Seven Ways to Help our Pollinators!

"The Keeping of Bees is like the Direction of Sunbeams"
~ Henry David Thoreau


One of my favorite experiences from the 'Menu for the Future' discussion group hosted at the  Kingston library so far was hearing Laurie Sybertz's first hand account of bee keeping.  She and her husband, Joe, keep bees.  Or at least, Joe does.  They really are fascinating, hardworking, humble little honey bees and are crucial the the successful pollination of many crops, contributing to at least one third of our 'plant' diet through their efforts.

Laurie also shared with us their plight, which we covered in more detail in our newsletter this week (see our website at www.southshoreorganics.com for a copy).  The buzz is that with the use of insecticides, and large scale agricultural farming practices which destroy diversity and the introduction of gmo crops, nearly a third of bee hives have been disappearing.  This is quite alarming, and is a new trend that has been established year on year for the past three or four years.

Lobbyists, bee keepers, organic consumer associations and farmers are all doing their bit to address the problem, but you can help too and the future of our food system may depend on it!  Here's what you can do:

1. Resist Perfection - allow a portion of your garden to return to its 'wild state' with brush, grasses, weeds, deadwood and leaf litter to allow pollinators to find food, seek shelter and breed.
2. Plant Flowers - a native flower garden in a sunny area, or even a herb garden.  Hummingbirds and butterflies like yellow, red and orange flowers while bees prefer blue, purple, white and yellow flowers. 
3. Avoid Pesticides - pesticide misuse is one of the most significant threats to pollinators.  Urban and suburban yards make up a large portion of land undergoing regular pesticide application, avoiding it is not only better for pollinators, it's better for your children, pets and water supply as well!
4. Use Honey - support the honey industry and substitute honey for sugar in your own kitchen.  When baking, use half as much honey as sugar, reduce the liquid by 1/4 cup and add 1/4tsp of baking soda per cup of honey used.  And don't forget to buy local honey.
5. Eat Ice Cream - Haagen Dazs launched a new limited-edition flavor called Vanilla Honey Bee, the company donates a portion of the proceeds from all 'honey-bee dependant flavors' to honey and sustainable pollination research.  Visit their website www.helpthehoneybee.com.
6. Bug Someone Else - pollinators are fragile and easily hurt, but they won't bother you if you leave them alone.  Instead, bug your family and friends about the importance of pollinators in our food chain.
7. Buy Organic - Organic farmers create pesticide free,  pollinator friendly environments while providing healthy, fresh produce.  When you buy organic you keep pesticides off fields and reduce exposure to GMO crops.  Many organic farmers also keep bees because they know it improves their yields.

It takes more than 500 bees to make just one pound of honey, and honey is surely one of mother natures sweetest gifts.  Long ago, we knew the value of the honeybees bounty as in ancient Egypt, taxes were paid with honey and in early Greece and Rome, honey symbolized fertility, love and beauty.  Today we seem to have lost appreciation for this amazing insect, thank you Laurie for sharing your story with us, and for providing the resources for this blog, and the newsletter article.

Resources: MaryJanesFarm magazine

www.ccbee.org

www.pollinator.org

www.nappc.org

www.honey.com

The Distinction of a Species

I watched a movie once when I was a little girl about a disease that swept through the world and turned people into dust.  I was so disturbed by it, I had one of those moments wherein your perception of the world is altered along with your relationship with it.  And not because nearly everybody the lead character knew died one-by-one leaving only him and the heroine to repopulate the earth, not because of the tragedy of whole families being wiped out virtually overnight, but because I realized for the first time that my whole world was vulnerable.  Does anybody else recall the moment when that realization came to them for the first time?

'Of course the world is vulnerable', my mom said, 'life is precious, a meteor, a plague or any one of hundreds of natural disasters could forever change the face of this planet and life on it' - but it was more than that.  I realized for the first time how dependant we humans are on each other.  Our skill sets have evolved over generations and become so specific, I realized how much knowledge and progression would be lost.  If I were the last person on earth, I couldn't run or repair a power station or build solar powered panels for my house, and if I could, supplies would eventually run out and I couldn't build more.  Where would I get gas for my car?  There would be plenty cars around so that wasn't a problem, but once gas stations ran dry?  What then?  I am not a doctor, and after all the supplies in the pharmacies expire, I don't know anything about using plants to treat illness and disease.  If we managed to propagate, I could teach children to read and write, but I couldn't teach them physics.  Back then we didn't have the Internet to answer our questions only the library, but how much knowledge gained since the inception of the computer would be lost forever?  And then the biggie:  once the stuff in the grocery store went bad, what would we do for food?  So in my little girl mind, even if you survived and everybody else was turned into dust, you quite possibly would end up starving to death or dying of disease so maybe dust was a better way to go.  As I get older, I realize we would endure.  We would gather, organize, plant crops and reform little communities - it would be a very different life, but not necessarily a bad one. 

