Honeybee Alliance

Occupy the garden

2011-11-09T09:31:00.003-05:00

The season has pretty much slowed down. Finally a breath to be had and some thoughts to share! The past few days i have been at the Women in Sustainable Agriculture Conference at Penn State and have met so many wonderful people and learned so many useful things!

Yesterday over lunch a fellow farmer who was probably 25 years my senior was kvetching about the costs associated with being a farmer (organic feed, costs of markets, costs of licenses and inspections...) She was complaining about how another farmer in one of her markets is a non-profit. 'They are there selling eggs for less than I am. Of course they can do that, they have grant money. I depend on $5 a dozen for my eggs, I just can't make it work any other way. I also need to sell more, but I can't if the grant run farm is selling right next to me."

This has been a conundrum I have thought about for a long long time. Two years ago after trying many different ways to make a farm happen in different ways, I joined the non-profit forces. I had been working and farming on a beautiful island in British Columbia and finally got so fed up with being nickled and dimed by the general wealthy public who would come to this island for it's renowned produce and farm fresh products that I decided to move to the city where 80% of the population lived (and needed to be educated about food and farming). I realized that growing food and selling it just wasn't enough. Big Ag was still the booming food business no matter how many vegetables and animal products we supplied. People are addicted to convenience and I no longer wanted to feed into that addiction. I wanted to educate. I did not want to enable. I was an angry farmer for a long time. So upset that no one who eats really understands the value of their food. Angry at the customers, angry at the government subsidies, angry at the education system, the big ag, the processed food producers, and sure, the grant driven non-profits. Mostly I was angry that making an honest living on this planet was seemingly impossible.

"It has gotten so much worse the past few years." this farmer says to the table of fellow female farmers. "What changed?" I ask, thinking it had something to do with regulations or markets. "My husband and I retired from our full time jobs and are now full time farmers."

This woman and her husband entered into a broken agricultural system and hoped to reap a living from it. Fortunately they had jobs for 40 years and probably some savings to live off of (for now). But the fact of the matter is that the system as it is doesn't work. It just does not work.

The whole system is broken. It reaches from Wall Street all the way down to the food we eat. To deny this is our demise. I think the conversation that I was in yesterday is a result of someone being stuck in the system and the choices that they made to be in it. I am sorry that so many people are in this situation, I do hope that we can all learn to work together and help each other out of it.

Today people are waking up, men and women are looking around. Looking at their lives and thinking 'nah, this ain't right'. And if fact, it isn't. Folks want to do something different, but don't know how or don't have the means to. Farmland is disappearing (for greed). The upcoming farmers who want to take care of the land and not just take from the land do not have many options. I spent 10 years working on farms and learning from different farmers. Who has the time to do this? I have had no money to buy a piece of land. I cannot afford taxes and tools and all the equipment needed to efficiently run a farm. I imagine most other folks don't either. What can we do to change the land accessibility for wanna be farmers? Most successful farmers that I meet in NJ have the family farm (no mortgage, no down payment, equipment already there...) or they had/have a good paying job (ie: worked within the broken system-usually supporting corporate greed) and have the money it takes to grow food for little profit.

I do think much of the onus comes down to each and every one of us in the daily decisions we make and the consciousness we carry with us when we purchase and eat food. The whole system needs to change, and in the mean time, or as a means to an end, how about we support one another with the food/knowledge/resources we have!

Let go and let the weeds grow!

2011-07-09T09:25:00.007-04:00

"Weeds are just plants whose virtues have not been discovered."

"Weeds are just plants in places we don't want them."

Two probable misquotes from a couple people, or just two old sayings that hold true in my heart.

Weeds.

Seems to be the topic of conversation and back breaking work these days.

Weeds.

When I think of weeds I think of strong plants that adapt to their environment; often in places where people do not want them.

Misunderstood.

I remember teaching a class of delinquent high school students in 1998. They were a group of kids no one wanted to have anything to do with, so they were given to the long-haired hippie teacher who could have a bit of patience with them, but were going to be cast aside none the less. He called me in to take them on a weed walk. I walked them around the school yard showing them the different weeds that they could use for health, wounds, sleep, depression... I explained to them that they are like weeds of the school system. Cast off with no purpose, but still they had many gifts to give to those who were wise enough to listen.

Weeds.

And then there were the times in Montana I viciously dueled with the cowboys about the value of st. john's wort. Billboards proclaiming "The War On Weeds" dotted the landscape while friends of mine fresh out of their resource management courses would get work for the United States Forest Service pulling up this weed. The same weed on which folks in the cities spend millions of dollars to curb their depression. Instead those neophytes rounded up the plants and ignited them.

Weeds.

Aster, clover, dandelion, goldenrod.

All delicious food for the three hives I have on the City Green Farm at Schultheis.

"Weeds!" they proclaim, with disdain for me and the organization that the farm is a part of. "Cut down those weeds!" It is a simple cry of ignorance. While I understand wholeheartedly the problems weeds can present (I am a farmer after all), I do wish to step up here and educate people about the virtues of plants that have been demonized by, ahem, corporations that stand to make money from you not wanting plants like, let's say, dandelion, growing in your pristine lawn.

In case you haven't noticed, habitat for insects and critters is disappearing. (The bees are dying!). Pesticides are over-used (often by unknowing homeowners), running into our waters and soils, poisoning not only the critters, but also ourselves. The latest greatest is that Scotts® has developed--and the USDA is allowing--GM lawns that are resistant to Monsanto Roundup! OMG! Now you can spray even MORE Roundup on your grass! Green grass at everyone's expense!

Weeds.

The toxic enemy.

The deep tap roots of dandelion and yellow dock will pull up nutrients from the depths of the soil and offer it to the surrounding plants. They aerate the soil and offer habitat and food for earth-loving worms. Nature knows balance; corporations do not. When will we stop being sheep to the slaughter of their greed? When will we wake up and allow the wisdom of the plant world to rattle us a bit and feed all of our senses?

Common Sense

Poison on the ground is poison in our food

Poison in the water is poison in our veins

Do not wonder why cancer is prevalent!

Do not wonder why allergies are everywhere!

Open up to the reality that clinging to the notion of control is killing the very essence of life.

Let go and let the weeds grow!

Summer Solstice

2011-06-21T18:03:00.008-04:00

Berries and Legumes in Paterson Children's Garden

today

the longest day of the year

i shudder at the thought of the darkness returning again

how could it be that we embrace the light so strong now and in a few months time it will be cool again?

*shudder*

as with every earth holiday, today is a day to take stock and honor the transitions of seasons and the paths that we have taken. today is a day to hone one's intentions for the coming days until lughnasadh (lammas) the harvest holiday of aug 1.

today i am in a whole different realm than i was on the winter solstice. 6 months have passed and i am now in a new home with my loving partner and her daughter. we have moved to millburn and i am so much more comfortable living close to the reservation and a walk away from the creek. neighbors are nice and the space is comfy. :)

Sarah and Leah painting pink

i am also working at a new job for an outstanding non-profit, City Green. i am teaching adults about farming. i am growing food for folks in Paterson and Clifton. i am working hard at starting up a new farm and growing enough food to have viable markets in the food deserts of Paterson so people will have access to fresh food. we will be taking food stamps and doubling their value thanks to Wholesome Wave. so many wonderful things are happening on this lovely day and here are some pictures of the progress

May at Schulties Farm in Clifton

Schulties Farm at Clifton

Paterson Farm at Eastside Park

I have 3 new beehives too!

a swarm that was probably knocked down from a tree in maplewood

it is so nice to have bees where i am and not have to travel to see them :)

buckwheat is going in tomorrow :)

Ranting of a toad

2011-05-06T07:07:00.003-04:00

Analogy:

Lets say you are feeling a little off. Maybe a cold, maybe a bad diet, maybe lack of exercise, maybe you are just constantly told to behave yourself and feel no room to be yourself. Who is to say? No tests can measure the cause.

So the doctor prescribes some prophylactic antibiotics. You take them like the good patient that you are and you get a bad case of diarrhea. The doctor tests the diarrhea and declares that your problem is...oh lets say...nosema...

Given what I know about bacteria and the delicate balance of life inside of our bodies as well as most other life forms on this planet, I am venturing to guess that nosema is no CAUSE of anything..

Update on the state of the Japanese Hornfaced Bees in my Pilates Rope

2011-04-17T10:41:00.002-04:00

For those of you who did not read the previous post from last spring about the Japanese Hornfaced Bee, catch up on it here. Essentially this new bee friend came into my apartment and moved into my sadly seldom used pilates cord. After roasting in the summer sun in an attic apartment I wasn't surprised to see no bees emerge in the fall. I waited to the spring to see if they would emerge then, but to no avail. So an autopsy is done...

razor blade to cord with crunchy bees under the plastic

there was a layer of mud in between each of the larvae

the bees were fully developed and had this tiny mouse turd looking

things on them.

we took out the magnifying glass and looked closer...

I am not sure what they were? Bee poo? or maybe a parasite of some kind that killed

them? They looked like little grains to me.

Bee Parts

Japanese horn faced bee wing with pollen on it

And the pilates cord in back in use...a bit shorter for the journey, but usable :)

Spring has Sprung!

2011-04-11T16:33:00.001-04:00

Upon our arrival back from Massachusetts today we were greeted with muggy, hot weather. Along with the heat was the blooming cherry trees in front of our house, COVERED in bzzzz. Not only were there honeybees, there were mason bees, wasps and bumble bees! WOW, WINTER IS OFFICIALLY OVER!!

