Going Green

One of the perks of capturing swarms or removing bees from people’s yards is they might toss you a bone in the way of a few bucks or in this case a lovely bunch of fresh-cut asparagus.  When I helped my bee man remove the bees from the water meter box a few days ago the gentleman who’d called for help was grateful the bees were successfully removed.  Mr. F. would’ve dug a couple of bucks to help with gas since it’s gone sky-high but the guy said,”My garden hasn’t really taken off yet but I do have some fresh-cut asparagus, can I offer you any?”  Using a thumb to gesture toward me, Mr. Floyd responded with, “She’d probably like it, I don’t like it”.  I smiled and said that I’d love to have a bunch of fresh asparagus.  The home owner disappeared and returned shortly with a bag full of asparagus, bright green, purple and cream in color, smelling like it had been cut early that morning.  We thanked him and he thanked us and off we went.

The next day being a Saturday all I could think of was throwing something on the grill and I wanted that asparagus to be part of it.  I rubbed some boneless pork ribs down with a few spices and garlic and left them to sit for a while.  In the meantime I cleaned and broke the ends off of the asparagus.  I decided it would stand on its own in flavor so all I did was place it in a baggie with some olive oil, a little smidge of kosher salt and a dash of pepper.  When the ribs were almost ready I laid the asparagus over medium hot coals and allowed them to roast until they were tender.  If the photograph above doesn’t make your mouth water for some fresh asparagus, perhaps you don’t like it.

All I can encourage you to do is find the freshest asparagus you are able and do exactly what I did.  It was the absolute best serving of asparagus I’ve ever tasted.  It was crisp, tender, sweet and simply put “absolutely delicious”!

I must give adoring hubby a big thank you for taking a photo that truly captures the beauty of that vegetable in its raw state.  Most of the photos on my blog are taken by me but occasionally I have to turn it over to the pro in the family and let him work his magic. Thanks honey!

I’m making a little diversion in my method for writing about all of my bee adventures as I seem to have a lack of time lately but so much bee business I want to share with you. Today I’m going to share a bee story right here on the front page as opposed to having you go up to the Bees & Honey page.  Yesterday was another exciting day in my bee world.  I went to help capture a swarm of bees hanging from a short tree.  I sure was thankful that it was a short tree and they were low in it.  The capture was extremely successful as I located and caught the queen as well as coaxing almost every single bee into the hive!  Now that is satisfaction at not only becoming skilled at this removal thing but pride at saving just one more colony of bees looking for a new home.  They are safely living in my bee yard in Hive Miracle – so named because it’s a miracle that hive has any queen at all – it now has 2 queens in residence and 3 queen cells, where new queens are growing.  Mr. Floyd says its queen storage.  The queens are in their respective cages and being tended to by the girls.  For more on this story stay tuned later in the week when I’ll write about releasing one of the queens and all that will take place in Hive Miracle when I take on that task.  Meantime, below check out a couple of photos of yesterday’s removal – you’ll notice the bees making a beeline for the hive box they would be transported to my yard in.  It’s quite a site!

Enjoy!