honey.

As I reported here we got over 31 pounds of honey this year - so much in fact that we had to go buy more jars!

The first thing you do is cut the "caps" off the frames of honey. This is the newest, freshest wax that seals up each individual space in the honeycomb; it is also the wax that you will clean and save to make candles, lip balm, etc. - which we did! Well, I mean we saved it and cleaned it. We haven't actually made anything with it yet. You then put these now-dripping frames into the extractor. The extractor basically acts like a large centrifuge that spins the honey out of the comb, allowing it to drain to the bottom.

 This is the valve at the bottom of the extractor. The honey comes out of the valve and passes through two filters, decreasing in size. This gets out any bits of wax, debris, etc. You then use the valve at the bottom of the bucket to pour the honey into jars, after waiting at least 24 hours for the air bubbles to come out of the honey.

This is our final jarred honey. The largest of the jars is going to be used for the mead. The other three sizes will be for consumption! I especially love the little squatty, flat jars which were given to us by a sweet family friend.

A sticky wonderful mess!