Notice the black dots in the picture...the big ones are bumbles...

The Significance of Swarming (as seen in NOFA-NJ newsletter)

2011-04-05T19:09:00.003-04:00

Learning about bees has been one of the most rewarding endeavors I have ever embarked on. I have been a treatment free beekeeper since 2007. The way that I keep bees requires me to pay much closer attention to my environment because I have to understand what health and disease truly are. Coming from a point of view that all life is sacred and connected, I appreciate the profound message of interconnectedness that is permeating our society via the ancient honeybee. Bees have been the focus of much study lately due to the mass die-offs that are happening in commercial beekeeping. There are many factors that can be attributed to this problem, and swarm prevention may be a part of that. Swarms are a natural progression in a healthy hive, and allowing such reproduction may very well contribute to the overall health of the colony.

Inside the hive the queen bee does not rule, for there is no hierarchy. She maintains the hive with her scent and by the remarkable fact that she lays hundreds to thousands of eggs a day. A queen bee egg is laid vertically, in alignment with the sky and earth, and fed a continuous diet of royal jelly as she grows into a fully formed queen. By contrast, the worker bees (the females in the hive) and the drones (the males) are formed from an egg laid horizontally and fed a diet mainly of bee bread -- a mixture of pollen, nectar and microbes.

When a hive is healthy and strong it will want to multiply. This is the absolute beauty of the honeybee colony. The old queen will lay a fertilized egg(s)s in a vertical queen cell(s), and the workers will begin feeding the new queen(s)-to-be a milky substance excreted from their heads called royal jelly. When the queen cells are about to hatch, the old queen and about a third of the colony will engorge itself with honey and fly off to find a new home. Biodynamic beekeeper and author Günter Hauk likens this to parents reaching their 60s, leaving the home to their kids, and going off to start a new life elsewhere. This is another selfless act of the bees.

All at once the queen and thousands of bees take flight. They find a nearby spot to gather while scout bees venture off to find the perfect hollow vessel in which to start building comb. Once a spot is agreed upon, the cluster of bees will disperse and fly off to their new home. This new home will be a hollow vessel such as a hollow tree trunk, an eave of a home, a pot, or a birdhouse. They do no structural damage to the vessel they choose as their new home. The hive begins building comb as soon as it settles in; the queen beginning to lay eggs as soon as there are cells to fill. Thus a new colony is born and life continues on for the great honeybee.

Many beekeeping books and courses discourage swarming. Coming from a capitalistic standpoint, swarms could mean a loss of field force, which would mean a loss of honey production. Given that most authors and teachers are coming from a commercial background, it makes sense that this is routinely taught. But upon further examination of all that plagues the honeybee faces, we might want to reconsider our actions of swarm prevention.

As I mentioned earlier, swarms are an indication of a healthy, vibrant hive. Swarm prevention is like birth control. In a climate where hives are dying at such a rapid rate, it seems only logical to allow the reproduction of healthy hives. Swarm season in this area begins in May -- an exciting time for beekeepers. There are many tools beekeepers can use either to encourage swarms or split hives in a way that mimics the natural inclination of the bees. Beekeepers can even register with local police or fire departments to be on call to trap a swarm if spotted in the area. (Free bees!)

I have seen that hives that are allowed to swarm have a much higher survival rate than those routinely prevented from swarming. In addition, swarming creates a period of time in the brood chamber where there is no brood: an excellent way to purge mites from the hive, since the parasite’s larvae is deprived of its food source during this time.

When a hive is strong and robust it will reproduce. Trusting nature and not interfering is the recommended course of action. If you are focusing on hive health and pollination, it is best to support the natural instinct of a colony rather than impose your own will. When we let the bees be we can learn much about their health and healing. I do believe that there are times to help bees when they are in need (such as when they appear to be starving), but swarming is not a time of distress; it is a time of celebration! May our skies be filled with buzzing this summer!

Images from a cut out of a bird house

2011-03-27T22:06:00.002-04:00

This is a video of Mike Tarbett doing a cut out of a hive that had settled into a birdhouse. He did this as a demonstration at the Southeast Organic Beekeepers Association conference in Florida.

Absconding

2011-03-15T11:31:00.011-04:00

"People who have found themselves in the midst of a mighty swarm or who have observed this incredible act from a distance cannot help but admit that the experience itself evokes rather indescribable thoughts and emotions. Swarming is a powerful and vibrant expression of a healthy, well-functioning bee colony. It is at once mysterious, lucid and transcendent. Swarming supersedes, by its very display and magnitude, all that is commonplace, 'status quo' and subdued in our everyday human activity. We may discover upon closer examination why swarming is so intrinsic to the bee's physical and spiritual health"

-Gunther Hauk, Toward Saving the Honeybee

A cluster of bees on a branch

"A swarm!! A swarm!" Brenden bounds excitedly into our beeginner top bar class. 90% of the newbees rush off to the congregating area of the bees. A swarm is a hive's way of reproducing. Where there was once one hive there is now two. The old queen has laid an egg that will become the new queen and the old queen takes about 1/3rd of the workers of the hive and sets off to start a new colony. All at once the queen and thousands of bees take flight. They find a nearby spot to gather while scout bees venture off to find the perfect hollow vessel to start building comb in. Once a spot is agreed upon (through the waggle dance), the cluster of bees will disperse and fly off to their new home.

Bees taking off from a cluster

AS the student interest waned and they started heading back to class, someone noticed that a newly formed nearby nucleus colony was empty. This wasn't a swarm it was an absconding. The bees had just up and left. Bees will do that. Possibly because of the fire ant colony that the hive was inadvertently put on top of. Possible they were sick of being moved around, maybe they just felt that their new living quarters were just unacceptable. They had not invested much into their new home so they just left. Who knows why, only they do. Bess are like that.

The next day it was pretty obvious why they absconded. Sam had been called to do a bee removal from a soffit. Looked like a pretty easy job.

Sam feeling around inside the soffit to find out where the comb is

Notice the comb through the crack.

There is the colony with mango honey

Easy enough, dripping mango honey everywhere, new comb sloppily being banded into lang frames to take home, stings galore...but the queen, where was the queen? Sam is known for his queen finding abilities, but this day he just couldn't get her. After hours of trying he decided to pull out the bee vac.

Right after turning the vacuum off he spotted her (one does not want to vacuum the queen if one can avoid it as she may get hurt). He hesitated and reached for her. But in such cramped quarters

and the sneaky bug that she is, in that moment she and the rest of the bees (the bees with brood, comb and honey in the box along with all the bees in the house) took off. Took off is such an easy thing to say. Absconding is a word that folks use. But to describe the absolute palpability of that moment is beyond me. Sam and I just looked at each other KNOWING that something was happening but we didn't know what. Like the course of life had been altered for everyone in that moment. An excitement was in the air and maybe even a touch of sadness as they were leaving their babies and had to start all over again.

Bye Bye bees. Thanks for the magical experience!

Florida Bound!!

2011-02-23T19:30:00.001-05:00

Heading to sunny Florida! It is springtime there you know! Spring time means bee time! I will be full on running around with Anarchy Apiary's Sam Comfort and will be teaching a bit at the Southeast Organic Beekeeping Conference! Plan to soak up the sun and post some really interesting stuff next week!

Autopsies

2011-02-16T12:12:00.007-05:00

These are images of dead bees (if you have an abundance of bee butts and little honey in your hive, your hive has starved)

After being introduced to the honeybees in 2007 I knew that I was in love! I decided to take a year of my life and get into as many hives as I could with as many natural beekeepers as I could meet so that I would really get a feel for what beekeeping was all about.

In the spring of 2008 I packed up my things and left BC for New Paltz, NY to apprentice with Chris Harp. I met Chris in the fall of '07 at a beekeeping class at The Pfieffer Center. While I knew that there was another way to keep bees (as I had read Steiner's lectures on Bees and felt that there were many aspects of nature that most beekeepers were not paying attention to) I had never met anyone who agreed with my inner knowing.

Upon arrival in the spring (there was still ice all over) we began our work getting called out to do numerous autopsies. What a great way to begin your year studying the LIFE of the bee! Witnessing it dead and/or dying. While I know that death is such a part of life, it was so hard for me to see so many dead bees. I mean, these are the ladies I had just fallen in love with!!

This Valentine's day I was reminded of those first autopsies that I had to do because I had to do one of my own for the first time. One of my hives in Lincoln Park had frozen to death. While there was about 40 pounds of honey, there were not enough bees to keep warm through the last cold snap. The pile of dead bees at the bottom of the hive was substantial and the bees clinging around the queen was small. They had all frozen to death.

Now while this is sad, I must admit. I was happy to take the top box full of honey (I left some honey for the other colonies in the area and put some in my TBH) for myself and my loved ones! This was my first year beekeeping at this spot and the flora made an abundant, delicious crop!

feeding a top bar hive with dripping honeycomb

feeding myself with some dripping honey!

the problem with NO foundation (notice the way the comb is going in 2 different directions!)

Join me on Feb 10th for an Intro to Natural Beekeeping Class!

2011-01-31T13:17:00.003-05:00

I am working with Grow it Green Morristown on Feb. 10th at 6:30 at the Dodge Foundation Board Room (14 Maple Avenue, Morristown, NJ) to find out just what it takes to start your own hive.

In this introductory class we will cover the basics of equipment (including

both langstroth and top bar hives), where to get bees and equipment and the

most ideal location to house them. We will also touch on what

organic/biodynamic beekeeping means. Educational resources will be

shared.

