Airbnb for Bees!

We had the pleasure of hosting guests all winter long here on the dairy farm this season.  Approximately 10 million Honey Bees vacationed here for the winter season.  Yep, 10 million!

Two hundred bee boxes (hives) were placed at two separate locations on the ranch.  Each box contained 50,000 bees and one queen bee.  They are taken away from their area of work to rest and take care of the queen bees through the winter months.

Bees have one priority in the winter...to take care of the queen bee.  What this means is they need to keep her warm and safe.

In order to keep warm, the bees form a cluster or huddle in the hive.  They flutter their wings and "shiver" in order to create heat.   The continuous motion and use of energy is how the bees keep the inside of the hive warm.  The bees are free to fly outside of the hive, if desired as well.

To create enough body heat and to stay alive, the bees need enough honey to keep them going, which the bee keeper provides.

Fun Facts:

• To make one pound of honey, bees must visit 2 million flowers.
• Honey does not spoil
• Honey Bees are the only insect that produces food that humans consume.
• Worker Honey Bees are female. (Duh)
• A worker bee lives about 6 weeks and a queen bee can live up to five years

It was a fun experience to have the bees on the farm.  Everyone seemed to cohabitate nicely.  They didn't bother the cows or my horse, Joey.  They are now located back in the Central Valley of California to work the many acres of almond and walnut orchards.

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Pumpkin Beer Chili & Raspberry Honey Drizzled Cornbread

With all this talk and the feel of fall, I wanted to make a comfort food type of dinner.  The other night at my Healthy Cooking Meeting, a couple of the ladies brought over some crock pot chili, which inspired me to try it at home.  With the recent winter like rain storms we've been experiencing here in northern California, I thought it would be a perfect night to try a slow cooker chili.

Here's what you need, plus an onion and a pound of ground beef or turkey.  I used ground turkey this time.  We normally have a freezer full of our natural beef, but we happen to be out right now so I bought some ground turkey at Trader Joe's to substitute.

After snapping the photo and opening a few cans of beans, I decided not to include the baked beans in the photo for my recipe.  The great thing about chili is that you can fish through your pantry and grab any type of canned beans {brain food} you have on hand.  I even threw in some garbanzo beans this time.  Nothing could be simpler.

After chopping up an onion, throw it into the skillet with the ground turkey and brown.  Of course this could easily be made into a vegetarian dish by omitting the ground turkey. 

Bryce loves to eat raw onion and is always sneaking some whenever he notices me chopping one.

After you you pour all the beans, stewed tomatoes and salsa into a slow cooker, mix in the ground turkey and onion.

Mix it well so it looks like this

Sticking to the fall theme, I poured in an entire bottle of Pumpkin Ale {but any ale will do}.

Simmer for a good 4-5 hours or longer if you want.  Top with your favorite shredded cheese and or sour cream.  This was SO good!  And even better the following day for leftovers.

To go along with my chili, I was craving some sweet tasting corn bread.  I would have made it from scratch, but why do that when I had a bag of this Marie Callender's on hand?  Instead of mixing it with water, I used whole milk {more brain food} and also added a cup of Mexican shredded cheese to the batch.  The milk and cheese really give the corn bread a moist texture, so much better than just water.

Pour the batter into an 8 x 8 baking dish and bake according to directions on the bag...about 30 minutes.

After 30 minutes, this comes out.

I couldn't wait to dig into this warm, sweet cornbread topped with butter and drizzled with some raspberry honey!  Oh so good!  It was almost like dessert!

I highly recommend this raw raspberry honey....delicious!  I think I found this tiny 3oz. jar at Trader Joe's, but not 100 % sure of this.  This would be great in some hot tea as well.

Chili Recipe:

1 can black beans, rinsed
1 can kidney beans, rinsed
1 can white kidney beans, rinsed
1 large can ranch style beans or pinto beans
1 can stewed tomatoes, any flavor
1 jar Trader Joe's garlic salsa
1 can garbanzo beans, rinsed
1 pound ground beef or turkey
1 medium onion
1 bottle of pumpkin ale or your favorite beer

Combine all beans, salsa and stewed tomatoes.
Brown ground turkey with the chopped onion.  Add to the bean mixture.  Add the pumpkin ale.  Mix well.  Cook in slow cooker for 4-5 hours.  Top with your favorite topping.


If you're a chili lover, you may also enjoy these chili recipes:
Vegetarian Zesty Wheat Berry Black Bean Chili
and
Beef and Bean Chili Verde

Happy Tuesday!
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