A Beekeeper's Cookbook (305)

 

 

A Beekeeper's Cookbook (304)

Jim Tew

Hey podcast listeners. Jim here again this week. And I got a friend with me.

So for once it's not just me talking. Nona Hurst is here with me. Nona, say hi.

Nona Hurst

Hi. This is Nona.

Jim Tew

You did a good job. I have been talking to Nona and her husband. Dr. Hurst is a beekeeper amongst a lot of other things, as is Nona.

They have a very diversified life, but beekeeping is a major part of it. And some number of years ago, Nona began working on a cookbook. Today, beekeepers, I want to talk to you about the successful production of that book and what a nice piece it is.

Honey bee podcast listeners, I'm Jim Tew and I come to you about once a week where I try to talk about something to do with plain talk beekeeping.

Introduction

Welcome to Honey Bee Obscura, brought to you by Growing Planet Media, the producers of the Beekeeping Today podcast. Join Jim Tew, your guide through the complexities, the beauty, the fun and the challenges of managing honey bees. Jim hosts fun and interesting guests who take a deep dive into the intricate world of honey bees. Whether you're a seasoned beekeeper or just getting started, get ready for some plain talk that'll delve into all things honey bees.

Jim Tew

Nona, from the earliest time, how does one get the notion that they want to write a cookbook or more than a cookbook, a diversified cookbook.

Nona Hurst

Oddly enough, it was John Hurst that suggested years ago that I write this book. And I didn't think too much about it But we had recently started with the beekeeping. Here's a humorous story of how it began with neither one of us ever having been around a beehive And one of the anesthesiologists I worked with, I was looking for something really unusual for John's birthday—his 38th birthday— and we had moved to the country So he suggested that I get John two beehives.

And I thought, well, I like that. That's unusual. Really unusual.

His father was a beekeeper all his life So he set it up with his dad for John and I to go out there and pick up two beehives, which really kinda turned into a crazy story because we had a one and a half year old, we had a closed-in Jeep wagoneer and now we know that you have to have a pickup truck. So we rode out there in the dark It was before Interstate 459 was made. So we had to go back roads to Bessemer where he lived.

And so we drive up in the dark to his beehive They went out together and came back with the first beehive and they put it in the back of the vehicle and they're heading back out for the second one. And I looked at it and thought Uh, you know, that really doesn't look straight. I'm gonna fix this straight because that's the way women are.

Jim Tew

Yeah, it's gotta be straight.

Nona Hurst

It's gotta be straight. And so when I did, the bottom board was rotten So all of a sudden all of those bees came rolling out like molasses, up my arm and I didn't know what to do It's not like Matthew McConaughey in the movie where he just flicks his arm down and all the bees fall on the ground. No, I started flailing my arms and these of course they don't fly at night and that was a thing I learned early on.

But anyway they come back up with his bee suit on, and Mr. Preston, old fella by this time said, Sister, you've done it now And he he was not happy. He said, First thing you're gonna do is get that baby out of the back seat there and you're gonna go stand over there by that tree So that's what happened. They cleaned up my bee collision before we went home in the car.

Put the second hive in and they crawled around the car while we drove home with as few lights as possible So we made it home. But John already knew from a talk with him that we should have our cinder block set up. So That was the beginning and that's had to be forty-three years ago.

Jim Tew

I was going to ask how long ago it was, forty-three years ago.

Nona Hurst

And it's so interesting to me that he has kept this hobby up all these years while carrying on a practice, but it seemed to be like a pacifying thing to him. To go out when he got home, check the bees, it became a regular habit. We had a lot of ups and downs through the years, but he always started again.

Jim Tew

Well, he's been doing it a long time. I didn't know that John's father was a beekeeper. Listen to the big thing.

Nona Hurst

No, this was not his father. This was Dr. Preston's father.

Jim Tew

I was about to tell you John's obviously a physician. He's retired. But he says he's known now more for his bees than he was for being a physician. He said that.

Nona Hurst

Yes, that's right.

Jim Tew

So what was your role? You took his honey to the hospital and you had customers there.

Nona Hurst

I worked uh at that time I was working in same-day surgery. and people began to ask me to bring okay, would you bring me ten? It got to be a regular thing. It was like Here she comes with her honey box.

Jim Tew

That is it.

Nona Hurst

And everybody enjoyed, you know , they love the honey

Jim Tew

Well are you a cook also? Are you a chef? How did the cookbook evolve from all these years of beekeeping?

Nona Hurst

I am not a chef. I am a curious cooker. I just I enjoyed playing with different recipes and taking the sugar out.

and converting it to honey. I had to learn how to try to get the pH down, add more soda. And then I learned that through baking you get a moister bread or cake or whatever you're making, it just gives it a good flavor to me.

But it is hard to always get that first experiment right. You may do it numerous times before you get it just right.

Jim Tew

I can't imagine, I think I understand what you're saying, that you must have made these recipes over and over and over again until they met your criteria. So you started with a basic recipe

Nona Hurst

Mm-hmm.

Jim Tew

You didn't make these up from scratch. I mean you you basically had an idea of the particular product you were cooking and then you just perfected the recipe.