This class is Free and open to all.

Weather

2011-01-26T10:01:00.006-05:00

No one other than the farmer notices the weather. Most people around these parts only notice the weather when it gets in their way; when it gives them something to complain about. "I hate the snow". "Damnit, it is snowing AGAIN!" "Why is it so cold?" Indeed, we hear it daily around here!

This morning on my walk, the world was quietly being showered in big white fluffy flakes. The neighborhood felt so serene and safe. The small layering of snow covered up the harsh reality of trash and ice and dead christmas trees and made the world fresh again. The blanket apparently protects the delicate earth underneath. The jays are currently screaming. Maybe they are commiserating with the humans "I hate the snow!" "It's too cold!" Skreetch skreetch! "I hate the quiet!" Who knows what they are saying, I don't speak bluejay!

I love the snow. I love the forced stillness. I love the opportunity to go inside myself and look around. What am I needing? What am I wanting? What do I want to accomplish this year, what are my dreams telling me? The snow falls so heavily to the ground and the steam from my oatmeal effortlessly rises up. The warm cup of tea by my side brings me comfort. How fortunate I am! To be able to sit and watch and dream. A cupboard full of good food, a switch to make the room warmer, and blankets to snuggle into.

How fortunate am I to know that under the snow there is life stirring. That in a month's time there will be green bursting forth from the wet cold soil. That the trees will be opening their buds and feeding my little wonders assuring their survival and feeding them their first pollen of the year! How fortunate are we all to be a part of such a magnificently perfect cycle of life and death? We have lost loved ones in these cold dark months and while the pain of loss is real and difficult, chances are that we will welcome new loved ones into our lives and feel the joy and celebration of life anew. Life just does that. It carries on.

As I look forth into spring I have some sadness. As of today I am unsure as to where my seeds will be planted. Nothing worse than a landless farmer. But as I look back on my life I see that as long as I have seeds to plant and a will to carry through the life of the plant, I can do anything! I may just take to the streets and continue the gorilla gardening movement. No crack in a side walk will be safe from this seed bomber! Maybe I will meet new neighbors in Maplewood who would like their yards turned into food producing gardens. Maybe I will teach more. Maybe I will find lovers of the honeybees who want me to keep bees on their property.

Like the weather one cannot predict such things, but rather look at the patterns and commit to the journey. Life and death will naturally continue. The earth will thaw, soil will be exposed and a new path will be revealed.

Winter Bees

2011-01-15T12:45:00.007-05:00

"What are the bees doing now?" is a question I often hear this time of the year. The temperature is often below freezing and the snow keeps piling up. What also keeps piling up are the dead bees at the bottom of the hive.

This time of the year is difficult for most of us in the northern hemisphere. The bees' strategy is to cuddle together around their queen mother and generate heat by flexing their wing muscles. The bees rotate from the outside to the inside of the cluster and from the inside to the outside. The ones on the outside move into the center when they get cold and the ones close to the center move towards the outside. They do this or they just fall to the bottom to their icy death. The weather is too cold or the hive is too moist, it is unclear as to what makes one bee drop dead and another move back towards the center.

When the weather warms up a bit (which happens every now and again throughout the winter...freeze, thaw, freeze, thaw...you get the point), the ladies will break cluster and go to the 'outhouse'. Some bees venture out for a cleansing flight (the bees slowly eat through the food stores and fly away from the hive to defecate) and are rendered impotent when hit with the cold air. They are unable to move when this happens and unless the air warms up a bit or the beekeeper puts the heat of her breath on the apparently dead bee, she will die.

By now the queen has started to lay eggs again, hopefully building up force for the first signs of pollen in the next couple of weeks. Willows and maples will feed our insect ally during the hard month of February and hopefully they will have enough honey to get them through to the first major push of dandelions! And if they have left overs when dandelions hit...Tammy will get some sweet stuff for her culinary enjoyment :)

Sometimes though, the bees just don't make it through the winter. The hive might be too big and starve, or too small and freeze. A mouse might get into the hive and destroy the comb and the queen has nowhere to lay eggs. CIrculation might be week in the hive and moisture builds up and chills the brood or bees. So many possibilities in the next couple months, it can worry a beekeeper sick! But I am trusting the dreams that I am having (last night I had a dream where some children had beehives at their school and were actually PLAYING with the bees!) are telling me that the bees will carry on and the human relationship to them is reforming based on understanding and respect and not fear of being stung. When I go to my hives and I put my ear up to the cold boxes, I hear the sound of the bees alive, a quiet humming that resonates with my heart. I sing with the bees and trust that they will be just fine.

top bar hive in winter

If you wonder where I have disappeared to...

2010-11-01T20:56:00.007-04:00

This is the garden in May.

This is a little over a month later

This is a hot hot summer later...

And this is October

some lettuce that is growing now...or was 2 days ago anyway

School has started again and the brassicas are still feeding our community!

The fall colors are wonderous and the bees are slumbering all over the marigolds these days!
Gotta love some pumpkins!
Chinese cabbage beauty
Tat Soi amazingnessOnions, cabbage and stir fry mix in the background. YUM!

Farmer Tammy says..."we shouldn't be eating food out of plastic or boxes mom!" "we are so lucky to have a garden at our school" "this broccoli is SO GOOD"...

Early Street Community Garden Bee Class

2010-08-16T19:48:00.002-04:00

Explaining the difference between honey and brood

Pass the bees pleaz

We can learn a lot without even opening the hive

Morristown Green wrote and article on it. Check it out!

The Bees Knee(d)s

2010-08-06T21:51:00.003-04:00

If you've visited the pumpkin patch at the Urban Farm at Lafayette, you may have seen first-hand the intricate connection between bees and flowering plants. Without bees - honeybees or otherwise - we would be pretty hard-strapped for food. 1/3 of our food supply in America is dependent on them to be exact. Pumpkins are just the beginning. Melons, squashes, blueberries, apples, nuts, alfalfa, clover, cocoa, vanilla, mango, plums, apricots, cherries, avocado, canola, broccoli, cabbage, cucumbers, cotton, carrots, coffee, and kiwi are just SOME of the crops that would not survive without the efforts of the bees. But can the bees survive without help from us these days?

According to the flyer that just came in the mail from a bee equipment supplier, they cannot. When I opened the mailed advertisement, the first page was told me that I had to put chemical and 'natural' remedies into my hive in order for my bees to be healthy and strong for the winter months. They craft yellow soy patties attempting to feed the bees protein posing as pollen. This little pamphlet is proclaiming the cheapest source of high fructose corn syrup to feed the bees you steal honey from. They sell essential oils to kill mites (which also kill microbes in the hive that may be beneficial to the bees), they sell prophylactic antibiotics to kill bacteria in the hive (some of which may be beneficial to the bees), they sell chemical insecticides to kill moths and beetles that can kill weak hives (which can also kill bees, they are insecticides after all!).

It may be a glum picture that I paint, but it follows what is innocently taught at most beekeeping courses throughout North America, and many people do not question the techniques. When walking into such an adventure as beekeeping, we tend to trust the people guiding the way, and usually those people have been using these invasive techniques because that is what they have been taught. It is, after all, how we will save the bees from disease and death.

But is it?

Mites are small parasitic bugs that attach to adult bees and bee larvae in order to feed off of them. Often the mites weaken a hive and bring in disease. If there are high mite levels in a hive, they can destroy that hive in a season, since they multiply much more rapidly than the bees. The 'organic/natural' approach to treating the bees for mites has been to apply essential oils (such as thyme) or acids (oxalic and formic). I have seen people use these and I am not convinced that they are all that 'natural'. Because bees use pheromones to communicate, the application of such strong oils will impair that ability (and if you want to use the wax for candles, your candles will end up smelling more like your treatment than the beautiful sweetness of bees!). Acids are caustic and can kill a hive if used incorrectly. These options don't seem viable to me.

Fortunately, a small movement has been forming here in the northeast around treatment free beekeeping. It is a more hands off approach to the bees, trusting that the bees know what the bees needs are and letting them follow their insticts rather than ours. Beekeepers are working hard at breeding bees that know how to deal with these mites. They are not breeding bees to produce tons of honey or to be gentle, they are breeding bees to survive. An average beekeeper looses 50% or more of their hives in the winter. Clearly the way bees are cared for nowadays is not working.

Last weekend I went to a treatment free bee conference in Leominster MA along with 100 other people from near and far. I didn't hear much about bees dying at this conference, it was more about bees thriving. Thriving and Swarming! A swarm is a hive's way of procreating. When the number of workers exceeds the capacity of the hive, the workers will rear a new queen and when she is ready to be born about a third of the hive will go out with the old queen and find a new place to live. This is how bees thrive. This is how the bees move and populate an area. Beekeepers today are taught to stop this from happening at all costs. Some beekeepers clip their queens wings so that she cannot fly away. Bees make honey and if 1/3 or your bees go away then 1/3 of your honey goes away too. The thing is though that when a swarm leaves there is a break in the brood cycle which gives the workers less nest tending time and possibly more honey gathering time. This gives the mites less food and less of a chance of survival. The new queen will generally be vigorous and create a strong colony just on the fact that they created her. Bees that swarm are more likely to survive according to the low numbers of winter deaths that the beekeepers at this conference were giving.

