Thursday Thoughts

 Surfing the Net, I came across this poor woman counting her blessings.  She doesn't have earthquakes, hurricanes or alligators, but damn, she has snow.  Both Belle and I lived up north during our younger years.  She in Missouri, me i Kentucky.  As far as we're concerned, that is the Frozen North.  If I ever hit the Powerball and am burdened with uncountable cash reserves, I might build a small house in Missouri near an airstrip, but I will charter a flight out before the winter starts and return to the mud in Louisiana.

My Dad kept bees, so we stole honey from the hives.  I have probably slipped in more honey than many of you have eaten in the past ten years. Honey never goes bad if it is properly stored.  It may crystallize, but can be recovered by simply putting the jar of honey into a warm water bath.

This guy found some old honey and was surprised that it is still good. I can tell by looking at it that it was winter honey.  Winter honey is much darker than spring or summer honey. Honey does not normally take a flavor from the flowers used to produce it but we learned that honey made from tallow blooms is almost as clear as spring water.  Dad once put some hives in a field of jalapeno peppers.  The farmer asked Dad to bring the hives out to help pollinate the pepper plants.  We got about six gallons of honey from that crop and the honey was very clear and had a really surprising "kick" from the peppers.  No heat, just a little bite on the back of your tongue that made the honey really special.