Debbie Morrison

Honey Harvesting 101: Smoke, Stink, Blow, Brush

I am so loving the “farm to table” movement that is helping us all better understand where our food comes from. Everyone knows that farmers grow food, but there is a lot more to the story about how that food gets to our tables. Taking that concept one step further, everyone know that honeybees make honey, but how does the honey actually get inside those bear-shaped containers?

Crops, we all know, are harvested whenever the vegetables, fruits, and grains are ripe. It is no different for honey. But since bees make the honey, how do we know when it is "ripe" and ready to harvest? Easy. The bees decide when it’s ready, and they seal the ripe honey cell with wax. They do this cell-by-cell until the entire frame is capped.

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5 New Ways to Use Local Honey to Sweeten Your life

September is National Honey Month, and if there is one product that deserves a month-long celebration, it is honey. Humankind around the world has enjoyed its sweetness for thousands of years, and over time it remains unchanged. Today, one can experience the same sweet flavor that an ancient Pharaoh of Egypt enjoyed centuries ago. How many foods today can provide us with that level of imagination? There is a reason why honey has stood the test of time. In fact there are many reasons; it truly an amazing product that is so much more than just the tasty treat we have come to love.

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Life with "The Girls" Provides Entertainment, Free Fertilizer and Incomparable Eggs

This year my husband and I celebrate 10 years of farming. In 2000, we transplanted ourselves from the Twin Cities to our farm in East Central Minnesota and over the past decade, have gradually expanded our agricultural output. Our primary focus has been growing produce, beekeeping and honey, and making maple syrup. But the one thing that everyone we know has asked us is why do we not have any farm animals?

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How Growing a Few Backyard Tomato Plants Led to My Life as a Farmer

As I’m planting my crop of tomatoes this year, I couldn’t help but ponder about how much I’ve benefited from this one item of produce. In her recent Simple Good & Tasty post, Rhena Tantisunthorn described the history of tomatoes, so I reflected on my own history and realized how my love for tomatoes has been a catalyst of growth for me in so many ways. Here are just a few of them:

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A Sugar by Any Other Name Would Taste as Sweet

Sugar is enjoying a resurgence in popularity after years of being vilified for empty calories and its role in things like tooth decay, obesity and diabetes. As the negative effects of high-fructose corn syrup (HFCS) have become better known, sugar's profile has risen. Cane sugar, as opposed to cheaper beet sugar, has especially benefited from HFCS's bad press; it is actually being touted as a healthful ingredient. Yet cane and beet sugars are highly processed, refined and provide no nutritional value. Other, less refined, sweeteners have some benefits that sugar doesn't. Yet nearly all of them raise blood sugar, and have little nutritive value. So why bother?

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Eat Local Honey and 7 Other Ways You Can Help Save the Bees

The USDA just released the survey results of winter honeybee colony losses, and the news is bad. Nationwide, the losses of managed honeybee colonies totaled almost 34 percent from October 2009 to April 2010 – an increase from the 29 percent loss reported in 2008-2009. The complete results of this survey conducted by the Apiary Inspectors of America (AIA) and the Agricultural Research Service (ARS) is yet to be published, but the abstract is now available.

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Making Maple Syrup Brings Out the Kid in All of Us

As a kid growing up in Minneapolis, I remember early spring as that time of year when the days were longer, the snow was disappearing, and I was allowed to play outside again all day long. The most fun was getting the huge pack of neighborhood kids organized for softball games, to play “kick the can,” or just ride around on our bikes. With all of these options, it didn’t take much effort to get me outside; in fact it was much more difficult to get me back indoors at the end of the day.

As time went by, that wonderful, playful era passed and I grew up, went to college, joined the ranks of the corporate world, got married, bought a house in the suburbs, and became a serious-minded adult. I retreated to the indoors during the cold months and when the snow receded in the spring, I looked out my window and only saw was an ugly, dirty yard awaiting attention – the kind that I just didn’t want to give it

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