Pour Some Honey on Me ~ part 1

Pour Some Honey on Me ~ part 2

Part 3 ~ What can YOU do?

“If you want to gather honey, don’t kick over the beehive.” – Abraham Lincoln

So….What can we do?  Can our individual efforts truly pay off for the honey bee and help get them back on track?  What efforts can we concentrate on at this time, when we really don’t yet have an exact diagnosis for this world wide phenomenon of disappearing honey bees?  I vote yes!  We can help, and we can make a concerted effort that will result in a truly positive experience and be of a big benefit to the bee.  If all the previously mentioned contributing factors has chipped away at the overall vitality of the honey bee…what specific things can we do to help push back on the other side of the fulcrum point?  Let’s see what place you come in for the race to save the humble honey bee, and create local,  strong populations of this valuable insect!

Gold Medal Effort! ~ Get a Hive -With hives disappearing at a significant rate in some areas it is important that we keep the population strong by maintaining hives in several locations.  You can get a hive in a couple of different ways.

The first way of course is to outright buy a hive.  If you go this route…you have just taken on a big time obligation.  So do it right!  Take a class, get your bee suit, and pay lots of doting attention to the new little inhabitants of your property.  Like a first born to a family you can give your first hive an overabundance of care and attention…but they will thrive under this type of care and concern.  If you add additional hives later you will learn of the resiliency of bee colonies but you will definitely (like a parent) know what is still important to keep them at the peak of health!

Typical Residential Backyard Hive

The second way to acquire a hive is through a local honey producer.  With our little farmer market garden I have now been approached twice by different producers to see if we would be interested in letting them put some hives on our property.  The pay is fantastic pollination of all your vegetable and fruit crops and 6 lbs of delicious honey per hive per year!  And since they take care of everything else with your bees it is pretty much a bargain.   This will allow you to learn more as and see if you will eventually be ready to make the big jump and start care taking bees yourself.  With my kids now cured of any desire to grab a bee for a closer look I think this is the route I personally will be taking!

Silver Medal Effort! ~ Feed the Bees Needs! – Maybe you are a bit nervous about having a bee hive in your backyard.  Curious kids and dogs can make for a precarious situation!  Or you know your lifestyle isn’t exactly one that will see you in a bee keeper’s suit on the weekends taking care of your beeziness, collecting honey and such!  Ok so that is fairly understandable.  But the next best thing you can do is to make sure if some worker bees show up in your yard that you have some good things for them to take back to the hive with them.  That would include a water source.  As some areas have fairly limited levels of water and bees need this precious resource to keep life processes in order.  I have seen in late August a virtual highway of bees about 12’ up in the air, traveling all together to a single water source (in this case a landscape pond at my uncles residence,  in the arid foothills of the Sierra Mountains).  Obviously the only water source around for miles as this steadily humming line of bees flying back and forth without break, was a complete foreign sight to me.  I had only seen this kind of organized mass movement of insects when it has come to ants…especially leaf cutter ants in Costa Rica to be exact!  Quite wild!  So a water feature is nice but you can certainly get away with having a bird bath or other similar water feature… just remember our little friend will need a good landing spot that they can access the water from.
What else do our little pollinators need?  Well obviously something to pollinate!  Pollinate and to gather pollen & nectar from.  In the best of worlds if you could direct your plantings of offer a food source for our bees for the entire year!  Now of course this can be impossible in areas that freeze and get snow bound.  I’ve yet to see a bee in a snow storm…or even an area with snow on the ground.  They are responsive to heat and when it warmsnn to a certain level they will pop out of the hive and busily get to work seeking out flowers.  In Colorado this may only start in late April…but in the bay area of Northern California those kinds of days can fall right in nnJanuary and February… not all of these days but enough that it is worth having something for the bee to feed on.

Busy Bee Collecting Pollen from Hawthorne Tree

Here is a link to a list of plants that are significant food sources for the honey bee here in my local geographic location ~ http://www.themelissagarden.com/plants.html .   A lot of these plants can be used in different locations nationally.  You can get a list from your local beekeeper, bee club, or producers of local honey if you want to really want to have a comprehensive list of plants to work with.   In about two months after publication of this blog you will be able to use your PlantSmart sensor to filter your recommended plant choices into a new category… ‘Attracts Bees’…yay!  The inside scoop is that there are going to be 732 plants that will tagged as bee attractors….so be on the alert for when we do our next upgrade release.  At that point it will be quite easy to pick your plants for feeding bees…it will be a direct filter for you in the selecting of plants.

