Bee Prepared...This Fungi knows how to Party!

So the syrup season has come to a bitter-sweet end (but mostly sweet, because we managed to sell every bottle...and because syrup is sweet)! We are now focusing on our last two products: mushrooms and honey.

We began sterilizing straw for Oyster Mushroom cultivation once again, but what's most exciting is our Shiitake mushroom farm. It is located right next to Ithaca College's Organic Garden and the logs are innoculated and soaking. It's just a matter of time until they're sprouting a shiitake-ton of mushrooms!

We've had a couple of guest speakers come to class to talk to us about bee keeping, which has been extremely interesting. Last week, we had Sam from Anarchy Apiaries come to talk to us about his less invasive bee keeping techniques and insight. He thoroughly went through the details of his work and explained his position and experiences with beekeeping. His primary role is to educate others, so his trip to IC created a lot of buzz.

Here is Sam hanging with a 4 pound swarm in January, Indiantown, FL. 

It's Waffle Season!

Label my maple...syrup!

Extra! Extra! Read all about it...the labels are printed! The labels are printed!

Here's what we got so far:

• Fifty-seven 3.4 oz. bottles of Vermont fancy 
• Thirty-nine 8 oz.bottles of Vermont fancy
• Twenty-four 8 oz. bottles of Grade A Medium Amber
• Twenty-one 3.4 oz. bottles of the Vermont fancy featured in our maple leaf bottles

Look for these bottles within the next few weeks at the bookstore and Jason Hamilton's lab (CNS 282) and get ready to buy some delicious syrup. More locations coming soon! 

Prices will also be coming soon, so gather your waffles, pancakes, and food of choice and prepare yourself for the most spectacular meal you will ever have.

An "A" for the Day

After countless hours of waiting it out in the freezing cold while we carefully boiled our sap collection, we have done it...we have created syrup!!

Grade A medium amber syrup to be specific. And just so you know, it tastes incredible!

"Mmmmaple syrup"



We got this yummy syrup by combining all of our sap buckets into one giant metal tub. We then boiled the sap in our outdoor fire-pit (from sun-down to sun-up!) until it reached a certain level. We then transported the sap to our indoor facility where we started the boiling process all over again. We checked the sugar content using a refractometer and once it got to 50 degrees Brix (measurement of sugar content), we filtered the syrup and heated it again until it got to 67 degrees Brix. After that, we filtered it one last time and then started bottling!

The whole process was really exciting. Pretty soon we're going to have our own labels to put on them so that we can start selling!

Sap Tap Rap

Well it's official...close to a hundred maple trees have been tapped and it's just a matter of time until our buckets are full of sweet, sweet sap. For the next couple of weeks, we are going to constantly be checking the buckets to ensure we collect some quality maple syrup.  

We might have had some problems on the way...

Like we said, a couple problems...

But eventually we got the hang of it...

Mmmm....

Bzzzzz

The bees have been ordered! We purchased our bees from a local beekeeper in Stanley, New York, and we will pick up 4 nuclei colonies of bees in May from her apiary.  The bees are Carniolan-mix bees, which means they are cold weather resistant and will (hopefully) survive next winter!  The above picture is of the same variety of bee, which are well-known for their resistance to mites, cold-weather adaptability, and their gentle nature (yay!)

First Post

This is the beginning...

This is Ithaca College's Natural Resources and Ecology class's blog.  We are in the process of growing, collecting, and harvesting non-timber forest products: mushrooms, maple syrup, and honey.
Follow us on our adventures... 

"Bee on the watch for updates!"