Saturday Bookmarks

A really good podcast makes my day. Check out Matching Outfits Not Included and the other stories on This American Life.

Watch The Wolfpack, then look at these photos. Discuss.

Let's make earth looms.

As we thought, varroa mites are compromising honeybees.

The Easter Bunny needs a home!

Rodeo Queen Triplets! Can they sing and dance too?

A powerful photo essay on Aboriginal tragedy in Australia.

A high school student in Alberta helps save the bees in Okotoks.

Beekeeping is Multi-Tasking

We've had some crap weather lately and it's made me worry about the bees. Any time the wind calms down and the rain stops they are foraging like crazy, but I don't want them to go hungry. This afternoon as I went to clip some chard in the back yard for dinner I saw the bees were flying about. Even though I was in the middle of preparing supper I quickly mixed up a batch of sugar water and defrosted a pollen patty from the freezer by putting it on top of the warm stove. There I was, stirring the pasta sauce in my beekeeping suit. Oh la la. As soon as the sugar dissolved and the patty was room temperature I opened the hive and fed the ladies in record time. I noticed that they are running out of room, which is a good sign. Tomorrow we'd better get out there and put on more frames.

Kinder is hopping around today. At least I don't have to carry him to the bathroom. He's getting too heavy for that. He was also in a much better mood today. Yesterday he was moaning and whining, declaring "I'll never be able to walk again in my life!" What a drama queen. We'll have to look into getting him some crutches for a couple of days.

I have an Easter hangover. Too much chocolate and wine and then there's the sugar withdrawal too. Sigh. So I made two pans of blondies with white chocolate chips. I made one pan with cashews and the other with hazelnuts. This would be a good recipe to make with young children as it's about as basic as baking gets. It also satisfies my chocolate chip cookie craving when I can't eat migraine-inducing chocolate. I think the chewy hazelnut version, made with the nuts crushed into halves is my favorite.

Gerianiol Does a Body Good

I'm doing a bit of quick research on the plants that attract bees and find that geraniol seems to be an ingredient in the essential oils of many flowers that attract bees. Plants with geraniol (a monoterpenoid and an alcohol) attract bees and bees themselves use geraniol to mark nectar bearing-flowers and the entrances to their hives. Beekeepers used to rub lemon balm on the entrances to their beehives to help the bees find their way home. Ironically, geraniol is also reputed to be very good for humans in that it is anti-oxidant, anti- bacterial and it helps fight tooth decay which is why you'll find it in natural toothpastes containing monarda and/or ginger. Geraniol is also used in natural mosquito and blackfly repellents.

When I look at the list of herbs and spices containing geraniol there's an uncanny relationship to the list of my favorite aromas and flavors. Thai food, which contains lemongrass and ginger is reputed to be fantastic for your health, especially now that coconut oil is on the list of foods that are really good for you. In a raw food cookbook my sister gave me for my birthday called Ani's Raw Food Desserts by Ani Phyo the author uses coconut oil, another ingredient extensively in her recipes and says it even has anti-aging properties.

palmarosa 82%
citronella 23%
geranium: up to 17%
orangeflower: up to 7.6%
verbena 6.6%
artemisia vestita wall.: 6.2%
marjorum: up to 6%
lemongrass oil: 2.59%
Thymus vulgaris: 2.16%
turmeric: 1.13 %
clary sage: 0.3-1%
sage: up to .7%
oregano: 0.6%
rosemary .5%
ginger: 0.3-.6%
manuka: 0.5%
monarda: up to 0.5%
lemon verbena: 0.4 to 0.5%
cardamom: 0.2 to 0.4 %
grape: 0.1-.3%
lavender oil: 0.1 to 0.2%
grapefruit: up to 0.18%
nutmeg: up to .013 %
basil: 0.02%

Arunwatcharin, Supapipat, and Rachtanapun have studied the medicinal effects of geraniol in an essay called Antimicrobial activity of essential oils from Thai herbs against foodborne pathogenics and spoilage microorganisms. The scientists studied the antimicrobial activity of the essential oils in Thai basil, lemon grass, citronella, Kaffir lime, Kaffir lime leaf, black pepper and sweet basil and the phytochemicals boreol and geraniol. They tested these herbs on some nasty bacteria, including salmonella and found "geraniol and lemon grass essential oil had the strongest antimicrobial activity against the tested microorganisms (MICs ranging from 0.04 to 0.08% and from 0.1 to 0.5%, respectively)."