Nona Hurst

Well exactly what happened was when our daughters were ten, twelve, we we had an eight-inch binder of recipes that my mother had given me different people had given me I would save recipes about honey then and that went on for Our girls are in their forties now, so that's been a while. But that has become a prize possession because each girl says that 's mine, you know. And then so Courtney, the one that designed Courtney Wyndham who designed this cookbook right here, she actually illustrated the binder book that's eight inches thick, she went through every category, she drew some fantastic thing and painted it. So it's kind of unique that they got involved in it

Jim Tew

Well ironically, my mother did that. It wasn't eight inches, it was hardly an inch and a half. And a grandkid asked for it early on, so it already had a home. But the grandkid made copies of it. So we all have it and it's just old-fashioned Southern cooking, a pinch of this and a teaspoon of bacon fat, and some of the things you would never expect in those old recipes and you probably want to change that out now, but it was good old fashioned cooking that I remember. So it's a good thing that you've got those

Nona Hurst

Well, I did add your requested recipe in this book, 'cause with Jim being from the South He likes fried okra and he just didn't really know how to do it. So I put the recipe in there and I put a sassy honey sauce put on top of his okra

Jim Tew

I do like fried okra, and I don't have it very often. In Ohio where I live, I'm off the subject. Okra 's not really happy growing there, and there's one or two people who have it at the farmers market, and I have to get there at seven o'clock in the morning or it sells out.

So even though it's not very popular, it's popular enough that everybody buys it, it's a different project. I wanna tell the listeners that the book is absolutely beautiful. Courtney was your daughter. Courtney what was her name?

Nona Hurst

Courtney Wyndham

Jim Tew

Wyndham has just designed an absolutely gorgeous book. So you could use this as a cookbook, as a coffee table book, as an inspirational book. as a bit of artwork or the layout and the design and the quality of it.

It sounds like I'm selling the book. I'm not. It's just not well known right now because the book has just come out and it's probably not readily available, but the photography, Where did you get some of these nice pictures here?

Nona Hurst

Courtney actually does photography as well and we used a professional photographer from Louisiana, Hector Sanchez.

Jim Tew

From Louisiana. Well that is a professional that explains some of these high quality, high-definition photos that you've got here. So the visual layout is really nice.

It's a nice visual layout and the pictures are great. You get an idea of the Hurst family and how they come together on this. You get a good idea of bees.

And then You went into quite a bit of actual bee biology and the behavior. Are you a beekeeper yourself? Are you a bee biologist?

Is that John's And behind the scenes?

Nona Hurst

No, you're the expert on that. But I have always loved plants and I've observed what bees go to first. I did in the beginning help him a lot.

We enjoy doing that together and as life happens it things start taking over. And I was less involved getting into beehives when we first started. But I am just so curious about all of the things that go in a beehive.

I've read Karl von Frisch's book. And then I love Honeybee Democracy all of that fascinates me. If I got into the hives more I would see it more, but John did show me bees dancing on the front board, which I'd find that so interesting that they can communicate that way.

Jim Tew

It is remarkably sophisticated. Let's talk about some of the recipes, but first let's take a break and hear from our sponsor.

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Jim Tew

You mentioned my favorite fried okra, and I also like fried tomatoes and they're hard to get too but How did you choose out of eight inches of hundreds and hundreds of recipes? How did you select the ones that you were willing to test? Is it mainly.

. . Southern recipes or is it just good recipes?

Nona Hurst

It's just good recipes. It's not necessarily southern. I did send five to America's Test Kitchen just to see that I was on the right track I did have someone edit my recipes.

She was a Southern Living employee, but now she just does that. consulting. But she had just so many hands in it that got me started and you as well wrote the foreword because I was very appreciative of that 'cause you and John have a good relationship.

Jim Tew

I was honored to do it. Thank you for letting me do it. You've got some nice recipes here.

Elegant chicken pot pie. Is there anything that someone like me could cook by myself? Simple to do, Asian lettuce wraps?

With Oriental chicken filling?

Nona Hurst

Do you like salmon?

Jim Tew

I literally eat anything.

Nona Hurst

That is the easiest thing to do in that book. You get a good, thick cut of salmon and put butter in your cast-iron skillet And I put a lot of herbs in there, I sort of melt it and then put the herbs in there and then I put the fillets in there. And if the the skin is still on I just let that cook and I'm not prone to eat that but we do have some puppies that Well, like that.

So anyway, it you you just actually just keep it on like a medium and and let it cook maybe three, four minutes on each side and then I have a sauce that goes with that and then you just pour that on top of that while it's in the skillet. I mean it is so simple. That's what I do on days that we're so busy with all these weddings and life.

Jim Tew

So

Nona Hurst

I can run by the seafood store Pick up some salmon and bingo. There's

Jim Tew

must

Nona Hurst

there is dinner and a salad.

Jim Tew

It's a wholesome meal too.

Nona Hurst

Yes it is. And so we have it once a week

Jim Tew

Okay.

Nona Hurst

Yeah.

Jim Tew

They have a lot of other projects going on that we shouldn't go into for lack of time, but they have a very full life all the time. How many recipes are in the book? Do you remember?

Nona Hurst

I think they're 96.

Jim Tew

Ninety-six tested recipes. And the book is 236 glossy pages with an index It's just a nice book, The Dancing Bees of Rockhurst Farm. If somebody wanted to get this book from you, how would they do it? Because right now it's not easy to get.

Nona Hurst

Foxhound Bee Company is carrying them for me at present, so it can be bought through Foxhound Bee Company's website.

Jim Tew

Alright, Foxhound Bee Company. They have a website and you can pick it up there. If you have an interest in it.

Nona Hurst

And then we have retailers in Birmingham and just that carry the book.

Jim Tew

Well I hope you have nothing but good sales. It's really a nice book. But I know there's other recipe books out there, but that I don't know of any of this of this quality and I probably just offended someone who has recipe books out there. But this is nicely done. Nona, thank you for talking.

Nona Hurst

Thank you for asking me.

Jim Tew

And thank you for doing such a great job on this and giving and just having a nice book here.

Nona Hurst

I'd love to share it with more.

Jim Tew

Listeners, thank you. That's enough. We'll try it again next week.

I hope you enjoyed letting Nona talk and tell her beekeeping experiences and how she moves bees at night and some of the colorful things that happen. It's all in good fun. Bye-bye listeners.

I'll see you next week.