In the Wild

This summer, the East Lansing Farmers' Market has been featuring a product I've never had before, but I've become addicted to: dark honey, produced as a byproduct of processing beeswax. Beekeeper Dale Woods runs Applegarth Honey. Slogan: "we serve the queen." He's been appearing weekly on Sundays, 10 am - 2 pm, in Valley Court Park.

Dale's operation is located in Fowlerville, Michigan, and he has sold his wares at many of the markets in the area, including Allen Street, Merdian, Mason, Chelsea, and the take-your-life-in-your-own-hands drive-through farmers' market of St. John's. He offers traditional light honey that tastes beautifully buttery and fresh, as well as the darker variety that tastes to me more rough and wild. I love it on my granola and in my tea.

Dale explained to me how the dark honey is produced. The honey in the combs is covered with a thin coat of wax. The beekeeper cuts the surface layer of the wax off to get the honey out. If he heats that capping, he'll get beeswax floating to the surface of the heated vessel. At the bottom of the heated vessel rests a dark layer of honey.

For the last two years, a robin has built a nest in the northwest corner of our back porch awning. The wife (also known as my publisher) refuses to let me shoo these guys off once they start building. She's always afraid the female is already pregnant and can't afford time to get another nest built. With the Mothers' Union protection racket going, this year the robin mother hatched three babies.