The County Dublin Beekeepers Association run a honey show every year. There are stands
for honey, beekeeping equipment, cakes and tea and various tatty knick knacks. Well the divining stuff was tat at least. The main star of the show is the bee product competition though
The categories to be judged include beeswax candles, honey based cakes, combs of honey, meads and most importantly honey. Watching the judging of the honey is fascinating.
The criteria include pollen in the honey, bubbles in the honey caused by incorrect pouring, weight, viscosity, taste and colour. Water content as measured by a refractometer. Honey should have a water content of about 17%, if it reaches above 20% it usually starts to ferment. The whole judging process is fascinating so if you ever get a chance to observe it you should.
I entered a dry mead made by Laura in the competition but she did not win. The judges find appearance very important so in future we will have to use the regulation bottles and stoppers.
I finally got a beekeeping suit. So I can stop constantly borrowing them. It is a Bj Sherriff suit bought from Ben Harden. I managed to terrify my wife this morning by sneaking up on her in it, nice.
You are Darth Vader from the planet Vulcan AICMFP.
ReplyDeleteDivining rods? Srsly?
Ha
ReplyDeleteYeah there was a wood working guy who had some great thimbles and things. He also had divining pendulums. He had never heard of the ideomotor effect.
I think you'll scare your neighbours more, especially of they've seen movies like Outbreak.
ReplyDeleteOutbreak is that a bee movie? I'll get my suit
ReplyDeleteNice suit. Needs a gas mask and a flame-thrower for full effect though.
ReplyDeleteDave, didn't know you were into beekeeping.
ReplyDeleteI've recently made my first MAOM (Malkores ancient orange mead). I'd be mad interested in getting some good honey cos the supermarket stuff is frankly not that great when fermented out.
Still no bees yet Eoin.
ReplyDeleteYeah supermarket stuff is not great. It is a blend and tends to have high water content.
There was not much honey harvested last year. In fact the last three years have been poor. Which is most of the reason I still cannot get my hands on some bees.
Hi Dave,
ReplyDeleteI'd be so grateful if you would pop me an email to kate.odowd@image.ie. I'd love to have a chat with you for a feature I'm writing for IMAGE Mag.
(also, please delete this once read, if you wouldn't mind).
Thanks so much, kate
Hello Dave, you look great and your article is very interesting to read and informative. I love it. Thank you for sharing this to us. I'm looking forward to read another of your article.
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