Maybe the bees could live without us, but the fact of the matter is is that we are in a relationship with them that is thousands of years old and we have to find our way to balance with the bees and the bee nature. The land is in it's full glory right now and it is our responsibility to tend it, with love and respect. First do no harm. Meaning, when we see a problem, we observe it for a while before we intervene, because the intervention could be more damaging than we imagined. Let the bees be!

2010-06-30T19:35:00.004-04:00

So the ladies at the factory garden lot are doing great. One day about a month ago I opened the hive...Just a quick look see to see if they needed more room. I pulled out a frame and as I did I heard the unforgettable sound of a queen piping.

I quickly closed up the hive, afraid to disrupt any queen fighting that was about to ensue. When a queen is born she will let the other bees know that she has been born by making a high pitched beeping sound (maybe she is declaring..."here i am!!"). She is also declaring to any other queens that are being born or about to be born that she is going to annihilate them! It also means, that my hive was about to swarm. I had missed my chance to split the hive and make two of MY OWN hives. Now they would split themselves and find a new home somewhere else. The new queen would get acclimated to her new home and then go off on her mating flights.

All of this happened while I was busy starting a new project with Grow It Green Morristown and didn't pay much mind to the INSIDE of the hive. Oh, don't get me wrong, I would visit this lovely hive and breathe her in throughout the week. What a smell a hive emanates on these long hot summer evenings. Sweet, humid air being blown in my face by the buzzing wings of these little worker bees. 2 weeks ago I went into the hive and saw a freshly mated queen. She was stubby and adjusting to her growing abdomen. I checked on her today and WHOA! she has filled up a whole box with brood and is just bustling along laying eggs! I was impressed with her work! Then I saw her and she was long and strong, as a good queen should be.

Curiosity had the best of me and i dug deeper into the hive. The bottom box was just kind of sitting there so I wanted to check it out and see if I could just get rid of it. I lifted it up, it was quite light. I pulled out a couple frames that were covered in noisy drones. I saw a few eggs, a few capped brood cells about to hatch and then I saw her. The old queen. There were two queens living in this hive! My mind says that the new queen is honoring the old queen by letting her live in the basement until she dies with the rest of the useless ones in the hive (the drones...i don't REALLY think drones are useless, just a little joke). But it was curious how the drones and queen were all in the bottom of the hive.

I felt no need to DO anything. I am loving this new season of beekeeping. I think I finally know what I am doing and feel comfortable with them, like a second skin. I am in love with them and am more understanding of their process' and life cycle. I am going to the treatment free bee conference at the end of July and hope to learn more about the process of mite illimination (misspelling intentional).

An Update

2010-06-23T19:45:00.011-04:00

Well, it has been awhile! So here is a little update:

After filling up the greenhouse at the farm in Lincoln Park and getting the square foot gardens in place I decided to try again at the factory garden lot.

chard, napa cabbage, and kale in a section of my square foot gardens

I thought I would get crafty and buy some cement and get the fence up for real this time. This time there was no ground hog getting in. I put bricks all along the outside to keep the fence down (no going under fence) and I cemented the posts to the ground as deep as i could dig. The thing is I am no fence builder (any ideas or tips or help is GREATLY appreciated!!) The cement blocks were not in a perfect line (lesson learned) and the chicken wire sags a bit. Sagging chicken wire means groundhog climbing

Groundhog climbing means groundhog eating....

kale

cucumbers

sunflowers...

even my spilanthes (toothache herb, which makes a human's mouth go numb!!)

but i am still planting...and caging certain things...like my sweet diane and honey rock melon. who knows?! maybe will have a new post or two put up and make the fence rodent proof?

jokes on me i am sure

Do you sell honey?

2010-04-21T21:28:00.012-04:00

honey comb from Morristown

Do you sell honey?

It is a question I am often asked when someone realizes I am a beekeeper. The answer thus far has been no.

What I have been doing for the past 3 years in working with the bees is trying to wade my way through the teachings of experienced beekeepers.

You see, for some time now beekeeping has been about stealing honey and pollination. Otherwise, (the other, all to common question) "what use are the bees?"

We live in a society that places high value on things (a.k.a living, sentient beings) that reap profit. If these things do not reap profit, we disregard them or manipulate them to make them into profit.

The other day I got into a discussion about wasps. The person I was speaking with was struggling with wasps continuously building nests on their deck. "What are they good for, what use are they? I am just going to kill them."

Rewind a week and I have Bob, the farmer telling me that before the wasps came to his place he struggled with worms in his cabbage crop. "No more worms for this place, the wasps have eaten them all!"

I digress. Or do I? There is a point to this. All creatures on this planet are here for their own reasons. I will not pretend to know what the reasons are. Not even sure what the human purpose is, but I am sure it isn't to exploit every other species and I am pretty sure that every other species' point isn't to serve humans. I could be wrong though.

So the bees...most books and teachers come from a background of years of exploiting bees for profit. Few have taken the time or have had the inclination to understand 'beeness'.

some top bar hive bees a few days after being given this bar

Bees have their own nature as do humans. We hurt each other when we view our relationships merely as a give and take; when we view 'other' as an object to exploit or take advantage of. As a culture, it is important for us to learn to listen. Yes, time is money and listening takes time, but aren't relationships the mainstays of our existence? Isn't it time we put more value on our relationships (our friends, family, animals, bugs, land, food...)?

beautiful bees and burr comb in Vancouver

So no, I do not sell the wonderful honey that the bees make from their hard work of harvesting nectar from the numerous dandelions, clover, linden, sweet william, salvias and numerous other wild and cultivated flowers that grow within their reach. I am too busy working on a relationship with a species whose nature I have barely begun to understand. After 3 years with them I am realizing I barely understand my own human nature.

I do know that it is in my nature to love sweetness and the bees graciously offer that to me and for this I am thankful. I am also thankful for all the beekeepers who love and care for their bees while taking the extra honey they make to sell to us folks who have a love of all things sweet. I am thankful for the bees for making extra! I am thankful for the land for producing so much sweet bounty for all creatures. I am thankful for all creatures! I am thankful that you are reading my words.

40th anniversary of earth day...what are YOU thankful for?

MMMMM! Spring Salad!

2010-04-20T22:16:00.001-04:00

Just add radishes, garlic mustard, dandelion greens and spring onions. Salt and pepper and I am one happy lady!

The Japanes Hornfaced Bee

2010-04-20T21:20:00.009-04:00

The Honeybee Alliance's newest member:

The Japanese Hornfaced Bee

For a few days a couple weeks ago I found my apartment a buzz with bees. I was confused as they would come as early as 6:30 am (much to the chagrin of my gf) and honeybees are late risers. Who were these bees poking in every hole in my apartment?

I watched as each morning between 6:30 and 11 am anywhere from 1 to 5 bees would come into my little apartment and check out all the holes. These bees sound and look like honeybees but they have their mandibles open, where honeybees rarely do. Hence the horn face, I suppose?

I watched as two bees took to an end each of my pilates cord which hangs from my curtain rod. Over the corse of a week these pods were growing inside the cord.

I watched as the mother bee would bring in pollen, sometimes even dropping it on my floor. I was so excited to have a hive IN my apartment, a little nest of solitary bees growing right before my eyes as I went about my days.

The pollen was sweet when I tasted it off my floor.

I learned that the Japanese Hornfaced bee is actually one of the best pollinators in the world! I read on sufficientself.com that, "In an apple orchard, an Eastern honey bee on an average day will pollinate around 50 flowers. The Japanese Hornfaced Bee (Osmia cornifrons), which falls into the classification of mason bee (genus Osmia), can visit 15 flowers a minute, pollinating as many as 2,450 apples a day. It's a solitary bee commonly used for commercial apple pollination in Japan and is at least 50 times more effective than the honey bee when it comes to pollinating apples (as well as most other tree fruits.) "

After a long day at work and a long drive to NY state I came home and went to look in the tubes to see a bee face looking out at me...but this time, there was no bee, but a seal of pollen/mud? I guess this is it until October? More bees are coming around looking for holes and I am in the process of making a home for them with Japanese knotweed (a noxious weed in the area that is full of hollow tubes just the right size for these little pollinating delights)

2010-04-09T21:39:00.002-04:00

Ode to a Blade of Grass in April

-Gunther Hauk

New and new, and ever new

On dry souls like freshening dew

You glisten and shine

With emerald green

Bold blade reaching for the blue

Drinking light and

Fettering fleeting sylphs

Into bondage of substance.

You, trodden 'neath harsh cleats on fields of play,

Unappreciated when growth is abundant

And mower-charges soar high,

When pollen fills field - and watery eyes;

You, who quicken the heart's beat

When dandelions wink with golden eyes

At resentful suburbanites.

Yes, you! Image of life

Resurrected from dead of winter,

You feed beasts with bloating udder

So fat milk flows,

Feeding us all.

You bowed your head

Under the graceful, etheric step

Of the Great Gardener.

You emerald banner of life,

Let me tread lovingly on you

Who vowed to green with us,

Year after year -

Till the end of days.

"I spend all of my time shopping for food"

2010-03-16T20:39:00.006-04:00

A brief commentary on this quote I hear way too often:

Yes, we spend our time going from one store to another to get the best deal and the right product. TJs has the best deals but they don't have organic. WF has organic but jeese they are expensive. HS is great with local foods, but they are often out of what I need. What is a lady to do? Shop around is what we tend to do...

But if you spend A LOT of your time driving from store to store to get food (which, in my humble opinion sucks for you and for your loved ones {who don't get to see you because you are driving around} and the planet {driving around...buying crap from all over...}, maybe you should consider a garden this year!

