Hi Fire Mountain Farm visitors,

Welcome to the first blog post! We plan to use the blog to post updates on new developments at Fire Mountain Farm, post new recipes or new ideas for eating and cooking with our products, and maybe even a new picture or two occasionally.  We’d also love to hear how you are using Fire Mountain Farm products.

At Fire Mountain Farm we have been busy!   Just recently Chips and I created a new  room at Fire Mountain Farm that makes a good place for extracting our delicious Fire Mountain Farm honey and doing other processing activities.  We are excited to begin using this room and hope that it will allow us to make and ship more of our products.  When we bought Fire Mountain Farm we had 4 bee hives and now we have seventeen thanks to our very able bee keeper, Pawnee Pillsbury.  It was no longer practical to extract honey with our four frame hand powered extractor.  Thus, Fire Mountain Farm’s new 9 frame honey extractor will be used in it’s new home.

I also came up with a new bread recipe, Fire Mountain Farm Honey Oatmeal Bread, using Fire Mountain Farm honey.   To make Fire Mountain Farm Honey Oatmeal Bread for one large loaf, or two small, combine two large tablespoons of Fire Mountain Farm honey with 1 1/2 cups of warm water and 1 tablespoon dry yeast.  Stir in 1/4 cup vital wheat gluten, 1 cup quick oats and 1 cup all purpose flour. Beat at least 100 times. Allow to sit until doubled in bulk. Then add 2 teaspoons salt (or less if desired,) 1/4 cup cannola oil and enough whole wheat flour to make a stiff dough suitable for kneading. Knead until smooth and elastic. Place in a greased bowl, cover and allow to double in bulk. Punch down and allow to rise again. Roll out on a floured surface, form into one large or two small loaves, place in pans and allow to rise until nearly double. Then bake in a 350 degree F oven for approximately 35 minutes or until slightly browned and it sounds hollow when you thump on it. Remove and cool on a wire rack or serve warm with butter and more Fire Mountain Farm honey. It is hard not to eat several slices at once. It makes good sandwiches too.

Honey Tasting–Try this at home!

Fire Mountain Farm honey was recently taste tested in San Francisco where we had a blind honey tasting with some friends. Four of the honeys were different batches of Fire Mountain Farm honey. Two others were also Hawaiian honeys but not from Fire Mountain Farm and one was orange blossom honey from California. I think all tasters were amazed at how different each honey tasted when compared side by side. I am proud to report that our honeys were placed mostly in the first and second spots.  After the tasting, done mostly with plain bread or plain spoons, we also enjoyed the honeys paired with a variety of cheeses including brie and blue cheese. If you try this at home report back your findings!

–Gail and Chips