The Zen Hen and The Honey Bee Farm

The Zen Hen and The Honey Bee Farm I do not personally respond to DMs.

Biochemist Teaching Science Based Homesteading
- Gardening - Good Food - Homemade Beauty and Home Product Formulations - Healthy Food

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06/20/2026

Black Eastern Swallowtail Butterflies start out as stripey little caterpillars munching on your herbs like parsley, dill, fennel, lovage and carrot tops. They are beautiful pollinators worth sacrificing a little bit of your herbs for so welcome them to your garden and they’ll help pollinate your produce for a more abundant harvest.

06/19/2026

V “infinity” Juice

Tomatoes 11lbs
Cucumber 2 large
Parsley 1 cup chopped
Sweet potato leaves 1 cup chopped
Kale 1 cup chopped
Garlic 3-4 large cloves
Celery 1 bunch fresh
Onion 2 medium
Carrots 3 cups chopped or more
Sweet Peppers 1.5 cups chopped
Water as needed
✨plus any other extra veggies you have that need to be used that you think would be delicious in this
Graded Horseradish 3 Tablespoons
Wash Your Sister Sauce 1/4 cup
1/2 teaspoon canning salt per pint jar
1/4 teaspoon citric acid per pint jar (This was plenty to lower my pH to 4.6 or below. Adjust as needed if hot water bath canning for long term storage)

06/15/2026

I love homemade Greek Yogurt and eat it almost every day. If you are making the yogurt I highly recommend trying the Labneh as well. It’s a middle eastern cheese sometimes called “yogurt cheese”. To me it tastes almost identical to cream cheese and is higher in protein and lower in fat. Since I already make yogurt, it’s so easy to always have both on hand.

Recipe:

Half Gallon Whole milk
1/2 cup of plain yogurt

Heat milk on medium to between 180°F to 212°F
You don’t want to boil the milk and be sure to stir regularly as to not burn on the bottom of your pot.

Next cool the milk to around 110°F or below before adding your yogurt starter

Mix and allow those yogurt cultures to incubate for 8-12 hours depending on how tangy you like your yogurt.
I like to add mine to my over at 100°F (this is the bread proof setting on my oven)
You can also do this at room temperature but it’ll take a bit longer!

If you’d like your yogurt to be Greek style, then strain in your fridge over a few layers of fine cheese cloth for 8-12 hours and strain for an additional 12-24 hours for Labneh (yummy cream cheese replacement)

06/11/2026

June

Amaranth
Beans (Winged Beans and Blue Lake Bush Beans and Burgundy Bush Beans are my favorites)
Blue Pea Flowers
Cassava (takes 10-12 months to produce and doesn’t tolerate freezing temperatures)
Chayote
Corn
Cranberry Hibiscus, Sorrel, Roselle
Tomatoes: Cherry types (especially Everglades, super sweet 100, black cherry , yellow pear, sweet millions, sun gold, and Floridade
Peppers: Cayenne, cubanelle, and smaller type hot peppers are far more heat tolerant than larger sweet peppers.
Eggplants with smaller fruits like Japanese
Flowers: cosmos, borage, sunflowers, Mexican Sunflower, Marigolds, nasturtiums, Sun H**p, Hairy Vetch, zinnias to name a few easy beginner friendly favorites
Garden Huckleberry
Gingers/Turmeric

Herbs as companion plants (many will bolt, flower and go to seed. This causes some to change their flavor to more bitter. They will still be great as companion plants and to feed pollinators)
Katuk
Okra
Peanuts
Pigeon Peas (buy them dried from the grocery store)
Southern Peas eg. Cow Peas, Black Eyed Peas
Squashes and Pumpkins especially Seminole Pumpkins and other solid stem hardy pest resistant varieties:
Butternut, spaghetti squash, Tromboncino aka zucchetta aka rampicante, Seminole Pumpkins, Tatume squash and Calabaza
And Luffa
Sugar Cane
Sweet potatoes (if your area get a frosts their season will be cut short resulting in smaller tubers)
Tropical Spinaches Malabar spinach and Okinawa spinach.

My favorite heat tolerant cover crops
(From shortest to tallest-ish)

Frog Fruit
Peanuts
Sunshine mimosa
Sweet Potatoes
Southern Peas: cow peas and black eyed peas
Marigolds
Sun H**p
Cosmos
Zinnias
Sunflowers
Tithonia (Mexican Sunflower)

06/09/2026

Some growing zones can start planting carrot seeds now, but I’ll be starting mine here in Florida zone 9b in August. They can be started August thru March here. Now is a good time to check your timing for your growing zone and order some seeds. I highly recommend growing a rainbow assortment of carrots because it’s a lot more fun and they come in so many gorgeous colors!
After planting, you can start harvesting them small after 60 days leaving some in the ground to grow larger to be harvested as needed. They are best stored in your garden beds as long as possible to grow and stay fresh. Once the peak of Summer hits here, I remove the rest of the unharvested carrots and prepare that garden bed to plant a non-root crop in their place.
✨If I see any signs of root knot nematodes on the carrots that next crop will be French Marigolds as they are a natural, science backed remedy for them.
I pickle, freeze, dehydrate or freeze dry any extras for long term storage.

06/08/2026

Abundance in the garden is achievable in the Summer even if you live in the South or otherwise hot climates!

06/05/2026

Ketchup

6 cups chopped tomatoes
1/3 cup white vinegar (or vinegar of choice)
1/2 medium onion diced
1/4 to 1/3 cup sugar (white or brown) Sugar is definitely optional though depending on the sweetness of your tomatoes and your preferences!
1/4 jalapeno or cayenne pepper
1 teaspoon celery salt
1 teaspoon turmeric
1 teaspoon garlic powder
1/8 teaspoon black pepper
1/8 teaspoon clove powder
1/8 teaspoon cinnamon powder

Cook the above ingredients on medium high for 30-40 minutes until soft

Add to a blender or blend with an immersion blender until smooth

For a smoother consistency run thru a sieve or food mill - recommend

You can store this in the fridge as is for up to 3 weeks or hot water bath can it to last for up to 2 years

For canning
Fill your clean, hot canning jar
Stir or tap on counter remove air bubbles
top jars to 1/2 headspace

Clean rims and add lids.
Hot water bath can for a 10 full minutes in boiling water for 4 or 8 ounce jars

Remove and allow to cool completely before removing rings and labeling your jars

06/04/2026

To be super duper clear, gender and sexuality in the animal kingdom (including humans) is far more complex than can be explained in 90 seconds. Can we please be kind to each other in the comments and Happy Pride Month to everyone celebrating 🥰

06/02/2026

One of my favorite garden side quests of all time has been growing a rainbow mini watermelon arch each Summer 🌈🍉💗

06/01/2026

Pineapple likes and dislikes

Likes
Full Sun
Temperatures between 60 and 90°F
Deep weekly watering
Well draining soil (I use a mix compost and perlite)
Regular application of Compost or well balanced fertilizer
Patience (they will take a minimum of 18 months to develop fruit, 2 years is the average here for me in Tampa Bay, FL)

Dislikes
Sustained temperatures below 60° F (slow growth) My plants survived being outdoors for 8+ hours at 27°F this Winter but they looked rough for quite a while afterwards!
Waterlogged soil
Too much shade
Impatient people commenting that they aren’t worth the effort to grow
Racoons 🦝

Address

Tampa, FL

Website

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