Makes sense right? Instead of miserably driving around with the rest of the rat racers...pull out a shovel and some seeds and plant your dinners for the summer. Now is the time. Get moving!

If you want to stop feeding the pockets of cooperate greed, this is the soul (intended) solution.

Blessings to your wet spring and fruitful summer!

For those of you who want to keep bees

2010-03-02T20:31:00.001-05:00

and are afraid of your neighbors :)

What is the definition of a farmer?

2010-01-11T17:21:00.009-05:00

pic from civileats.com

How about we just redefine the word farmer?

I for one am tired of calling a middle aged business man a farmer. A guy who buys produce from the produce auction in Vineland NJ and slaps his name over it isn't the guy who farmed the food. The same guy who manages a bunch of seasonal migrant workers to do the labor while he does the pricing and marketing is not a farmer either. According to the dictionary on my computer, a farmer is a person who owns or manages a farm.

I want to know how owning 30 acres in one of the wealthiest counties in NJ makes you a farmer? It doesn't. And the notion of what a farmer is has got to be changed if we are to see food growing in our county. Most of us know that agribusiness has been a big contributor to the environmental destruction on this continent, but we do not consider the notion of small monoculture being a detrimental thing. Why blueberries and cranberries are wonderful economic boosts for our department of agriculture here in the garden state! Why question that?

Farming on a small scale with diverse crops is a fading art that is wanting to be brought back to life by the youth that is waking up from the sleep of the past couple generations. Greenhorns abound but here in Northern New Jersey they are often pushed out by the politics of the day. Mainly the business men who have been around much longer and the market managers who aren't quite educated about the politics of food or what a farmer is.

What if the definition of a farmer was anyone who grows food? "Then every housewife gardener would be at the farmer's market selling her bumper crop, how ridiculous is that?" Comments one well established poultry farmer who has just entered the business of market garden management. Yes, and if everybody was at the market competing prices would go down, friends would be made, and community gatherings would ensue. Maybe people would agree to get together and take that bumper crop of tomatoes and make a bunch of sauce and give it to the local food pantry instead of just throwing it on the compost heap at the end of the day.

Maybe if we broadened our view of what farming was we wouldn't be so attached to neat rows of the same crop that require fertilizers and pesticides. Maybe the notion of bigger is better is wrong and maybe a small dose of diversity is the medicine of the day. Maybe? Maybe not?

What do you think?

Next, we redefine farm...

baseball field turned into organic farm

Corners don't feel good

2009-12-18T22:26:00.003-05:00

I round the corner,

walking quietly, trying to avoid the old man who always makes some lewd comment after explaining to me that he needs a woman, a housekeeper.

The bulldozer acts as a gateway and as I walk past in and into the walled in garden numerous small songbirds flit out of the beds and onto the concrete walls. I feel a blessing. I feel that yes, I have actually done something here. There must be a dozen of these birds, looking down on me, singing sweet songs on a frigid day in December. I wonder what they were eating, maybe they were picking through the hundreds of tomatillo fruits left on the ground to rot because I couldn't find the creativity to do anything with them in September. I so deeply adore how nature feasts on my laziness.

I walk past the garden and towards the bee boxes.

Silent and Still

18 degrees fahrenheit with a threat of a blizzard coming from the south.

I push my hat up to expose my ear and press it agains the cold white box.

a soft buzzzzzzz

I listen to each of the 4 sides figuring out where the cluster of bees is...mostly on the north side nearing the upper middle of the boxes. A trances states waves over me. These bees! What ARE they doing in there? I hear a girl drop to the hard screen at the bottom of the hive. It is cold, so cold. Another bee drops. A certain clang at the bottom of the hive shatters any comfort I may have felt at the soft buzz of them surviving thus far. Fear strikes me again. What is it about them, I feel such awe, love, and fear around them...Just a bunch of bugs, what power they possess!

I feel myself, I feel them. I caress the hive, it is so cold. The corners so hard. The corners. They just don't seem right. "The bees will figure it out" I often hear myself and others saying. Live and let live. I will do my best to not impose my will on them, to not anthropomorphize and to really listen and behave in a way of integrity for the bug communities.

Top bar hives seem like the next logical step for me. Oh! The thought of a table saw and lumber and angles and measuring is pretty daunting. But it does seem like the next best move, get rid of the corners. Corners don't feel good.

What I have been up to

2009-11-08T21:10:00.006-05:00

We were at Fosterfields Living Historic Park. It was a 1920-1930's harvest festival. I was there with Brant selling our locally grown and crafted foods. Ted Blew's Jersey fresh popcorn brought the people over to us, Beth's farmhouse jams brought the bees. Not sure what brought Bob to the table, but there he was talking my ear off for a good half hour or more about his land in Lincoln Park. I listened and probed and finally inquired. "I am looking for land to grown on, do you have any room for me?" "Is 5 1/4 fenced in acres enough room for you kid? If not, we have lumber and post hole diggers and many more acres for you to work on."

And there you have it. A dream becoming a reality. I was determined to grow on land in Morris county. 7 miles from my home just makes it that much more ideal. That I will be working with a 79 year old, free spirited, wise, down to earth, loving man makes the icing on the cake and brings tears of gratitude to my eyes.

Black soil that is pretty much clay is the base here. This land has been worked organically for decades. The energy is sweet as are the people who stop by to say hello when I am out in the field working at untangling the mass of artemesia roots that have taken hold over the past year or more. These beds have been fallow and the land is singing with life! I am hard at work on beautiful days like today and give such gratitude for the opportunities!

Yes I can

2009-10-29T10:44:00.005-04:00

I remember when I was teaching my now 15 year old niece to climb trees. It was late spring in the budding forest and we were crossing a thick patch of mud. The only way to get across without getting dirty was in the trees. So we went up. I saw the fear in her eyes as I encouraged her to go to the next tree. "I can't" she whined.

It was in that moment when I realize 'can't' is the only thing that could make her fall. 'Can't' was the only thing that got in the way of her making that confident swing from one tree to the next. I knew she could, but it was in the face of her knowing that she could not. I explained to her that when one takes risks such as climbing trees one has to believe in themselves otherwise gravity will win. When you reach your small hand over to grab that branch and you do it with trepidation, you will have a weak grasp and may lose it. You have to grab the branch and swing your foot over with confidence, trusting that it will land where you want it to and the next tree will hold you just as this tree has. If you second guess any of that, in the mud you will go. I showed her how I do it and encouraged her to follow. She made the leap and we made it home tracking little mud behind and a new word in our conversation. Can.

But 10 years later and I find myself forgetting that word. The bees have mites, they are being robbed and any attempt of feeding them seems to be causing more harm than good, the hive is not tight, the bees, pollen and nectar are in too many different areas. I go in to help them with treatments for mites and they sting like a colony of killer bees. I can't. I just can't do this. Beekeeping isn't meant for me. I am a woman...too sensitive, too weak. I think too much, I don't do enough, I anthropomorphize, I just cannot do this!

There is a rush that happens when I crack the propolis seal on the inner cover over the hive. The ladies come up and greet me. Sometimes calmly, often with a bit of 'what the hell?!' My hands shake and my body trembles. My heart beats in my head. I feel my insides being exposed as I expose hers. "Am I doing this right? Am I hurting them? Am I smart enough, good enough, sure enough?" They smell fear. They smell doubt. They insist with their piercing poisoned stings that I am not. "Go Away!" they insist.

And so I do. The belief of 'I can't' has permeated this hive. In beekeeping one has to make split second decisions and be confident in them. Like climbing trees or rocks. Angry bees are the gravity of the situation ready to take you down and swell you up if you do not move with stealth and care.

Consciousness of my body and their body, care for each movement and each split second decision is of utmost importance when working a hive. Last week I had to go into the hive and tighten it up. I took a lot of deep breaths and listened to their responses to my attitude. When They got worked up ('what the hell are you doing moving my home around?!') I breathed deeply and moved within the resistance. They were very calm when the hive was put back together minus one box. Love and vulnerability made the work possible. Can is a word that is being remembered again as I work with these amazing bugs!

Farmland

2009-10-24T13:05:00.012-04:00

Revealing the beds to see what lies beneath

Will turn the soil (meh) and top them up with old compost that has been waiting for me for a couple years. Then probably build some more beds. It is a flood plane here (the passaic river) and very much clay soil, so I want to avoid drowning root systems.

Apparently it is black gold!

Artemisia is the weed of the land here. weeding mugwort is a delicious intoxicating day!

2009-10-13T21:26:00.006-04:00

The unexpected always arrives.

"HEY! I didn't expect you!"

We have been doing things a certain way for so long that we have just come to assume that this is the only way to accomplish anything.

No other way

No other choice.

Possibly building on false

presumptions

false presumptions sometimes crumble away slowly and

sometimes collapse quickly

Let's take grade school presumption #1 for example

One plus one

One plus one is based on the premise that everything is separate and will stay that way. But take a drop of water for instance (of which the earth is 70%).

One drop of water plus one drop of water equals?....

...yes, that's right! ONE drop of water!

One drop of water turns into an ocean.

We presume we know things

We want to feel (or be) in control

I went into an active beehive 25 feet off the ground in a centurion kentucky coffee tree the other day. I pulled out a ladder, secured it in place and climbed up to take a peek. Hundreds of honeybees flying in and out looking for food. The lovely ladies were coming in with bright and pale yellow pollen loaded in their pollen baskets to feed the babies. The hole, their entrance was big though. I could fit both my hands in there. Would they survive the cold of winter. My mind says no way, they are too exposed. They have a really sweet little home. Winter is the time of dying. I hope they prove me wrong and make it through. I hope they can figure it out. A way to keep warm and survive.

