I tell myself that every day.

My bees are coming today!  My sister's friend is bringing me bees.  In exchange, I'm giving him a piece of pie.  This is a very good deal for me, but in fairness, it is a very good pie.  I made it up.  I was thinking of lemon-rhubarb, and found a filling for honey-lemon-rhubarb.  But when I'd made the fruit-y filling, it didn't look like enough.  I like a heaping pie, you know.  So I thought some more, and what I thought was, what if I put something under the honey-lemon-rhubarb topping.  Kinda like a cheesecake, and from there, lemony ricotta was inevitable.  Poured the fruity filling over that, and was grateful that I didn't have to make a top crust.  It came out pretty tasty.  This is the type of creativity that wins pie contests*, and brings me bees.  The barn will no longer sit empty.

*It is also the sort of creativity that loses pie contests, since apparently the people weren't impressed by the sweet corn-flavored custard pie.  Whatever, savages.  Sweet corn is a dessert flavor in Asia, as you might know if you weren't so ignorantly wedded to pecan or chocolate.  Sometimes Art gets ahead of its audience, and you just have to tell yourself that amazingness is more reward than winning some stupid contest could ever be.

ADDED 5/5:

Comments

[JRoth]

Sorry, Megan, I'm not taking dessert cues from the sweet bean paste people.

But this pie sounds nice.

[Megan]

I like red bean paste even better than sweet corn flavors.

[ScottB]

Red bean shaved ice? Pretty fair, but I'm a product of my culture and really like chocolate.

My neighbor just got a hive and I've helped him open it and look around a few times. And helped him extract honey from an unmanaged comb, and he's extracted from a frame (easier). The bees are cool to watch.

I hope you get your bees and get them settled in your lovely barn super. No matter how good the pie, trading a mere pie for thousands of minions to do your bidding :^) is like Seward buying Alaska from the Russians - in the long run, it seems like a steal.

Cheers,
Scott

[bill]

The footnote made me laugh.

[LizardBreath]

Are your bees there yet? Have you managed to avoid getting stung, or is the getting stung bit not so bad?

[Lo]

I just passed by a row of lavender bushes in Mountain View that were being visited by honeybees and I stopped to admire their work. It made me think of you; your bees are going to such a good home!

[Megan]

They're here! I've been watching them. They were orienting themselves for a while, but now they've found a flight path. I haven't seen noticeably more bees on my front flowers, which I can't explain. Surely bringing 20,000 new bees into a hive 100 feet from my front flower beds would translate into lots more bees on my flowers.

Now I'm on the lookout for flowers they would like; I want to go home and tell them all about the pittosporum on the corner. But then I figure they know more about being bees than I do, and it is generally a bad policy to tell people about their own business. But they're new to the neighborhood! Maybe it would help them?

I haven't been stung because they were mellow when my sister's friend transferred them. I haven't done anything with them since. My plan for not-getting-stung is not to mess with them much. But even so, handling the frames and stuff isn't so scary. So far, I haven't seen bees get pissed.

[Megan]

When I sent my sister (who has a conventional white beehive) the picture of my adorable barn-hive, she said "Won't the open door confuse the bees?" I don't like to accuse people of envy and jealousy, but I worry that she won't get into heaven if she keeps committing deadly sins like that. I didn't try to save her or point out that envy makes her heart shrivel up into tiny ashes; I graciously said that I was sure the bees could figure it out.

BUT! Watching them? I think they do aim for the black open door. Then they bump into it and go down to their porch. I'm sorry, bees. I wasn't trying to confuse you.

[ali]

BEES!!
Red bean shaved ice and sweet corn ice cream are very tasty and abundant, but my decision just got about 3.3 percentage points easier.

[abl]

Maybe you could add paint to the black door (like a scene of the hive inside?) to make it less confusing?

[sweetcoalminer]

I hope you got in well with the Queen! Very cool! Enjoy your bees. I just bought some adzuki beans and am excited to try some red bean recipes!

[Megan]

I go out there and murmur sweet nothings to her as soon as I get home from work.

We were going to paint a cow in the door, but now I don't foresee a time when the hive will be empty enough that I want to paint it. I have to put a honey super on it, and figure out whether I can match that red.

[LizardBreath]

I go out there and murmur sweet nothings to her as soon as I get home from work.

You do know that you have to keep them up to date on the gossip, or they'll swarm and leave you, right? (Guaranteed genuine superstition.)

[LizardBreath]

http://www.readbookonline.net/readOnLine/8757/

Kipling, with the details.

[Megan]

I won't grieve my bees!!!

[Margie]

I'll give you a fighting chance this time at pie contest...I won't make a strawberry rhubarb pie. Good luck, you'll need it.

[YK]

Pie contest should have a prize for last place!

[Megan]

10th Annual, Margie. Bring your big guns.

[edubin]

I liked the sweet corn pretty well. Perhaps we should team up on a pie -- you bring the culinary creativity and I'll bring the architect's eye...

By the way, I'm playing catch-up this morning -- how come you all are closing your comments so soon? What's the statute of limitations?