Candy Board Versus Dry Sugar

[Michael Bush]

Turnips and buckwheat are nice.  So are chicory, goldenrod and asters.  Then there is anise hissop.

[Cindi]

Turnips and buckwheat are nice.  So are chicory, goldenrod and asters.  Then there is anise hissop.

Did grow buckwheat this past summer, pretty plant, I understand it produces nectar in the morning and late afternoon, it was really busy with bees in the morning for sure.  Grow lots of Anise Hyssop, I have several mother plants of the anise and I take many, many cuttings from them and grow on the young plants.  It is surprising how year after year there are so many many more "mothers" (LOL).  It is good because the mother plants bloom about at least a month or more before the baby plants bloom.  Hence, there is an extremely long flowering season for the hyssop, it seems to go on forever.  I love to to be near these plants to see the thousands of bees enjoying the nectar and pollen, the licorice fragrance that perfumes the air is something to behold.  I have never let turnip go to flower yet, but that is a great idea, I would imagine the flowers are yellow, as so many in that family.  I have not grown chicory, unknown to me, no goldenrod, but lots of asters.  Asters are a beautiful fall plant, yup the bees go nuts on this one too.  It is fun to learn about plants that are great for bees.  I think that on this website there is a forum on bee plants, not sure, but I think I saw it listed, I am going to check it out for sure.  Great day!! Cindi

[Jeff L]

Cindi, we have a large 200 acre field that when it's not in wheat due to low wheat prices, it becomes a Mustard field due to the fact that Mustard is the main weed there, and drops seed like crazy. When it blooms yellow the Russian and Ukranian beeks in the area come and ask if they can set their hives out until these plants stop flowering. So this may be another 'girl' food for you. Remember though, it does reseed profusely and gets quite tall.

Jeff

[Romahawk]

One more quick question on candy boards. Do I really need to boil the water and sugar or can I just add enough cold water to make a paste and dump it in a mold to harden. Hate to get my turkey roaster all sticky.   :lol:

[Cindi]

One more quick question on candy boards. Do I really need to boil the water and sugar or can I just add enough cold water to make a paste and dump it in a mold to harden. Hate to get my turkey roaster all sticky.   :lol:

I am not a pro, but I think that making the sugar board candy is somewhat like making candy period.  It must be cooked to the "soft-crack" stage, which is 270 degrees F.  This takes a few minutes, surely, but must be up to temperature.  This makes the "candy", whether it is home made English Toffee, (that's my expertise and everyone loves to eat it) or sugar board candy go hard, (almost like a rock)!! LOL.  If it does not get up close to this temperature, it will not go really rock hard.  With the English toffee, cream of tartar is used for getting the candy to go hard (I think that is the purpose).  With the sugar board candy, vinegar is used to set it, from what I understand.  I would imagine that cream of tartar could be used instead of vinegar, but vinegar seems to be the most widely used.  Can't you cook it in a pot?  I cook mine in my cookware and it just washes out very easily.  Great day.  Cindi

[Robo]

I am not a pro, but I think that making the sugar board candy is somewhat like making candy period.

Exactly :-D

Though you don't need to go to 270 degrees,  you at least want to go to 240.  The higher the temperature you go, the harder the candy will be and the less likely it will be to crumble when it absorbs moisture from the colony.  Don't go too high and carmelize it though.

Be careful with cream of tartar, I believe I read somewhere that it wasn't good for the bees, but don't quote me on that.  Do some research before using it.

[Cindi]

I am not a pro, but I think that making the sugar board candy is somewhat like making candy period.

Exactly :-D

Though you don't need to go to 270 degrees,  you at least want to go to 240.  The higher the temperature you go, the harder the candy will be and the less likely it will be to crumble when it absorbs moisture from the colony.  Don't go too high and carmelize it though.

Be careful with cream of tartar, I believe I read somewhere that it wasn't good for the bees, but don't quote me on that.  Do some research before using it.