The land of plenty in morris county!!!

2009-09-23T21:02:00.003-04:00

I have finally found a piece of land in morris county that suits my needs plus some! Like today, I harvested over 50 lbs of beans!!! Planted them in Boonton and harvested them in Lincoln Park! YES!!!

Mabon blessings!!!

Anise hyssop in the factory lot garden in boonton

2009-09-23T20:46:00.002-04:00

An Update on The Factory Lot Garden

2009-09-23T20:38:00.003-04:00

one of faith's girls
a nectary delight

over the garage

You GOTTA check out this honeybee song!

2009-09-23T11:27:00.003-04:00

The honeybee fly around song

Anthropomorphizing

2009-08-26T23:25:00.004-04:00

This marks my third summer working with the bees. I was thinking that 3 years sounds like a long time but it is nothing in helping me understand such a great mystery as the honeybee and the hive. Among beekeepers it is said that in order to be considered a beekeeper you need 5 years under your belt. Most people make it 3 at most. I understand why.

Last year, true to personal form, I thought I understood beekeeping pretty well. I worked with and studied under some great teachers and movers and shakers in the bee world. I went into a lot of hives and saw a lot of different bee realities. I knew what was going on most of the time and felt pretty comfortable in my work. That was until the cords were cut and I was out on my own. On my own and often too proud to ask for guidance…

Fear.

Fear is the biggest hurdle in this work. It is not the fear of being stung that gets me. It is more the fear of upsetting a volatile being. It is the fear of hurting someone who cannot afford any more hurt. It is the fear of my own power to foster life and manifest death. With thousands of stinging insects buzzing in my ears all of these fears come rushing to the surface, forcing my heart to beat faster and harder, causing my entire body to quiver uncontrollably as if I had just downed a gallon of coffee.

Fear.

With all of this fear I would forget to breathe.

Without breath it is likely I will make a fatal mistake. And I have.

Thousands of bees can live or die at my hand. That is a huge responsibility for someone who shies away from such things. One wrong move and the whole thing could end. One thoughtless manipulation and the bees could have a few weeks of recovery from my lack of forethought, or thought of their needs over my own.

This is beekeeping. This is learning.

Add to all of this disease and mites and my sleep is lost at night. I see why folks quit after 3 years. The pain of losing hives, of seeing your sweet little ladies inundated with those little blood sucking parasites. To see her little legs trying futilely to remove the mite that is so perfectly positioned so that the bee cannot get her off. To see the babes with shriveled wings and shrunken bodies is heartbreaking. Small hive beetle, wax moths, wasps, mice, ants, you name it…we are all after what the bees got. How about witnessing a brutal war between a weak hive and a strong hive. The strong hive will come and destroy the weak hive and steal all of it’s honey. Peaceful my ass!

When times are good, times are good. Nectar is flowing, brood is being born, the hive grows, the honey is stored. Everyone is happy and full of love and light. But when the slim times come. Well, you know. It’s ugly.

Mainly though, what I am doing is projecting my inner process onto the bees. I imagine this is much of the medicine that they offer up to us; and have offered up to us for thousands of years. They are healers and I a humble servant. My fear is for all sacred mysteries and I pray that we will make it through these challenging times together. I pray that in 2 years I will have a big beekeeping initiation. We will all do a waggle dance together to celebrate the harvest of health and prosperity as well as human submission to the divine wisdom of nature.

Is anyone reading this? Is blogging as inane as I believe it to be?

Finding Beauty in a Broken World

2009-07-23T21:22:00.030-04:00

This place is more a prayer than a garden

A piece of the planet so long abused for the sake of human progress

Sparkplugs are more common than worms in the earth here. If you can call it earth. This conglomeration of dirt and concrete and car parts and plastic pieces and broken glass. This pit where dirty automobile oil has been sopped up and vitality of life has long been forgotten. This place is where I want to build a garden.

So to the old abandoned factory lot I bring in compost and discarded tree parts to hold the soil in place. I bring in seeds and a hose.

I plant a prayer

Terry Tempest Williams entitled her latest book “Finding Beauty in a Broken World”. And this is exactly what I have set out to do here.

This place is lifeless and I want to bring life back to this point on the planet. I want to heal what is broken.

Inside and out

I put a blue plastic tarp in the back of my chevy astro van, buy a cheap shovel from the neighborhood hardware store and get to work filling up my van with composted suburban lawn debris. Day after day, load after heavy load I go back and forth from the recycling center in Morristown to the factory lot in Boonton until I just can’t shovel anymore. Until the dirt is so far lodged in the van door that it won’t shut. Until the compost pile has become a big mass of muck. Until I got a phone call from my mother asking that I take her to the hospital. Her blood pressure is 80/50 and the visiting nurse was insistent that she go to the emergency room.

Big black leather boots

Big black rubber treads on big black leather boots

Mud

Glossy waxed white sterile hospital floor

Antiseptic antibiotic hygienic controlled environment

Mud ripped clothes rustled hair wild microorganisms

Finding Beauty in a Broken World

I planted seeds

Water fell from the sky

Death and disease lingered around the edges of my world

The seeds sprouted. Life bursting forth from the mysteries of the dark earth. A salad was eaten of spicy arugula, freckled lettuce, dark green spinach, mustard greens, and red russian kale. All it takes is some nurturance of micronutrients, water and sun. Vibrant green life entered me, invigorated me, brought love and gratitude to my heart and nourishment to my body

30 year old woman, cardiac arrest, maybe it was the alcohol mixed with the anti-depressants, maybe it was the years of bulimia, maybe it was just a mistake, but the fact remained that a loved one was dead.

Groundhogs devour the garden. All life that had sprouted was gone. Depressed and determined I erected a fence.

Seeds planted

Peas, beans and greens sprouted

Rain rain rain rain rain rain rain rain rain

Rain rain rain

No light, no sun, no growth

Critters comes and eat it all (again)

Then one day the sun came out. I watched after weeks of rain how 2 days of sun can create such a burst of life. I build trellis’ for the peas.

Erect a bigger fence

More seeds planted

More time in the hospital with mom

Another young loved one dies in a car accident

Uncle dies of sudden heart attack

Critters eat whatever grows (again)

Another fence around the fence. Tomatoes and herbs that were started indoors go out.

I have planted something here

And it wasn’t what I thought it was

Grubs, wire worms, ground hogs, wasps, ants, dragonflies, robins, beetles, crows, flies, rabbit, cat, bees

The food on this ground would have been toxic to me anyhow.

I am growing hope

For life

Life carries on

In this lot of death and toxicity, these critters come and thrive now. In those quiet moments of hopeless despair, I know that I have provided refuge for fellow beings on the planet. When their world looks like it is being gobbled up they found a place to settle in where they are not threatened (when I am in the right frame of mind of course). These are the underdogs, the ones that humans are all too eager to label as pests and exterminate.

A big fat groundhog waddled in front of my moving car yesterday. I had the opportunity to press my right foot to the skinny gas pedal and put an end to that gluttonous marmot; put an end to the devouring of gardens and hope; put an end to all the disappointments and pain of loss. But it was in that moment of choice between braking or accelerating that I realized that the fate of this place depends on my relationship to it. That the only way to really find beauty in a broken world is to see clearly what is before me and not to be governed by selfish desires. We are one being on this planet with many parts and my fate is dependant on the land on which I live. So I nurture what needs to be nurtured and clearly it is my heart and the marmot's belly.

My prayer continues to grow…

Solanaceae

2009-07-18T20:05:00.004-04:00

I wrote this in 1998 and just came across it. Anyone who has grown tomatoes for a living might relate?

i brush up against her

she turns me green

the longer i caress her the greener i get

slowly turning brown

i look at her fruit

her shiny red curves

her flesh is so quenching to my thirsting lips

my body quivers as i swallow

i forage for her plump body

through the forest of poison leaves

How can her body be so deadly and her fruit be so sweet?

The Garden State

2009-07-13T12:13:00.003-04:00

As I was walking down the rain drenched streets of Vancouver with a virtual stranger this evening, he asked me where I was from. I told him, with a bit of reluctance, New Jersey

New Jersey, everyone has got the wrong idea about the place. I mean, shoot, I’m thankful for The Sapranos, The Garden State movie AND soundtrack, and the new founded ‘cool’ in blue-collar heroes like Bruce Springsteen, but really, we are so much more than that!

New Jersey, you know the place… “the girls with big hair”, “the land of shopping malls and greasers”, “the armpit of America”. Too many people have the wrong idea. Tonight, as I walked through this quiet rainy Canadian city, this man informed me that “New Jersey is one big suburb”. His comment was made from his observation from the interstate. His observation as he drove through the state was one made of ignorance, one made by someone on his way to somewhere else. He didn’t know the Jersey that I knew.

As people drive through the ‘garden state’ like addicts on their way to their next fix they don’t see all that I know of this beautiful land. I would bet my last Atlantic City dollar that they never put a spade in the earth and witnessed just how deep and rich this garden state soil is. I would bet that same dollar (now that it is two) that they have never planted a heritage tomato seed brought to NJ by the struggling Italian great grandparents of the now flourishing mobsters. Have they watched the massive green fruit grow darker and deeper in its hues of red to match their European skin, as the days grow even hotter and brighter in the July Jersey sun? Have they even tasted a Jersey tomato? Maybe. But one of mine? Doubt it! The soft, sweet, ruby flesh dripping onto the cutting board after a sharp stainless steel knife slices through it. Ya wouldn’t fuhgetaboutit.

