So, how many times have I told you that while my Mom is driving around Leesburg that she always listens to 88.5 which is our NPR station from WAMU?    The best part is that when she comes home she tells me everything that she has learned that day, and sometimes the stories are pretty strange.

Last week she listened to a story about ghost peppers  which are supposed to be the World's hottest peppers.   First off, why would you want to eat them?  Second, why would you want to smush them us and eat them as Hot Pepper Paste?   Thirdly, why would you go to a restaurant and pay money to eat them?    These are all burning questions  (HA ---- that was what the two legs call a pun).

So anyway, there is a restaurant called Härth, at the Hilton McLean Tysons Corner, and the head chef there is a man named Thomas Elder.

Mr. Chef Elder decided that he wanted to have ghost peppers and not only that, he decided he wanted to grow them himself.   So he got a little garden going on the roof.     Then he decided that he wanted to have some honey to go with the peppers, so he got some bees and put them on the roof.      So the bees eat the nectar from the peppers and they make honey and if you eat honey after you eat hot peppers it helps to cool you off.

Or something.    I guess that is the idea anyway.     Talk about using LOCAL products.  

Mr. Chef Elder also grows mint for his signature drink a chocolate/mint Mojito and the rosemary sprigs in his fire-roasted chicken? They’re grown in the herb garden. 

He decided to keep the bees because he noticed that the honeycombs on the cheese platters came from Australia, so as far as anyone knows he is the Hilton's only chef/beekeeper.

“I tried to talk them into a goat so we could make our own cheese,” says Elder. “Maybe next year.”

There are some goats living up the road from us, Mr. Chef Tom ---- maybe you could borrow one.   HA.

So anyway, Mom and I got to thinking about bees, and we realized that one of our clients is a bee-keeper as a hobby thing.    Again, I have serious doubts as to why someone would want to keep dangerous, stinging, hurting, animals in their back-yard, but Mom says some people feel that way about Pit Bulls, so not to be prejudice.  

My Mouse Person woke up long enough to fly us off to Wikipedia to find what they had to say and we learned a lot.    It is pretty interesting stuff.    Grab your mouse and go read up:
                                                    


So anyway, you know my Mom.    She says the best way to be not afraid of something is to just do it, (like she got over being afraid of horse teeth)..... so our client told her she can come and he will suit her up and give her a lesson.   Oh BOY.

    I CANNOT wait to see my Mom dressed like this and trying to do something.   She doesn't even like wearing a hat!      HA.   This is going to be one big adventure, let me tell you.

Our client says that this hobby relieves stress.    God knows, my Mom needs to de-stress, but this may not be a really good idea.     Trust me, I will keep you posted.

Love and Licks,


Bob
----- thinking that Mom should stick to the radio