There have been many movies since that portray the demise of the human race usually involving some sudden and hugely destructive force, but what if we, us humans, are the cause of our own demise?  What if we build, grow, expand and consume ourselves out of existence?  Extinction is nothing new, species have been coming and going and evolving on our planet since it's birth, a typical species becomes extinct within 10 million years of its first appearance.  We the people have only been around an estimated 250,000 years, that's like a nano-second in the grand scheme of things, and in that nano-second we have inflicted more change on our environment or adversely affected or displaced more living species than any other organism in earths 4.54 BILLION years.  We assume we have the right to permanently alter landscapes and think we are very clever for taking a year or two to develop new organisms in a genetic science lab when it takes Mother Nature hundreds of thousands of years to accomplish the same thing.  We are powerful, rulers of the planet and at the top of the food chain.

I can't help but wonder, will another intelligent species be uncovering our bones and the remains of our cities, a 'lost civilization' out of earth one day?  Will they sadly shake their heads and say: How unusual, they destroyed the world that supported them and designed their own demise.

Dark Knight Moon

I have a confession to make - it is about a newly . . . revealed . . . fettish.  Its the radishes. I can't help myself and may need the help of family and friends in the form of an intervention.  They are organic and beautiful.  They grow underground, and you can smell the earth, they are demure to look at and all pepper and spice to taste.  I am so enamored with all the different radishes you get, and so when this one appeared on our farmers harvest list for South Shore Organics this week, I just had to have some.  I had to. 

I am of course, talking about the winter root - Black Radish.  They are Spanish in origin, and are bigger than the little red ones we are used to seeing, and talk about sexy!  Dark velvety skins hiding pale white flesh - these are the vampires of the underground: one bite and you're hooked!  Here you go - this is my take on a photo for the cover of a Twilight themed radish novel:

Last month I wrote about a radishing princess with a beautiful heart and the mattador who won her love with his beautiful heart, well, the Chiogga matador that beet all other admirers to gain her affection better watch out!  A new man arrived in town this week and he is ruthless, hungry and dangerous! 

Oh the drama, promise of romance, intrigue and suspense - what will happen next?  Will the radishing princess fall for the dark knights charms?  Is it any wonder I am infatuated?

The New Family Cook Book

When we moved into our new home, I took a moment over a hot cup of tea and a view of our homestead to rest my tired feet and reflect what it means to move - all the change, excitement, hope . . . glancing around at all that still had to be done, my eyes rested on this cookbook lying near the top of an open yet-to-be-unpacked box.  It was a gift from my grandmother, a well used and loved book that I have seen her use on many occasion.  I used it now and then for shortbread, but hadn't taken time to really look at it, consider all its undiscovered treasures, and appreciate the true value of this gift.

And it was over that cup of tea, one hot July afternoon, as I took stock of the heavy books' contents that I learned the true depth of words like 'heritage', 'legacy' and 'heirloom'.  Everything I think the younger generation has forgotten about cooking, is contained within these precious pages - from where different cuts of meat are taken, and what they are best suited to, to canning, preserving, freezing, cooking temperatures, how to tell if something is fresh and where to store it to keep it that way.  And it is not just about cooking, I got a glimpse too of what it meant to host a luncheon in the 50's on pages 53 - 130, how to set the table, what to choose for the menu, and how to be a gracious hostess.  These are all skills I feel are largely lost, and sadly so - I think our children would greatly benefit (as would we) from learning and remembering these graces. 

When my own daughter breezed into the kitchen, it occured to me that four generations were represented right there in my kitchen, with another cookbook my mom had made me with recipes for all the meals I loved to eat while growing up, a recipe book I often leaned on for family favorites, and a recipe book my daughter had received (her first one) for Christmas.  What a wonderful gift, and a special heritage these books would become for the younger members of our family one day.

Occasionally, I will be including experiences of our meals from my 'New Family Cook Book' in my blog, and tips too so I hope you visit often.  Let us make it a family affair as we teach our children that being a conscientious adult means knowing the source of the food we eat, what sustains it, and how to cook it and not how to recycle the cardboard box it came in.