Have these people who have ‘been through jersey” driven the back roads? Where for miles all you see is old deciduous forests accented with meandering rivers and train-tracks and then, out of no where you are in a beautiful old town that has sat among these hills for hundreds of years. Not only do the buildings speak of their age, but also one visit to the cemetery and the crumbling gravestones give you the sense of the antiquity of this state.

I imagine the same ignorant people who talk trash about Jersey are the ones who have moved there with their multi-billion dollar pharmaceutical companies and chemical plants. These are the same people who stand to make a profit off of people agreeing that Jersey IS a dump. Because if you think it ain’t worth anything then why would you defend it? It is not the people and the land that stink, it is the corporate pollution.

It really wasn’t coined ‘the garden state’ for nothin’ and I just really want them to know that.

Nature

2009-07-13T11:31:00.001-04:00

Nature

When we talk of nature, we often exclude humans, ourselves. We speak of the innate knowing in nature. How amazing it is that nature knows how to do whatever it is she does. How the bees know how to create hexagons and honey and wax and queens. How the earth grows bramble to protect and cleanse the land. How salmon know how and where and when to go every fall to spawn. It is common to find someone standing in awe at the mystery of how the geese know how to fly in that pattern and which direction south is or how the killer whales know where to hang out every year to eat on their migratory journey south.

The human entity is just as miraculous as the rest of nature. The designs and intricacies of timing and function are astounding when observed. We take so much of human nature for granted and scoff at the destruction our societies have created. I have heard it said that it is easier to see what is outside of ourselves, but if we take some time to look inside, we might be in awe of what lies in our bodies, hearts and souls and learn to love human nature a bit more. When is the last time you heard anyone talking about how miraculous it was that for about 1/3 of our lives we are in hibernation? Our bodies just shut down shop and say good night when the sun goes down. Or what of the mystery of women shedding blood and tissue every 28 days in accordance to the moon? I stand in awe at our relationship to the sun and the ocean and the mysteries that conduct much of our behaviors.

But what of these relationships between humans and the rest of nature? If we gave ourselves as much forgiveness as we gave the rest of nature and viewed our place on this planet as essential, then maybe healing could take place. It is my belief that until we do that; until we recognize that we are an integral part of nature, we will not survive these trying times.

We look at the bees and see their eminent demise.

According to many, past and present, it is due to the industrialization of their life cycle.

Industrialization of life cycles is happening to all life on the planet, if we are to look at it in a broader sense. Humans included. Our natural inclinations are being suppressed and superseded as well as all other creatures on the planet. This has a dreadful effect on us, just as it does on the bees, on the salmon, on the whales, the birds, bats, cows, frogs, on the ecosystem in general. Sleep disorders, anxiety, heart disease, ADD, menstrual discomforts are just a few effects of industrialization on humans that pop into my mind as I write this.

As humans, we tend to take the blame for all the worlds woes (I do anyway, but I can also blame that on being raised Roman Catholic). We blame human nature for all the destruction in the world. I want to encourage a shift of thinking though. A way to recognize our wondrous and mysterious link in the sacred web of life. A way to honor ourselves and listen to our natural inclinations as opposed to following what is expected of us or demanded of us by the industrialized thinkers. Life is dynamic and with consciousness and care we are all welcome to walk into that mystery.

Looking inside can be difficult, as there is often pain lying there within the truth of our souls. In finding those imprisoned wild places within us we will be able to relate to the natural world with more clarity. It is in the relating and listening that we will know what we need to do to shift the course that we are on.

As Seen in Edible New Jersey

2009-07-12T22:12:00.002-04:00

saving grace

The honeybee has a new hero. You.

by tammy toad ryan

For thousands of years, honeybees have been an important part of human lives. From magical rites in ancient Egypt to pollen on shelves in health food stores, bees have offered us a connection to the natural world that inspires a certain humility coupled with a notion of healing powers. So it’s no surprise that, when news came around a few years ago that our little ally was sick and dying, a rallying cry was heard across the continent: What is going on? What can we do?

It used to be that this Garden State was full of gardens and farms. Generally, each of these farms housed a few hives containing bees that would forage on the land, which held a diversity of plant species. The farm’s trees, weeds, shrubs and flowering plants offered nectar that the bees would use to make honey, and the pollen was used as a protein source to feed their young. In the bees’ quest for food, they moved pollen from one flower to the next, ensuring pollination and reproduction. With the help of these pollinators, the land provided abundant crops.

Monoculture, a system of farming that uses vast tracts of land to grow a single crop, changed this arrangement. With monculture, chemicals are often used excessively to eradicate weeds. Without diversity of flowers, the bees are not able to survive. On land with only one species of flower in bloom for a short period of time, bees must move on. And, since pollination is vital to the production of the food that we eat, farmers who practice monoculture must import bees at certain times. So beekeepers haul thousands of hives around on flatbed trailers every three weeks or so depending on how long the bloom is on the specific crop that needs pollinating. In some cases, bees are moved from state to state to pollinate.

“Bees pollinate 60 percent of the food that we eat,” says Jake Matthenius, former New Jersey State bee inspector. “From clover and alfalfa for animals to cranberries and blueberries, they help produce food.” After 42 years as state bee inspector and 65 years of beekeeping, Matthenius should know. Bees are said to be the backbone of
agriculture. Without them life on the planet as we know it would end. Melons, squashes, blueberries, apples, nuts, alfalfa, clover, cocoa, vanilla, mango, plums, apricots, cherries, avocado, canola, broccoli, cabbage, cucumbers, cotton, carrots, coffee and kiwi are just some of the crops that would not survive without the efforts of pollinators.

So how are the bees doing? “When I left the Department of Agriculture [in 1990] there were 40,000 hives in New Jersey; now there are 10,000,” says Matthenius. “You tell me how they are doing.”

Jean-Claude Tassot of Tassot Apiaries in Milford has been keeping bees most of his life. Six years ago he and his family decided to make a business of it. Over the years, Tassot has seen many changes in beekeeping. “It was more natural before; it is worse now because of chemicals. The bees are not healthy. If they were, there wouldn’t be problems like CCD [colony collapse disorder, the most recent assault on the weakened colonies]. They are not healthy because of chemicals.” Tassot disapproves of the use of insect-control products like Bayer Advanced, which is given to plants in food, water, or soil. The insecticide is actually taken into the plant. Rain and water cannot wash it off. Insects are killed when they come into contact with the product or when they attempt to eat the plant. “We need to ban the way we use chemicals now. We have
to realize this is not good for the bee and it isn’t good for humans.” Tassot’s hives are faring better than many. He uses essential oils, rather than chemical or acids, to treat his bees for the varroa mite, a honeybee parasite that can cause serious damage to a colony. Like many beekeepers, Tassot would like to see more farms and lawns “go organic.”

Organic beekeeping is something that Earl Rowe, of Douglas Farm and Apiary in Gladstone, is very familiar with. Like Tassot, he too has been beekeeping much of his life. Rowe is a hobbyist and has about 25 healthy hives that he cares for organically. He believes that there are “too many toxic chemicals given to bees to make them ‘better.’
They are little creatures and they are really stressed out. When human beings overwork themselves, they get sick. It is the same with bees.” Earl and his son Brian teach a bee club for children at the Somerset County 4-H. They also do outreach at schools and clubs, showing people the gentleness of the bee as well as the magic of the hive. Through teaching about the bees, they encourage children and adults alike to be more intimate with their environment.

From a bee’s point of view, the environment is the surrounding area that provides food. The bees will travel up to three miles from their hive to collect nectar and make it into honey, which they store for later use. According to Tim Schuler, current New Jersey State bee inspector, “the biggest threat to honeybees is the lack of forage because of changes in land use and pesticides in our environment. The image of the perfect lawn needs to go.”

Earl Rowe agrees. If we are to help the honeybees we must be “willing to accept dandelion, daffodils and a bit of wild.” He suggests “throwing down a bit of wildflower seeds to provide nectar for bees. Each flower has different flowering times.” When a person keeps the bees in mind the whole of nature opens up to them. Flowers are no longer just pretty borders to the highway or pesky weeds, they are viewed as a source of food for our much-needed state insect.

Along with serving as the state apiarist, Tim Schuler is also the coinstructor of the beekeeping courses offered through Rutgers New Jersey Agricultural Experiment Station. Their course for novices, Bee-ginner’s Beekeeping, covers the basics of beekeeping such as bee biology, hive management and how to put a hive together. They also
offer a beyond-the-basics class for more experienced apiculturists. This class covers Integrated Pest Management (IPM) for honeybees, methods and equipment for moving and feeding bees, honey removal methods and small-scale queen and “nuc” production (a “nuc” is a small start-up nucleus colony of bees, brood [babies] and honey).
According to Schuler, “Of the 1,000 registered beekeepers in New Jersey, the vast majority has one or two hives in their backyard.” He believes wholeheartedly in IPM. “Some measure needs to be done [to treat for the varroa mite],” he says. “Use nonchemical means as much as possible but if that doesn’t work use harder chemicals.” It is better
to have a hive that is alive with chemicals in it than a dead hive.