Bronze Medal Effort! ~ Buy local honey! Supporting your local honey producers will be huge in keeping up local populations of bees.  The more customers or local honey that is sold the more they will be encouraged to make.  A good honey producer will pamper and take diligent care of his or  her hives and help maintain a local, healthy population of bees.

Honorable Mention Effort! ~ At the very least plant a row of sunflowers!  These long lasting summer bloomers are a treasure trove of pollen, and will look great against any fence line or in your kitchen garden.  Just make sure it’s a pollen produce, like ‘Lemon Queen’… there are many hybrids out there that are now pollenless for use as  non messy cut flowers.

* photo credit to Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 3.0 Unported

So how did you do!?  Or what will you be inspired to do to enhance the future of our best little pollinator?  In all honesty if just some of us did the minimum effort the results would be exponential by the end of the day!  Hope you all are willing to play for a medal!

Quivira Winery – A Study on Biodynamic Farming Part 1

Quivira Winery – A Study on Biodynamic Farming Part 2

So as I couldn’t possibly fit all the photos I wanted in the first two parts of this blog I wanted to share some more shots of the Winery Estate Grounds.  Both the landscaped grounds and the Biodynamic gardens themselves.  So enjoy and hopefully you get a chance to come out and see this winery in action!  Biodynamic Action!!

I just loved this antique 'Barrel' tractor (now planter) to greet us at the entryway of the winery

This Wisteria covered arbor was the perfect transition into the Estate Gardens

The Biodynamic Gardens!

New starts from the Greenhouse ready for planting in the raised beds

Fennel starts in the recycled redwood raised beds

French Fingerling Potatoes just getting started

Fava Beans! Fixing Nitrogen to the soil and oh so tasty when paired with Liver and a nice glass of Chianti!

I love this garden border of fruit trees and strawberries

Young cauliflower head emerging from the foliage

The estate beehive in the middle of all the action!

The Estate Chickens in their luxuriant coop!

Ponds are always a hit with the little ones!

Verbena 'Homestead Purple' showing off its big time color!

Fernleaf Yarrow just starting to reveal its yellow color...what a contrast against the purple of the Verbena

Lamium (Spotted Nettle) just starting to bloom

Phormium 'Sundowner' makes a big statement at the garden entrance

Cordyline 'Sundance' is defintely the focal point of this bed

Quivira Winery – A Study on Biodynamic Farming Part 1

Who is doing what? And how do you get Biodynamic status?

The Biodynamic practices to Quivira’s Estate gardens is overseen by the very capable Andrew Beedy, who’s entire life has been surrounded by biodynamic farming.

Andrew Beedy Farm Manager

Ned Horton Assistant Winegrower

Hugh Chappelle Head Winegrower

From his birth place in rural Pennsylvania on a biodynamic dairy farm to being raised in Kent in the UK on a large estate where he ended up working on an organic farm during his youth.  Beedy has been a life long study of biodynamic practices.  And the results show in the over flowing recycled redwood raised beds of the estate garden…all 120 of them!

In the vineyard the job falls on Ned Horton, who’s official title is ‘Assistant Winegrower’.  I love that!  Instead of the normal title of vineyard manager…this title shows the true nature of how grapes are now viewed in the vineyard.  In this philosophy the wine making process starts as soon as those first green leaves start to push from dormant vines each March, which Ned diligently oversees, as he works closely with ‘Head Winegrower’ (not winemaker!) Hugh Chappelle until the ripe fruits make their way into the winery at harvest.

The Estate Vineyards

So can anyone just call themselves Biodynamic?  Like I, for example, as a market farmer can call myself sustainable, as that is not an official designation… but claiming organic status no matter how green my practices are would land me in hot water as this is a certified title that I have not yet achieved.  So how do you know if a vineyard or farm you are getting your produce or wine from is a Biodynamic facility?  Luckily Biodynamic status is a true certification that is governed by Demeter International Organization (there is a specific US branch).  Participating farms and wineries must display this certification.  Although this certification is probably not going to be applied to your property anytime soon… would you want to apply some of these practices?  What could you be doing in your gardens and landscape that could become a little more Biodynamic?  Imagine getting to the point where your garden is non-dependent on chemicals to do the job that nature is very willing to!
So if you get to wine country anytime soon be sure that you make a concerted effort to head a little north on West Dry Creek Road and see why I made the drive all the way from Napa to take in this special place.

On the Lookout for Tadpoles

The best way to tour these gardens, of course, is with wine in hand from the gorgeous tasting room.  You can taste the biodynamics in effect as the lush, rich Rhone style wines and Zinfandels were as balanced as the ecosystem at the winery, and certainly my favorites on the tasting menu!  So set your calender now and see some of the most beautiful grounds in wine country and learn more about Biodynamics in action!