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Healthy Holiday Marzipan
- Blanch and peel organic almonds
- Dry the peeled almonds
- Process almonds in a food processor until very fine and almost paste-like. Reserve 1/8 cup almond meal. With the food processor running, slowly add the honey and 1 tsp. water. You can use a variety of apoidea's infused honeys to make uniquely different flavor profiles per batch. Process, adding water a little bit at a time until the mixture makes a paste. Use additional reserved almond meal to firm if too sticky.
- Remove marzipan mix to wax paper. Roll into balls. Refrigerate overnight. Dip in melted chocolate, if desired.
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GFA 2019 Elixir Finalist!
Seems the Good Food Award Elixir Category judges fell in love with our Valentine's Inspired Damiana Rose Elixir at the 2019 Good Food Awards Judging! Stay tuned to see if it is a winner this coming January! We will have this honey syrup at our upcoming open apiary this weekend. You can also find a variety of apoidea's honeys at these great RETAIL LOCATIONS and through Apoidea's STUDIO SHOP. As always, bring your empty honey bottles for recycling exchange and receive a $0.50 discount per bottle!
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2019 GFA Honey Judging
Apoidea's beekeeper, Christina, was honored to be asked to co-chair the 2019 Good Food Awards Honey Category with Erin Ferguson of Blue Bottle Coffee (and formerly Blue Chair Fruit) in San Francisco on September 16, 2018. Coordinating hundreds of coded samples so the judging is a blind process is no easy task but the Good Food Award Staff are an organized crew. The experience proved to Christina that the Good Food Awards program can truly highlight regional uniqueness in artisan food. Look for the GFA sticker on food products when you travel for high-quality culinary experiences. Congrats to all 16 Honey Category Finalists!
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Butterflies vs. Border Walls
A recent NPR report is covering the impact of current politics on border zone pollinator health. Per the report, "On an average day at the National Butterfly Center, a 100-acre wildlife center and botanical garden in South Texas, visitors can see 100 different species and as many as 200,000 individual butterflies. The center also sits directly in the path of the Trump Administration's proposed border wall." The only consolation in light of this reckless disregard for the ecological disruptions that will be created by the border wall is that the The Center for Biological Diversity, Defenders of Wildlife and the Animal Legal Defense Fund are prosecuting the Department of Homeland Security on the defense that this department lacks the authority to waive environmental laws currently in place to protect wildlife.
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Raw Black & Gold
Did you know honey can not be labeled as "raw" if it receives ANY heat treatment after it is extracted from the frames. We like our pure raw honey to stay legit raw so we're changing the way we package! Our new raw honey jars allow the honey to be easily spooned out so no more need for heat to pour. To celebrate our pure Pittsburgn raw, we're making Black & Gold Raw Sets available EXCLUSIVELY at our studio shop and at our upcoming Holiday Open Apiary. Large gift sets are $17.00 and small gift sets are $5.00. Pittsburgh "Gold" is light amber Spring Tree Blossom and Pittsburgh "Black" is dark amber Fall Fallopia Wildflower, that won a 2018 Good Food Award.
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Christmas Crafts + Drafts
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Soggy 2018 Season for Bees
Pittsburgh's 2018 precipitation is on pace to be one of the highest years on record as we are currently + 17" above the seasonal average. From a beekeeping standpoint, it has meant some advantages and some challenges but overall our urban bees have had a good year for honey yield with both spring/summer and fall harvests. The nectar yield coming from flowers seemed to be flowing with the additional moisture. Apoidea is part of an exciting project with Penn State University's Center For Pollinator Research. The LANDSCAPES FOR BEES project is tracking data from hives all over Pennsylvania to develop a composite web-based database for land managers who need pollinator habitat information. Our research colonies are on Broodminder Digital Scales to accurately track the weight shifts of the hives related to forage availability, seasonal bee cycles and pathogen pressures. The jury is still out as to whether urban/suburban hives tend to have better environments than their rural/agricultural sisters. Thanks RT Neumann and Zane Levinson, Bidwell Extern, for the help installing the Broodminder Scales ... and to Kate Anton, PSU's Grozinger Lab Manager!
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Bee & Firefly
We connected with the talented cheese crafters at Firefly Farms of Accident, MD, when at the 2018 Good Food Awards Ceremony in January. If you're passing through Northwestern Maryland, they have an artful retail market where they host wine and cheese tastings. Firefly has added Apoidea's winning Rosemary Knotweed Infused Honey to their "Good Food Awards Gift Crate." Check out all the extraordinary potential pairings with this unique holiday gift set!
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