Yesterday's potluck supper at the Chicago Honey Co-op for Chicago TomatoFest 2009 acted as the closing ceremony for tomato festival. I got an early start on the festivities when I visited the vegetable garden at the Cook County Jail. While photographing the vegetable garden I couldn't keep myself from eating the cherry tomatoes.
A sampling of heirloom cherry tomatoes grown by Damien Casten of CandidWines and his family. Somehow I managed to go to a potluck supper where heirloom tomatoes took center stage and forgot to take pictures of tomatoes and the awesome food.
I did take a photo of this tomato tart made by Sydney Barton of the Chicago Honey Co-op. It was as delicious as it looked, if not more.
Since I was hopped up cold & flu meds I stuck to this AMAZING root beer from Goose Island instead of sampling the wine selection by CandidWines.
I didn't take pics of the food and wine because I was busy stalking the honeybees. This was my first visit to the Chicago Honey Co-op and I was losing the light and wanted to make sure I got pics of the bees.
Some of the beehives at the Chicago Honey Co-op.
I did take a photo of this tomato tart made by Sydney Barton of the Chicago Honey Co-op. It was as delicious as it looked, if not more.
Since I was hopped up cold & flu meds I stuck to this AMAZING root beer from Goose Island instead of sampling the wine selection by CandidWines.
I didn't take pics of the food and wine because I was busy stalking the honeybees. This was my first visit to the Chicago Honey Co-op and I was losing the light and wanted to make sure I got pics of the bees.
Some of the beehives at the Chicago Honey Co-op.
Possibly my favorite beehive there. Love the multiple colors.
This one bee kept bumping antennae with other bees that arrived at the landing to the entrance. The honeybee version of the "fist bump?"
This one bee kept bumping antennae with other bees that arrived at the landing to the entrance. The honeybee version of the "fist bump?"
While walking around with two of my friends who attended the event we came across three yellowjackets trying to haul away a honeybee carcass. The third yellowjacket flew off while I was crouching down to take the pic. It was unclear if these wasps killed the bee or just happened across the remains. At the urban beekeeping lecture Michael Thompson talked about wasps sometimes raiding beehives, perhaps this was the aftermath of such a raid.
They had these large tubs filled with water with wine corks floating on the surface. Bees need a lot of water so these tubs are kept filled all the time. The corks give them something to land on and keep from drowning. If you drink a lot of wine or have a lot of corks laying around, I'm sure the honey co-op would take them off your hands.
My second favorite beehive was this one because of the number 12 printed on the ledge. Notice the honeybee fist bump.
The sun was setting and the bees having had their last drink of water were getting ready for bed and it was time for the human to eat some great food.
That was the question one of my friends had and it turns out that honeybees do indeed poop. Though, they supposedly don't do it in the hive and during the winter will wait for a warm day to leave the hive to do their business.
The Chicago Honey Co-op has recently started to give guided tours of the apiary, contact them if you have a group of people who would like to visit. While this was the last Chicago TomatoFest event for the year you can still get your heirloom tomato on by eating some Old School BLT's until September 20th. Damien asked that people submit pics they took at the potluck supper, you can check out the Chicago TomatoFest blog to see what the food looked like.
]]>
They had these large tubs filled with water with wine corks floating on the surface. Bees need a lot of water so these tubs are kept filled all the time. The corks give them something to land on and keep from drowning. If you drink a lot of wine or have a lot of corks laying around, I'm sure the honey co-op would take them off your hands.
My second favorite beehive was this one because of the number 12 printed on the ledge. Notice the honeybee fist bump.
The sun was setting and the bees having had their last drink of water were getting ready for bed and it was time for the human to eat some great food.
"Do honeybees poop?"
That was the question one of my friends had and it turns out that honeybees do indeed poop. Though, they supposedly don't do it in the hive and during the winter will wait for a warm day to leave the hive to do their business.
The Chicago Honey Co-op has recently started to give guided tours of the apiary, contact them if you have a group of people who would like to visit. While this was the last Chicago TomatoFest event for the year you can still get your heirloom tomato on by eating some Old School BLT's until September 20th. Damien asked that people submit pics they took at the potluck supper, you can check out the Chicago TomatoFest blog to see what the food looked like.