Making Mead

Saturday, October 22, 2011.  The beginning of a new tradition.

Trudi and John invited wonderful people to their home for a mead making day.  A year from now we'll gather again to taste our projects and start the next batch.

Bottles washed, honey measured.

Honey from local produces Haefli and Soffel and a variety of yeasts made the recipe.  We harvested no honey this year from our bees.  Maybe next year.  Earlier that day I winterized three strong hives though, sliding "bee cozies," two inch foam boxes, over them to insulate them from the -30 degree chill.  I also arranged straw bales in a wind break.

Contemplating the love letters...

Probably the most important 'ingredient' was the intention we set for each bottle.  Elaine, fermenter extraordinaire, writes "love letters" for each batch of kefir, kim chee, and kombucha, having read Masuro Emoto's work related to the formation of water crystals under the influence of water, pictures and music. According to Emoto, sending positive messages to water influences its symmetry of crystals and beauty.  Elaine explained that the two most beneficial sentiments to express were love and gratitude. 

Lavender from Chris Keitges' garden. Instead of using commercially prepared yeast, I added the lavender and its coating of naturally occurring local yeasts as the inoculant for my batch.  Thank you, Chris!

I have many sentiments of love and gratitude for this mead.  I'm grateful to John and Tom of Haefli Honey for welcoming the San Luis Valley WannaBeekeepers to tour their honey house facility last summer and for the bottle of honey we each received as a memento of our trip.  I am grateful to Tracy Doyle for joining me on that trip and suggesting making a lavender mead.  I'm grateful to Chris Keitges for giving me some lavender from her garden to add to the mead.  I'm grateful to Patrick O'Neill and his family's grapes and raisins which are nourishing the yeast.  And I'm deeply grateful to the friends with whom I made the mead who host our bees on their wonderful organic farm.

Lavender mead

By then end of the evening, my bottle was covered with love letters.  They included "Thank you little friends... bees and yeasties!" and "Bee Kind to your Honey!"