Show Time!

We’ve been out and about recently and it’s been great fun

Somehow, we’ve managed to enter three big competitions in three months, which takes time and energy, but have fortunately found it to be more than worth it. September found us in the finals of the Urban Food Awards, we brought home six awards from the National Honey Show in October and have just posted off our entries for the Small Food Awards.

The National Honey Show

We started keeping bees here at Hen Corner in August 2011 and when we harvested our first honey a year later were encouraged to enter a jar or two into the National Honey Show, I remember receiving a text from a fellow bee keeper with a photo of my honey bearing a red star and the message ‘Congratulations, a first!’. I thought red meant stop or wrong and assumed that my honey had been disqualified, with my friend simply congratulating me on entering for the first time. How thrilled we were to discover that a red star means first prize, and on that occasion it was for the best London honey.

“You never can tell with bees.”

Winnie-the-Pooh

After that success in our first year, we have entered more and more classes year on year, showing the hard work of our bees  as beautifully as possible in the hope for more awards. This year we were delighted to scoop the following:

2nd Prize: Three 1oz blocks of wax (Middlesex)
2nd Prize: Comb ready for extraction (Middlesex)
4th Prize: Honey label (open to the world)
Commended: Two jars of light or medium honey (London)
Commended: One piece of beeswax (Middlesex)
Commended: Twelve jars of honey (open to the world)

So, we currently have 12 jars of honey for sale that came 6th in the whole world, how exciting!

Country Living Christmas Fair

It is always wonderful to launch the season with the Country Living Christmas Fair, we were delighted to have been invited to lead some demonstrations in the Theatre throughout the event and told the story of Hen Corner whilst making our Special Stollen and Wonderful Wreaths encouraging guests that if we can do it in our home, they can do it in theirs. We were well received, with audience members coming to chat to us afterwards and some have booked in to our festive courses to try their hand to some new skills.

We have all our courses open for bookings, either as a Christmas treat or a gift for the new year. To keep up to date with all our news, subscribing below (bottom of the page) will ensure you never miss a thing!

Coming Up

We are taking our Hen Corner stall to a couple of Christmas events over the next few weeks, if you are in the area, do come and say hello…

Saturday 26th November: St Dunstan’s, East Acton, Christmas Fair, 12-4pm

Sunday 11th December: Christmas at Horseden Farm, 1-5pm

Other News:

• The six chicks that hatched back in June are either very polite and quiet in the mornings, or may be all girls!
• Our Micro Bakery has opened the doors of the Christmas Store offering Stollen, Panettone, Pandoro and more
• We are still keeping track of our garden harvest and have gathered in nearly £1,750 worth of food this year

Jobs for the Week:

• Sweep up the autumn leaves for a school visit, they want to see why it’s good to eat local food
• Raid the pantry for our Stir Up Sunday Christmas Pudding Course
• Take some time out to wander through the Enchanted Woodland at our local Syon Park

Do you enjoy a slow warm up to the Christmas season, delighting in the plans and preparations? What are your favourite festive traditions?