Mama Elizabeth's Diary: The Beekeeper's Daughter

You may or may not know this, but I'm a third generation beekeeper. The stories that Mama Elizabeth told, about my grandfather, in some ways...was the starting point for Folk Wisdom magazine.

For me, there's nothing that says both old-fashioned and timeless as someone out there, reviving old traditions, while keeping our pollinators going. That's a beekeeper for you. My mother's stories about WWII era beekeeping, before the advent of fancy equipment, and before the fear of too many chemicals and pesticides..were shear joy.

My favorite story went like this:

"I remember when I was about eight or nine. I was playing in the hortabogy (prairie, in Hungary) with a group of little friends. All of a sudden my father came around from the corner of the house. It was swarm season, you see. And he yelled at all of us: 'did you see that swarm?'  And he pointed just past us, to a small whirlwind of bees flying in a straight line.

'Quick, follow it, and then tell me where it went.'  Actually, this was not unusual for him to do. He had forty hives, and swarm season was always this crazy. Luckily, most swarms landed in nearby trees on our farm. But not this one. This one was headed straight to town. So we all jumped up, my friends and I and we ran after it. It went down past our farm and straight into town."

The reason I loved this particular story was that I could just imagine this sight: a large swarm of bees whizzing by, followed by a large pack of children, running straight after it. It probably made for the talk of the town--err, village-- that day. Such was the life of the Old-Fashioned Beekeeper's daughter.

To celebrate our beekeeping roots, here are some rather interesting uses for honey for you to try:

Honey Facial:
Honey is a humectant, which means it draws and holds moisture. For particularly dry skin this makes a great therapy.
WE HIGHLY recommend you USE RAW or ORGANIC, LOCAL honey, as we cannot tell what procedures store brought honey have gone through, and may be less nourishing.

1. Slather a thin amount of honey on your face.

2. Leave on for 10 mins.

3. Wipe off with warm, moist wash cloth

4. Try this 2-3 times a week before you go out on cold, chaffing days, to help with dry skin.


Honey/Rosemary Hair Treatment
1. Take a large jar of honey (We like RAW or ORGANIC HONEY).

2. Take either a large sprig of fresh ROSEMARY (washed and THOROUGHLY DRIED) and place into honey (or just pour the honey over it in the jar) or 1 drop rosemary essential oil.

3. If using fresh rosemary, leave that concoction in a sunny windowsill to infuse into the honey for a month.  If using essential oil, you may use immediately.

4. In am month, you may remove Rosemary from your herbal mixture, and use the honey.

5. When ready, you may simply slather on hair, wait 10 minutes, then shampoo out. It adds moisture, shine, and body to your hair.



ALL NATURAL BEESWAX FURNITURE POLISH:
Besides healthy honey,  bees make beeswax which smells divine, in my opinion. There are many uses for beeswax: Medieval to Victorian ages hold records for using it to plug wooden buckets, and waterproof shoes (to name a few uses!)

This beeswax polish is ALL NATURAL--many recipes call for the use of Turpentine, which is an easy thinner to the beeswax. Frankly, I feel it sort of kills the lovely beeswax smell and, again, falls into the chemical department.

Ours is so natural you could use it to polish your cooking spoons, or even use it as a hand cream, if you desire!


*1 oz beeswax (we like the natural, non bleach kind. It's yellow instead of white).
*8 oz of olive oil
*2 or 3 drops of essential oil like lavender, lemon or rose (if you like a scent other than the beeswax)


1. Grate or cut the beeswax into smaller pieces.

2. Heat the beeswax IN A DOUBLE BOILER (beeswax is extremely flammable, it cannot be put onto direct heat).

3. Once all the beeswax is melted, add olive oil to the mix. Make sure you are heating at medium or low temperature.

4. Stir a few times and continue to heat until wax and oil are well blended. 

5. Add a few drops of essential oil if you wish.

6.Pour into clean and thoroughly DRIED glass jars. Allow to cool.

7. Once cool, take clean cloth and rub into polish. Use this and rub in circular fashion on all your furniture until you cannot see the wax. Enjoy the lovely scent and your shiny wood furniture!

Mama Elizabeth's Diary: How To Make Old-Fashioned Horehound Candy

With winter coming up, I felt it time to break into the annals of some serious herbal care, since taking care of oneself naturally has always trumped anything artificial. For this, it was time to work the same advice that Mama gave me. See, Mama--also known as Aunt Elizabeth to some--was the same farm-woman whose WWII era advice and knowledge got to me. Her folk wisdom is no different in this case.Fall and Winter signal scratchy throat and cough season. Mama's secret weapon? Horehound candy. If you've never heard of it, be prepared for some serious folk-wise knowledge...
 
Horehound candy is an old-fashioned "candy" with herbal benefits to the throat, as Common or White Horehound (Marrubium vulgare) is considered an expectorant and tonic..it helps ease cough and respiratory issues and soothes the throat.

The candy, itself, is usually found in stores and homes in Europe, with an acquired taste there. I will say, from having made this candy with my mama, that too much horehound, and horehound, undiluted with sugar or lemon (or anything else) is QUITE sour or bitter.

 This candy is prepared from extract obtained from the leaves, flowers and stems of horehound plant. The horehound plant belongs to the mint family and it has medicinal uses that date back to the  Roman and Ancient Egyptian era. In America, it was noted that colonial era Americans used to "growe the bitter weede" in their garden in order to make "candies from boiled sugar."

How to Make Traditional Horehound Candy

Ingredients
*1/4 Cup dried horehound leaves, flowers and stems
* 3 quarts water
* 3 cups brown sugar
* 1 teaspoon lemon juice
* 1 teaspoon butter
* 1 teaspoon Cream of Tartar (you may omit this but the candy will not be "mellow"/will be slightly bitter)
* Powdered sugar

Utensils:
*Medium or Large saucepan
*Cookie sheet or large flat baking dish
*Candy Thermometer
*Wax paper
*Sharp knife

Directions
1.Pour water into a pot, and and bring it to a boil.

2.Remove the pot from heat and add the horehound to it. Leave horehound to steep in the hot water for about 30 mins.

3.When the water is slightly warm or cool, strain the leaves, flowers, and stems.

4.Take 2 ½ cup of the liquid and pour it into a saucepan.

5.Add cream of tartar, brown sugar, lemon juice to it and bring the liquid to boil.

6. Use your cooking thermometer and boil until liquid reaches 240 degrees Fahrenheit--then add butter and continue boiling the liquid until the temperature reaches 312 degrees Fahrenheit.
NOTE: DO NOT STIR LIQUID at its boiling stage

7. Once the temp of 312 degrees is reached, remove from heat and pour the liquid into shallow buttered pan or a buttered cookie sheet and leave it as it starts to harden.

8. Before it gets completely hard, use a buttered sharp knife to cut into bite sized squares.

9.Sprinkle liberally with powdered sugar... OR pull the pieces like taffy, and roll these into a ball and then roll into powdered sugar.

10. Wrap these in wax paper to store them.