Robo, I will be careful with the cream of tartar, it may be bad for the bees, but I think that I read somewhere in the initial beginnings of this candy board post, that cream of tartar may have been used, I will review and research for sure.  Robo, now an interesting point with the temperature with the sugar and the hardness of the end product.  When you make your candy, do you always/never watch the temperature of the candy mixture.  I would be interested because of my experience that follows with temperature.  Maybe using cream of tartar is different than vinegar, but maybe they both provide a similar outcome with "candy" products.  Food for thought.  I thought that today I would do an experiment and cook my English toffee to a little lower degree than what I normally cook it to to see how it turned out. (when today's toffee was cooled enough to eat, some thought it awesome, better than usual, some thought I should go back to cooking it longer) LOL.    I wanted to try this because my toffee is always rock  hard, and when it is cool, if you hit it with a knife or another object, it breaks into wonderful chunks that are rock hard and about bite size,(depending upon the size of the mouth of course), but does get so chewy from the warmth in your mouth when you eat it, yum, yum.  I thought that if I cooked it to just below the soft-crack stage that it might be not rock hard, but simply just chewy.  Ha.  Anyways, I normally cook the toffee to 270 degrees F, but wanting a softer toffee, I cooked it only to about 265 degrees F.  The toffee looked lighter in the pot than when it is cooked to 270 degrees.  I poured the toffee out on a buttered pan and waited until it cooled off to handle it.  When I went to score the toffee, this toffee had the texture of fudge.  Hmm....absolutely no hard texture whatsoever.  (I am going to experiment tomorrow and cook some more toffee and bring the toffee temperature up to 268 and see what happens).  If this stage of hardening iat 265 degrees, using cream of tartar, is anything similar to that when one uses the sugar board candy using vinegar, if it was attempted to be fed to the bees, it would turn into a crumbly, mucky mess and would fall through the hardware mesh that is in place on the bottom of  the sugar board to prevent the candy from falling through onto the hive.  I am of the belief that it must be cooked to 270 degrees so that it is very hard, but again, tomorrow we will see what temperature of 268 brings to the texture of my toffee.  this is an interesting point on how sugar (and other ingredients) and change their own physical appearance, it is like putting on a wig or makeup, LOL.  great day.  Cindi.  Hope all what I have said makes sense.

[Robo]

Hi Cindi,

There is a science to candy making, and I don't have it down.  Mainly because I'm impatient and the bees aren't fussy.  I do watch the temperature, but usually get busy doing other things so I'm not very consistant about it. I usually try to get it between 260 & 270, but then again, I'm not sure how acturate my candy thermometer is either.  I have never had a problem with it crumbling thru the hardware cloth.  What usually happens is the bees eat around the edges and center first (where the moisture condenses) and them sometimes it will crack into hand size pieces.

I wonder if the butter in your toffee is not causing the results you are seeing :?

[Cindi]

Hi Cindi,

There is a science to candy making, and I don't have it down.  Mainly because I'm impatient and the bees aren't fussy.  I do watch the temperature, but usually get busy doing other things so I'm not very consistant about it. I usually try to get it between 260 & 270, but then again, I'm not sure how acturate my candy thermometer is either.  I have never had a problem with it crumbling thru the hardware cloth.  What usually happens is the bees eat around the edges and center first (where the moisture condenses) and them sometimes it will crack into hand size pieces.

I wonder if the butter in your toffee is not causing the results you are seeing :?

Robo, Ha!!!  Ya, I bet you are right!!!  Toffee does indeed have butter in it.  I know there is a science to candy making and I do not have it down either, at all, I only dabble a little with this yummy stuff.  I bet anything that probably that the addition of butter would make an emormous difference in the stage of hardening of candy when it is cooked.  I am kindo of an experimenter on things.  I am going to make some candy board sugar (I need to anyways) and fiddle around with cooking temperatures.  My thermometer is probably pretty good, as I have a digital one.  It has been a wonderful investment for me personaly.  I used to have the thermometer that was in a glass shaft, and it really is hard to read sometimes with the condensation on the glass and all,so I got fed up and bought a digital one that iis kind of like a meat thermometer, easy to read.  I would be really curious for my own sake to see what temperature this product will actually harden at, just for my own fun.  Great day.  Cindi

[Romahawk]

Can't you cook it in a pot?  I cook mine in my cookware and it just washes out very easily.  Great day.  Cindi

Me try to whip up something in my wifes good cookware.......  :?

Nope I'll get my old turkey cooker out and go outside to experiment with the bee candy.... Much safer....  :-D