The growing public awareness of bees and their mysterious disappearances with colony collapse disorder has generated a new momentum in beekeeping. A few short years ago, the average beekeeper was 60 years old and male. That is changing as more people are catching the backyard buzz. Along with the 4-H program and the Rutgers
classes, there are programs in southern New York State that promote organic and biodynamic beekeeping, emphasizing the importance of respecting the entirety of the web of life. Chris Harp of Honeybee Lives teaches regularly at his New Paltz Apiary and he also conducts classes with Ross Conrad, author of Natural Beekeeping: Organic Approaches to Modern Apiculture, at the Pfeiffer Center in Chestnut Ridge, New York. Harp and Conrad have established a following of
new beekeepers who are interested in the bees and helping the planet.

Stephanie Smith is one of the new breed of beekeepers. She keeps bees the old-fashioned way in a Kenyan top-bar hive. Top-bar hives allow bees to make their own comb in the shape that they would in nature. It is about trusting the instinct of the hive instead of forcing the bees into rectangular boxes with cells designed to get more honey
out of the bees. Smith started keeping bees in Frenchtown last year after taking courses at the Pfeiffer Center. “It is such an amazing experience, to witness such a cohesive social system. Their way of living provides for us a model of cooperation.” Beekeeping for her isn’t simply about honey or pollination, as it has been to many beekeepers in the past; to her and to many new beekeepers, it is about stewardship. “We need to shift our perspective of small creatures and start seeing them as partners, not our enemy.”

After starting to keep bees last year under the tutelage of a friend, Shaun Ananko, 26, is an inspired new beekeeper. This year will be his first with his own hive. When I asked him what motivated him and what the bees have to offer, he didn’t give the typical answer of pollination or honey. He said, “They have lessons to offer us, love and
inspiration. The bees help me find my place in the world and understand my purpose of giving back what I take and not harming the environment. They work together as one organism.” For someone who is just forming his relationship with the bees, he has a strong view as to the lessons we have learned from the bees’ ordeal with colony collapse disorder and mites over the past 20 years. The bees have offered us a way to find our connection with our environment, to take care of the small as well as the great. “Through commercial beekeeping we have put stress on the bees and it is our responsibility to bring the bee population back to its natural order,” Ananko says.

Indeed, it is our responsibility to foster these relationships with the natural world around us. For us to really help the bees and to change the course that we are on, we must be more conscious of the chemicals we use and the impacts we have on the whole of the environment. Everything is connected and what hurts one being will have a
ripple effect throughout the ecosystem. Planting flowers to feed our pollinators will help offset some of the environmental degradation that has occurred in the past century. Let us remember what our ancestors knew thousands of years ago. The bees are our messengers and our symbol of the deep interconnection of all that exists. We
must sit still and pay attention so that their message can be heard.

HERE’S WHAT YOU CAN DO:

Become a beekeeper. Even keeping one hive makes a difference, and you don’t need an expansive farm or field to be a beekeeper. Hives can be set up in a small backyard or even on a building rooftop.To take a course, or to simply learn more, visit one of these websites:

HoneyBee Lives with Chris Harp, Beekeeper/Bee Doctor honeybeelives.org
Dancing Bee Gardens: Caring for Bees Organically dancingbeegardens.com
Pfeiffer Center. pfieffercenter.org
Rutgers University’s New Jersey Agricultural Experiment Center. Information on their many courses, including their Bee-ginner’s Beekeeping workshops, is available.cpe.rutgers.edu .

Get involved. The New Jersey Beekeepers Association offers a variety of events, products and promotions designed to increase the public’s understanding and appreciation of bees. Join your local branch. njbeekeepers.org

Get the kids involved. The 4-H Beekeeping Club of Bridgewater allows kids to start keeping bees at the age of nine. Their website offers a variety of kid-friendly information for teachers as well as participants. freewebs.com/4hbeekeeping

Create a bee-friendly landscape. Instead of focusing solely on evergreens, choose shrubs and trees that bloom, such as maple, blackberry and hollyberry, along with perennial flowers. And don’t forget: clover, thistle, dandelions and milkweed are bee-favorite sources of nectar.

What is going on with the bees?

2008-10-07T19:46:00.003-04:00

“What is going on with the bees?”

“How are the honeybees doing?”

These are a couple of the questions that I frequently get asked when I let people know that I am a bee keeper. The answer changes constantly depending on the mood I am in, but as with all answers that come from my lips, the onus comes down to me and it comes down to you.

By now we have all read at least one news report on the bees. Chances are that everyone has a slight understanding of the life of a hive and how the little ladies are mysteriously disappearing. We have been hearing new reports for years about pathogens being spread on the farms. From e.coli in the spinach to avian flu in the chickens. Buffalos butchered for fear of mad cow disease, whole flocks of chickens being murdered for fear of avian flu. Industrialized farming is in a grisly time. When the only answer to a problem is to kill or clone, it seems to me, we have reached the conclusion. The bees are a species that we cannot live without and now we are growing more aware of the intricacies of the web of life. Industrialized farming has no way of humbling itself to its defeat.

Industry

When man started creating from a mechanical point of view it was much to the relief of many of our forefathers and mothers. Life was a bit more predictable and they were a bit farther away from the chaos of the natural world. Shearing a sheep, carding the wool, spinning the hairs and knitting your blanket sure takes a lot of effort that can be much more easily dealt with by a machine. So many tasks are happily given over to the predictability and ease of a machine.

But when we started to view life as a machine is when it started to go downhill. How many times have I heard someone refer to my body like a car, or my brain like a computer? Life is dynamic, it flows and has many variations that escape human understanding and logic. Life does not come in 90 degree angles nor should we expect it to. But we have been taught as such and continue down that road to collapse.

Colony collapse disorder

Right, the bees, that is what I was here to write about wasn’t it?

And so what can we, you or I, do?

Recognize that industry is feeding you.

You are relying on a very fragile food system that is quickly collapsing and getting more violent and invasive every day (yes, the cattle men are starting to talk about cloning cows so that they produce less methane in their poo…then they can market their product as having a smaller carbon footprint!).

If you can’t grow your own food, support someone who can.

Local food may be more expensive in the short term, but you are building a food secure tomorrow by investing in the small strong farmers today.

What is killing the bees is industry and the only way to save the bees as well as ourselves is to step away from the hands that are feeding us and take the power into our own hands. The next decisive steps we are to take will not be easy, but they will be satisfying if made with the intricate, mysterious web of life in mind.

2008-10-06T16:28:00.003-04:00

It seems to me that all year long every periodical I picked up had a troubling story about the state of affairs in regards to our sacred pollinators, the bees. Being an apiarist and lover of the honeybees, I was struck with who was concerned about the problems facing the bees and the constant question of “what can we do?” It is such a big question and one I have pondered every day of my adult life.

My answers are idealist as well as practical. I believe that we must change the state of bee keeping practices. We have to demand for a better way of life for farmers and the things they farm. The bees are an indicator species and what they are indicating is that we are all connected, that there is no separation in the sacred web of life. The fear I see in peoples eyes is alarming and comforting at the same time. It is denial that has gotten us to this point and if the possible loss of our pollinators is our alarm clock then I say come on out and let’s get moving!

There is a quote from Rudolf Steiner regarding artificially rearing of queen bees (a common practice today) “…we’ll have to wait and see how things will look after fifty to eighty years. Certain forces that have operated organically in the beehive until now will become mechanized; will in themselves be mechanically carried out. It won’t be possible to establish the intimate relationship between a queen bee you have purchased and the worker bees the way it would arise all by itself in nature. But at the beginning, the effects of this are not apparent” In 1923 most of the men hearing this lecture could not fathom what he was speaking of. Hindsight is always the clearest, but in the understanding of treating nature as a machine, we as a society find it very difficult to switch out of the economy of efficiency.

Nature does not work like a machine, and in that truth we are beginning to see that in treating it as such we have minimized the integrity and health of life on the planet. We suppress the growth of the Hive and control their natural inclinations. We feed them corn syrup, white sugar and genetically modified soy and move them around 100’s of miles bi weekly. And then we wonder why their immune systems are weak! They are stressed and malnourished. It is pretty simple. A few years ago it was encouraged practice (it may still be) to let your hive die or to kill it every winter as it was more profitable to take their honey ($300-$400) and buy a new artificially reared hive in the spring ($100-$200). This makes sense in the capitalistic mind. Profit is to be made here. We all got to make a buck don’t we? And it falls in line with so many immoral and unsustainable farming practices. It is the state of industrialized farming. Getting as much out of whatever I am farming for the highest profit. It is wrong and it is sending us all to our demise.

So what can you do? View your money as a tool. So many people I know donate money to charitable environmental organizations and then nickel and dime at the Safeway. So much of our environmental degradation comes from our vast acres of farmland. Use your time as a tool. Take the time to shop at the farmers market and feed your family local, organic food. Try to support small local farmers whenever you can. Learn to read labels. You could also plant flowers that attract bees such as fennel, calendula, daisy, Echinacea, dandelion, sunflower, borage, lavender, bee balm. You can encourage native mason bees to your home to help pollinate that trees in your yard. There are also opportunities to have a local bee keeper come to your home and help you set up a honey bee hive and you can raise your own bees or have the bee keeper come and do it for you. If you have any questions or comments feel free to contact me at HYPERLINK "mailto:tammytoad@gmail.com" tammytoad@gmail.com

Tammy Toad Ryan spent the decade of her twenties traveling North America studying an array of farming and healing techniques. She landed in Vancouver via Salt Spring Island over 2 years ago to encourage more agriculture in the city. The honeybees are a fine urban companion for her due to their wild nature and loving spirit.