Sweet Life Alabama

03/19/2024

Who has extra corks? Use to help bees get a drink.

Looking for a fun way to recycle your old corks? Give them new life by building your very own bee-friendly pollinator bath! In addition to rocks and marbles, floating cork serves as a safe place for bees to land to get a drink while out foraging. ♻️

03/04/2024

Who doesn’t like purple?

03/01/2024

Henbit is important to our bees!

Henbit (Lamium amplexicaule) is starting to flower in lawns, roadsides, and sunny disturbed habitats. Long-tongued bees and European honey bees (Apis mellifera) pollinate its pink, tubular flowers. Warm days allow Henbit to form open (chasmogamous) flowers with nectar, while cooler days lead to more closed (cleistogamous) flowers that will self-pollinate. This introduced w**d comes from Africa and Eurasia but you can find it across much of North America today. As you may know from personal experience, once Henbit becomes established in a yard, it can be quite hard to eradicate. It forms dense stands and each plant produces hundreds of seeds that form a considerable seed bank. Hand pulling and frequent mowing before flowers mature are some chemical-free means of control.

Henbit is an easy to identify wild edible. So while you’re pulling it out of your garden, feel free to munch on some of its stems and leaves. Like other members of the mint group (Family Lamiaceae), Henbit has square stems. The leaves have rounded teeth and the upper leaves lack a petiole (leaf stalk) and wrap tightly around the stem. The specific epithet of the scientific name - amplexicaule - refers to this trait. It means “clasping the stem” in Latin.

Henbit has a nutty flavor and some people add it to salads or use it to make a variation on the more traditional basil pesto. The best tasting plants can be found when it’s not in bloom, from late fall through mid-winter. Once it warms up in spring, this winter annual dies off, but it’s sure to return with cooler temps in late fall.

02/01/2024

Good place to start if you’re interested.

12/30/2023

Sounds wonderful!

11/05/2023

It’s getting to be the season for respiratory illnesses.

A recipe for that tickle in your throat! 🍃🍯

Thyme's warming and drying nature helps to clear congestion, and it has an opening influence on the sinuses. Because of its drying nature, thyme may need to
be combined with demulcent herbs such as plantain (Plantago spp.) leaf, violet (Viola spp.) aerial parts, or fenugreek (Trigonella foenum-graecum) seed when using it as an expectorant for a dry cough.

KITCHEN SPICES COUGH SYRUP

🍃 ⅓ cup dried or ½ cup fresh thyme (Thymus vulgaris) aerial parts
🍃 ⅛ cup anise (Pimpinella anisum), fennel (Foeniculum vulgare), or cardamom (Elettaria cardamomum) seed
🍃 1 cup (8 fl oz) water
🍃 ½-2 cups (6-25 oz) raw honey (Note: this syrup should not be given to children under 1 year of age.)

Directions:

Bring water to a boil.
Place herbs in a small saucepan.
Prepare a concentrated herbal infusion: pour 1 cup of just-off-the-boil water over dried herbs. Steep for 20-40 minutes, covered.
Strain infusion and return liquid to the saucepan.
Add ½ to 2 cups of raw honey. If made with ½ cup of honey, the syrup will have a shelf life of 3 weeks, refrigerated; if made with 2 cups of honey, the syrup will have a shelf life of 1 year, refrigerated.

Warm mixture just slightly to enable the liquid and sweetener to mix. Avoid heating above 110 degrees F.
Transfer syrup to a sanitized bottle or jar (ideally, a dark-colored jar to protect from light exposure) using a sanitized funnel and cap tightly.
Label and store in the refrigerator.
Take 1 teaspoon to 1 tablespoon as needed.

https://theherbalacademy.com/cough-syrup/

Take good care of yourselves this season! 🍂

10/12/2023

Great article & series.

All About Honey

A quart of very fresh wildflower honey will taste like a sunny summer day all year long.
During the honey flow period, many established colonies made more honey than they need. In this four-part series, we’ll explore exactly what honey is, what differentiates some honey from others, traditional and modern medical uses, and the rich history humans have with honey as a food source. We’ll also disprove some common misconceptions about honey. Welcome back to the fascinating life cycle of the honey bee.

To read on, go to: https://www.beeculture.com/all-about-honey/

06/30/2023

Great time to harvest!

Fresh Yarrow tincture

Look for yarrow growing in fields and meadows. Harvest only the wild white yarrow. And harvest on a sunny day, in the middle of the day if possible, so the yarrow is strongly scented. For tincture, the flowering tops are the best. (For salves, the larger, lower, basal leaves are preferred.)
I usually cut the top three or four inches of each yarrow plant, doing my best to allow the stalk to reflower by cutting just above a leaf node. I use the stalk, leaves, and flowers in my tincture.
Using scissors, I cut the yarrow stalks and flowers into pieces and fill a jar with them. Then I add 100 proof vodka right up to the top. Lid it tightly. Stick on a pretty label with at least the name of the plant and the date. And wait. The tincture is ready to use in six weeks.

I spray yarrow tincture on my ankles to repel ticks.
I spray it all over myself to repel mosquitoes.
I spray yarrow tincture on wounds and bug bites.
I spray it on my toothbrush and use it as a deodorant.

Yarrow tincture has many more uses. How will you use yours?

🌱
www.wisewomanschool.com
🌱

04/27/2023

Great list for those of you helping our pollinators (including honeybees).

Beekeepers must have a working knowledge of the nectar and pollen producing plants in the vicinity of their apiaries for successful honey production.