Honey Lemonaide

The farmer and I got to go on a "date" today. We went to a honey extraction seminar. Yeah, cause we're so exciting like that! :) And I forgot the camera so no pictures!

It was really neat and we did learn a lot. The first half of the seminar talked about getting bees ready for winter and caring for them over the winter. Even though this is our third year, we learned quite a few things that we weren't doing that will help our bees survive over the harsh winter we can have here in Wisconsin.

The second half of the seminar was back in the beekeepers honey house. He had brought in the supers off a couple of his hives and we cut to cut the caps with a hot knife, scrap with a fork, and use the extractor to empty the frames. Then we got to strain the honey and the second very best part of the seminar was that we got to bottle up some of the honey we extracted to take home.

The very best part of the seminar was the treats. The beekeeper's wife made honey cookies, honey popcorn, and honey lemonaide! I have recipes for the cookies and popcorn that I'll post tomorrow.

She didn't have a recipe for the honey lemonaide but told use that she fills her vessel (pitcher or cooler) with cold water, adds lemon juice and honey to taste. It was absolutely delicious.

The kids and I made a pitcher tonight when we got home. I used a pitcher of water, half a cup of lemon juice and half a cup of honey. The honey replaces any sugar you'd use to sweeten but adds such flavor I don't think I'll make my lemonaide any other way!

Lisa