Sweet Links for Teaching Kids About Bees

A Pictorial Guide to Bees of the Humboldt Bay Dunes by Susan E. Nyoka

Bee Basics: An Introduction to OurNative Bees by Beatriz Moissette and Stephen Buchmann,

USDA Forest Serve and the Pollinator Partnership

Common Bee Groups of California by the UC Berkely Urban Bee Lab

The Social Lives of Bees fromBeespotter

Sam Droege's slide show Native Bee Pollinators for Crops

Pollinators in the Garden: Forging Partnerships for Native Insect Conservation--Black, American 

PublicGardens Associate

Cranberry Recipes

 Okay folks, here's some recipes I'm working on. Let me know what you think!

1 12 oz bag of cranberries

1 large navel orange, peeled, seeded and chopped

1/4 cup raw organic or biodynamic honey

1 tbsp freshly grated ginger

1 tsp freshly grated turmeric

pinch of salt

Pulse in a food processor to desired texture and eat with your favourite curry. No need to pulse it too long--I like to just make sure there's no whole cranberries left. Oranges and honey vary in sweetness, so be sure to adjust the honey to your taste. You can leave out the ginger and turmeric if you want. It's best if you have some raita and green salsa to serve with your curry as well.

If you have leftover sauce, just puree it until it's very fine and then make popsicles for the cold and flu season. You also can freeze some in ice cube trays and then make Shirley Temple smoothies with orange juice and/or hibiscus tea. You could add vodka to make a "Dirty Shirley."

Shirley Temple Smoothie:

1 cranberry chutney ice cube

1/4 cup orange juice

1/4 cup hibiscus tea

1/4 cup coconut water

1/2 cup sparkling mineral water

Put it in a blender and blitz it, or experiment with layering the ingredients.

Dirty Shirley:

1 cranberry chutney ice cube--make it into crushed ice

1/4 cup orange juice

1 shot vodka

1/4 cup hibiscus tea

1/4 cup coconut water

1/4 cup sparkling water

I'm thinking we should make crushed ice out of the cube and then experiment with layering the ingredients.

Le Tigre Changes its Menu and I Almost Cry

We went to the Winter Farmer's Market today and I knew Le Tigre was going to be there, so being an addict, I let myself start jonesing for popcorn chicken and crack salad. I looked at the menu and almost fell over, because it has changed. "Don't worry, it's the same stuff, just a different menu," the guy tells me. Well, I ordered the Crack Salad, which is now officially called Crack Salad and it's even better than before with more veggies in it and kale chips on top. Happy Happy Joy Joy.  The chicken is now called something like That Frikken Chicken which is good, but it comes with a different sauce. Hello? That chicken is all about the spicy mayo. I accept the new sauce, but ask for the mayo, just in case I need it. The new sauce is a sesame oil and citrus sauce which is very nice, but mama needs her mayo and the mayo tastes even better than before, or maybe that's just because I haven't had it for such a long time.

Love ya, Le Tigre. Missing ya, Vij's. Ou es tu?

I am also loving the dried biodynamic cherries from Walter in Cawston. Those babies put all other dried cherries to SHAME.