I'm definitely going to try to find more information about geraniol and its beneficial effects on humans and bees. Let me know if any of you run into some more information on this topic. It makes sense that cultures with hot climates would cook food with these herbs and spices high in geraniol to prevent spoilage. I'm all for any good excuse to eat more curry!

Bee on a Hot Tin Roof

Beautiful Milo. Ninety-two and still a charmer.

What makes bees cranky? The Beekeeper has been reading up on the subject like a parent who learns every remedy written to treat a colicky baby. He takes being stung very personally. He's a gentle beekeeper. He's not used to being stung. His bees are gentle. Milo's bees are not. (Although they don't seem to sting Milo.) Seems the worst thing you can do to bee to make them irate is to put their hives in the shade. Houston, we have a problem. The mulberry tree and the hazelnut tree keep the sun off the hives, not to mention they are under a roof.

Guess what makes me cranky? Extremely hot days standing waiting for a bus that does not stop. Arrgh! The bus stops on King Edward keep migrating. By the time I reach the farm I'm already tired of the heat. Anyway, I get a hold of myself and sit in the shade of the cherry trees with Milo. Sometimes we talk. Sometimes we just sit. He calls me The Queen Bee and asks if I'm as sweet as honey. He tells me of the restorative powers of the mead he used to make (up to 2-3 years ago.) When he worked at a local hospital, Milo knew a doctor who called in sick with a "migrating headache." Then the doctor has some of Milo's mead and an hour later he's back at work. I tell him that my grandfather chokecherry wine. My dad says it was awful stuff.

Today we have more frames to scrape and get ready to swap for the honey-laden frames we plan on stealing from the bees today. Several customers stop by and purchase bags of vegetables. We meet a raw foodie who's made about juicing kale. He buys a big swack of the stuff to take home and feed into his industrial juicer. We attempt to swap recipes, but when I tell him I put cream in my mushroom sauce, he looks puzzled. "What kid of cream?"
"Just whipping cream," I say. "You reduce it until it's thick."
"You mean DAIRY" he says, eyes wide open in shock. "I've seen what that stuff does to people."
This comment makes me very cranky indeed. I get a "migrating" headache and Miles mercifully finds me a bottle of Advil and a bottle of Gatorade. Half an hour later, I'm good to go.

Have I mentioned how hot it is? Over thirty degrees. I manage to stay pretty cool until we suit up and start opening the hives. The wild bunch seem a bit tamer this week, and they appear to have a happy hive, with lots of brood. Some of the wax foundation seems to be a bit wobbly and the wires are not flat to the wax, so I wonder if that will prevent the bees from building comb there. Time will tell. The history of the wild bunch is that they were a swarm, so one has to watch their propensity to take off. Meanwhile airplanes seem so close that they could scrape their bellies on the tops of the mulberry tree, and I wonder aloud if that noise doesn't make the bees just a little crazy.

The Beekeeper is determined not to get stung. He has created cardboard armor for his ankles made of granola bar boxes, which he tucks into his socks. Guess what? He still gets one sting on his ankle. Much better than last time, however!




Most of the comb we take comes from one hive which needs more space to make honeycomb. The bees have started building comb on the ceiling of the hive, which I scrape off into a jar. I notice this honey is darker than the earlier honey we harvested--a rich golden color. I fight the urge to take my gloves off and put my finger in and taste it, because the bees are gorging on it. The Beekeeper puts the comb on a horizontal angle which he says the bees don't like. He will come back a few hours later to put the comb into a container when the bees have abandoned the comb. One thing I learned today is that if you weigh the hives every week at this point in the summer and one day the hive gets lighter, it's time to take off some of the comb because the bees figure they have enough honey for the winter.


Before we pack up and head home, Milo's daughter kindly gives me some cauliflower, broccoli and blueberries to take home. The Beekeeper drives me to the bus stop and I sail home, dreaming of a long iced green tea at Shaktea. One hour later my equilibrium is restored, and we dine on fresh blueberries with whipped cream and honey. Yes, real whipping cream. Dairy makes me very happy.