just a story,,no tractor,but nice PA country story

[larry@stinescorner]

there is a place on a side road,has a sign out ,honey for sale,,I Stop and get some when I go by that way,,,but dont get over that way much.Last weekend I happend to be going that way and my wife was with me,and the sign was out,so we stopped. The lady is so nice,,,her and my wife talked,they each teach the same type of class at church,Also the lady explains where the honey comes from,,all farms around the area. I always get the little bear full of honey you squeese. It had a tag on it 5.50 I Gave her ten,,she didnt have change,She insisted we take it for 5 .As we left we said we will get even next time. Driving home the wife says its about 5 in the store .But ,,,this morning I used the little bit left in the store one,and opened the country ladys new one.Thats when I noticed,,,the store one is a plastic squeese bear....12 ounces,,,,the country lady sells a plastic squeese bear 16 ounces, Told my wife,she said ,thats great,we will go see her again,I Want to talk more with her about our church classes ,so lets go soon! Sounds good to me ! Dont know if I Imagined it or not,,but I could swear the country ladys honey tastes better too......score one more for the PA countyside!!!

 

[Traditional Farmer]

Gotta love PA seems like just about everyone there has some sort of home enterprise
going on.At the Marion PA sale there is a lady that sells apples,peaches,cider etc from her orchard,she is real interesting to talk to and she and my wife have become good friends over the years.She said she was at the first sale there in 1948 selling apples when Ralph Horst and some other fellow started it up.

 

[fred goodrich]

The first public auction experience my son had after auction school was selling oranges at Marion for the other fruit guy. This has been since Jerold and Gloria run the auction. Now their son is an auctioneer. I can remember Ralph he is a legend.

 

[RLA]

Honey is good for you, there isn't a day that goes by I don't eat honey.
had a Great Uncle you had hives on our farm as a kid, & he got me hooked.
I wish now I would have learned the art of been keeping.. last Christmas I
got 2 gallons total. It's just my wife & I as the house, & last week end
I bought more cause we were just about out. We use honey to sweet'en
everything we eat. Different Amish store that sell it by the quart if you
desire. Also have a game warden I buy from by the 2 gallon pail full for 40.00.
1/2 pound a sugar last us 2 years or more. LOL

 

[Traditional Farmer]

I started going there in the 70's,the thing I miss most about it now is the lunch those
ladies used to serve,people would come just to eat lunch.

 

[MarkWV]

Thats a good deal. Local honey, raw, is more flavorful, and can have different tastes at different times of the year from the same hive
depending on floral sources the bees have worked, ie Basswood, Sourwood, Tulip poplar,etc. I like darker honey, has more flavor. Honey from
stores is heated and then passed thru several high pressure filters- removing pollen, and basically making it all the same color and flavor.

 

[Russ from MN]

I had the same thing happen, out driving my MC and see a sign, honey for sale, met the nicest people, about a 12 year old and his Grandfather are in the honey business. $10 for a quart jar full! When I brought the jar back they appreciated it, been back about 4 times. Near where we stayed in AZ there was a heath food store, they had raw honey in a large heated dispenser, you bought it by the ounce in your container or theirs.

 

[CKain(MI)]

I too, buy only local raw honey. One guy planted 'buckwheat' last year for his bees. The Honey is a little darker and stronger in flavor. I also picked up a jar of Orange Blossom Honey recently. (in Mi) Very good !
Google 'honey', most store-bought (unless it's local) is processed to the point that there is nothing beneficial left in it. China sends a lot here, under different source names.

 

[SweetFeet]

Nice story. You Corner folks are just "good peoples".

 

[Nancy Howell]

Some years ago, we used honey a lot. I bought it in gallon jugs. When I started having problems finding the gallons, I called the honey farm and made arrangements to buy direct. Mr. Johnson is a second generation bee keeper. He, James and I had a nice visit and he told us a lot about making honey and the bees. He also said a lot of the stuff you buy in the store is not even produced in the US and its watered down. The "home grown" honey is much, much better.

 

[old]

I sure wish I could still do bee keeping I loved doing it and also loved the organic honey that was not heated etc.

 

[J.Wondergem]

My Father in law used to have bees. He would spent hours out there working on them. Since 74 a bee keeper brings some of his bees here every year after they start to spray the orchards. He gives me a bucket of honey for it every year for it, and never have any left over.

 

[howdy1960]

FIL used to do beekeeping and still has a 5 gal bucket in basement. It has turned to a clump of sugar over the years but is so tasty ~smacking lips~

 

[Mike (WA)]

Around SW Washington, fireweed honey is the thing. Fireweed is the first thing that comes up when timberland is logged, and the sun can get to the ground. It has a seed like thistle, and I guess it is everywhere and lies dormant until the sun hits it. It makes great honey. The beekeepers get permission from the timber companies to put their hives up in the cut over land.

 

[ShadetreeRet]

Local honey generally does taste better and IS better! People who keep bees and process their own honey take pride in it. As Nancy Howell mentioned, much of the honey found in stores nowadays is "blended" honey from all over the world. Read the labels on some of it.

 

[DLMKA]

As a beekeeper myself I can tell you that $5.50/lb is very cheap. I get $8/lb and even at that price if you took into account all the time and equipment, cost of replacement bees for winter losses, and everything else that goes in it it probably works out to about getting paid $2/hr. Most beekeepers don't do it for the money, they do it for the love of the craft.