. This hive is doing fantastic with great brood patterns.

Rue with excellent brood

The 2nd super is almost all filled out as well so she may be getting her 3rd super as soon as next week.

After all the hard work of inspecting the hives, Gitanjali and I were able to treat ourselves to some delicious homemade lemonade. Here is Mikaila taking care of all her thirsty customers.

Mikaila Ulmer on Lemonade Day

The lemonade struck the perfect balance between tart and sweet. The only bad part was it didn’t last that long.

Karl enjoying some Beesweet Lemonade

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BeeSweet Lemonade

BeeSweet Lemonade

Mikaila Ulmer will be participating again on National Lemonade Day at the Hope Farmers Market this Sunday May 6th from 11 a.m. to 2 p.m. She won “Most Creative Lemonade” in 2011, and I’m sure she is hoping for another strong showing this year.

She makes home-made, freshly-squeezed lemonade with Texas wildflower honey & flaxseed inspired by a recipe found in her great-grandmother Helen’s vintage 1940s-era cookbook. She even donates 20% of her profits to the Texas Beekeepers Association.

I didn’t make it out to her stand last year, but I’m not going to miss it this year.

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Blueberry Corn Pancakes

In my mind, nothing goes better with honey than corn bread, but to me this isn’t a very breakfasty type food. Luckily, I found this recipe for delicious blueberry cornmeal pancakes.

Recipe:
Combine 1 1/2 cup cornmeal, 1/4 cup whole wheat flour, 1 tsp baking soda and 1/2 tsp salt in a medium bowl. In a small bowl, combine 2 TBS honey, 2 TBS oil, 2 cups buttermilk, and 1 egg. Stir well and then quickly mix into the dry ingredients. Let stand for 10 minutes to soften the cornmeal. Preheat griddle or large heavy skillet. Lightly grease the hot griddle and pour on the batter about 1/4 cup per pancake. Then sprinkle the top with blueberries and cook until the tops are bubbly. Turn and cook into golden on the other side. Cover with honey and put them in your craw!

Blueberry Corn Pancakes

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When life gives you a drought….

…go find the drought resistance sources of nectar.

Bee on Cactus

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Quick Check on Ramona

I performed a quick check on the top feeder in Ramona’s hive. The girls had sucked it dry so I filled it up again. I really meant to visit on Wednesday, but work unfortunately got in the way. This should see them through the weekend when I’ll check to see that Ramona has been released from the queen cage.

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