The Buzz Newsletter

Page 5

ANNUAL MEETING

Another annual meeting has come and gone. The resignation of our vice president and program planner a month before the meeting threw everything into a bit of an uproar. There were a lot of e-mails going back and forth as we tied up the loose ends. In the end, it all came off pretty well. I think the attendance was down slightly but I never did get a head count.

We started off with a very long board meeting Thursday night. Usually, this meeting is just to interview the queen candidates and doesn’t last long. Louise Johnson had done a good job of searching out candidates for the election but there was still a lot of discussion about who would fit the best in the various slots.

There are a number of issues that will face us in the upcoming year. One is working with the state to set up a workable inspection system. We need more inspectors around the state in order to reduce driving time. Where will we find these inspectors? It’s a part time job that requires someone with a flexible schedule. It is also important to be able to organize a number of inspections to make trips effective. Maybe this is not even a workable scenario. Another idea that has been batted around is the possibility of setting up disease seminars around the state. How do we do this? There’s not enough money to pay anybody. This puts us back to volunteers. There are no easy answers.

Unfortunately, I got to the meeting late on Friday morning and missed Allen Dick’s presentation. From what I heard, it was well received. Lee Heine gave the Honey Board report and had some interesting points. I like to listen to Lee talk. One of the things he pointed out was that the U.S. honey crop was short. The current price for white honey is eighty-five cents and the hope is that it will get to one dollar.

Bob Cox spoke in the afternoon. He said the hoped for fungus control for Varroa mites has not materialized. The delivery system just isn’t there.

The banquet Friday night moved along quite well. The queen auction generated around $1300 and Allen Dick had an interesting slide show of Lusby’s operation in Arizona. Allen and a friend went there for a visit thinking they would spend and hour of so. They wound up staying for three days. Lusby’s have converted their operation to small cell in an effort to combat Varroa mites. It appears they have had some success.

Saturday workshops included vacuum removal of bees and Donna talked about working with beeswax. Bob Haxton from Inspections and Appeals talked about the regulations regarding processing and marketing of honey. The short version of this is that if your processing facility is on your homestead, it doesn’t have to be inspected. If you move it down the road to a separate piece of ground, it then needs to have an inspection. The other workshop was a presentation by Adam Ebert on his queen rearing operation.

It was a good meeting. I hope we can improve attendance next year.

Submitted by Phil Ebert

Honey Cooking Tips

* For best results, use recipes developed for using honey.
* When you substitute honey for granulated sugar in recipes:
* Substitute honey for up to one-half of the sugar. With experimentation, honey can be substituted for all the sugar in some recipes.
* Reduce the amount of liquid in the recipe by 1/4 cup for each cup of honey used in baked goods.
* Add about 1/2 teaspoon baking soda for each cup of honey used in baked goods.
* Reduce oven temperatures by 25 degrees to prevent over browning of baked goods.
* For easy removal, spray measuring cup with vegetable cooking spray before adding honey.
* Honey adds a sweet, smooth and distinctive taste to recipes. Honey also absorbs and retains moisture. These qualities retard drying out and staling of baked goods.
* A 12 ounce jar of honey equals a standard measuring cup.
* Because of its high fructose content, honey has a higher sweetening power than sugar.

Honey cooking tips courteous of the American Honey Producers website www.americanhoneyproducers.org.