Radish's potatoes, mint and Elvis

Nothing says romance like Elvis impersonators at the State Fair

Being the sentimental guy that I am, our romantic valentines day celebration consisted of going to the State Fair and seeing the Elvis impersonators and Budweiser Clydesdale's.  Top that valentine.  The State Fair had many agricultural and 4H club displays.  At one display, the kids were giving away little plastic bags with cotton balls with some radish seeds.  Since my wife likes radish's, she gladly accepted one and gave them to me to plant.  That was several weeks ago.

sprouting radishes

radishes new home

So today while rummaging around the shed looking for something I noticed the little bag with the cotton ball.  Somehow it accumulated a few drops of moisture in the little bag and the radish seeds were starting to grow inside the bag.  So the cotton ball was removed from the bag and all the little seedlings were separated from the cotton and planted.

newly planted potatoes

Another new addition to the Florida Bee Farm and a long shot in my mind are potatoes.  I was recently at a Farmers market and talking to a guy selling organic potatoes.  He happened to have a few potatoes that were starting to sprout that he had under the display because he didn't think any customers would want them.  He gave them to me for purchasing a pound of good organic potatoes.  That worked out perfect because you need organic potatoes for planting because the ones in the supermarkets are sprayed with an anti-sprouting spray to keep the potatoes from sprouting eyes.   Another reason for eating organic.

The potatoes had quite a few eyes already sprouting on them so they were cut into many pieces that all had an eye.  And then placed in large pots with a small amount of dirt on top.  As the plants grow you're supposed to keep mounding dirt on top.  I've heard only a few varieties grow in Florida so this may or may not take as the guy at the Farmers market had no idea what type of potatoes they were.  Since I'm the lucky guy it's worth a try.

relocated sweet mint

While reading some gardening tips today, I noticed people discussing growing mint.  The consensus was that you should put mint in a shady location with plenty of water.  My mint was not doing well in a sunny area so our barely surviving mint plants were transplanted into pots and put into a shady spot after a heavy watering.  Must have mint for Mojitos.

Volunteering Florida State Beekeepers association booth during the State Fair

Monday Yvonne and I volunteered to help the Florida State Beekeepers association in manning their booth at the State Fair.  Even though we're pretty new at this, it was a good opportunity to meet some experienced beekeepers and some nice people.  We met several beekeepers who at one time had over 1000 hives.  They all said it's not what it used to be with all the beatles, mites, foul brood disease and the disappearing bees (colony collapse disorder)

In addition to giving out samples of honey and selling honey, there were plenty of people to talk with throughout the day.  Especially since it turned into one of those days where it rained all day which made the exhibits in the buildings even more enticing to fair goers.

Our booth had a display of live bees in a glass case.  But what was real funny was the lone bee on the outside who wanted to get in with all the other bees.  This bee must have flown into the building and found the hive because she stayed under the hive in a little space most of the day.  A couple times she came out and scared some people tasting honey and I'll admit it was amusing to see people jump when a real bee came out from under the hive.

We worked for 7 hours and then planned on walking the fair and seeing other exhibits.  It was a good thing we had our umbrellas because it was really coming down.  Not many people walking in the rain and a lot of unhappy vendors outside trying to sell their crazy food which seems to dominate the State Fair.  More junk food than anything else.  But that must be why everyone goes to the fair.  For some of that delicious pig butt on a stick.  Make mine the soy version thank you.

I've got hives !!!!!!!

One of the cool things about getting into beekeeping are the endless puns available in everyday conversation.  My favorite is "Honey don't stop" which is the title of someone's bee keeping blog.

I've been quite busy the last couple weeks working on building the hives.  Originally, when I decided to try beekeeping it was going to be with one or maybe two hives at the most.  As with all my compulsive exploits, I end up getting completely immersed into whatever has captured my attention.  I'd had to admit it's a mental thing but not something I would ever change about myself.  I'm more aware of this condition now and can keep it ... kind of ... in control.  But researching bees has drawn me in deeper than usual and I can see where this will eventually end.  It's a lot of fun so far.  Building things out of wood is deeply gratifying and learning how to make tight finger joints in the boxes and learning many new woodworking skills has been a blast.

The one or two hives I originally envisioned has expanded to 5-6 hives to start with.  They're about 90% complete.  The only thing I bought were  frames which I still need to assemble.  In the future fabricating my own frames is probable.  My Langston hives will feature screened bottom boards to combat mites as well as a cool landing pad for the bees on the angle that they naturally approach the entrance with the tail low.  So when a bee is coming in for a landing heavy with pollen and nectar,  it will be greeted with an excellent landing pad angled just right.  I've also designed a really nice ant proof stand for the hives that places them about 2' above the ground.  Most of the design is not something I can take credit for but a few things are.  I certainly don't want ants to overrun our hives.  I've heard from many that ants can chase bees off.

At the last Tampa Beekeepers association meeting we signed up to take a turn volunteering at the State Fair next month.  Ought to be interesting.