My sister turned me on to the benefits of local honey a few years ago. While living in South Australia I was plagued by year-round allergies, and Chrissy suggested that eating local honey might help. (Tom Ogren articulately explains why this works on pioneerthinking.com) So for a while now I have been putting honey in my morning coffee, and eating a teaspoon or so of honey a day whenever my allergies seem to be flaring up. It is such fun to seek out really local honey wherever you live. When we were in Adelaide, we made fortnightly trips to the amazing Honey Shoppe in the central market, which had about a dozen local, seasonal varieties in huge steel vats. Last year when we were in Oreland, PA, I stumbled across "Oreland Gold Honey" in our local plant nursery. I bought a big jar of it and when it ran out I called the number on the label. Turns out that a super nice lady and her two daughters were keeping bee hives in their backyard less than a mile from where we were living. And all of the money they made from selling the honey was donated to Heifer International. How cool is that? I haven't sorted out our Portland honey source yet, but it is on my to do list!
Anyway, this is all to say that I love honey. And beyond the amazing health benefits and scrumptiousness of honey, it represents something so very important to the world: bees. These amazing little creatures are responsible for the pollination of two thirds of our crop species, so basically every time we eat we should give thanks for bees.
If you haven't heard, bees are in major trouble - and therefore so are we. In 2006 beekeepers all across the states discovered that all of the adult bees in their colonies had vanished. This has been termed "Colony Collapse Disorder," and the cause is still unknown. There are many possible causes being investigated - diminishing habitat, pesticides, parasitic mites. There are many researchers trying to uncover the true cause of CCD, but until then, here are some things we can all do to give the bees a fighting chance:
- Plant flowers preferred by bees. Click here for a list of suggested species.
- Don't use insecticides in your garden! These are indiscriminate poisons which can kill bees.
- Create a nest site in your garden. Click here for a how-to.
- Learn more: here is an amazing PBS show, The Silence of the Bees.
