Week 9: highlights and reflections

A: Natural history/regen ag research

This quarter I profiled five Northwest native kinds of bees, the Mason bees (Osmia), Bumble bees (Bombus), Leafcutter bees (Megachile), Sweat bees (family Halictidae), and Mining bees (Andrenidae). Within each category is surprising diversity. “Bees” encompasses over 4,000 insect species from North America alone, and over 20,000 worldwide (Wilson-Rich 2014). They can be tiny enough that you don’t notice them when you’re admiring a flower, or big enough that they make a loud tap when they bump into your window. They can be blue, green, yellow, black, and/or orange. They might forage in the spring or summer or even fall. Some make honey, some don’t. Some use a village to raise their young, and some have single-parent households. Wild bees in the Pacific Northwest need to be able to tolerate rain and cool temperatures. 

My favorite bees fall under the category of leafcutters, who often use flower petals and leaves to create colorful packages for their young. These artists make their brood cells in hollow stems, holes, or man-made tubes. 

Forage Phenology sprdsht

Regenerative agriculture

Certifications:

• Bee Better
• Bee Friendly Farming

Bees in agroforestry

According to the USDA (Black 2006), “agroforestry practices can increase the overall diversity of plants and physical structure in a landscape and, as a result, provide habitat for native pollinators.” Riparian buffer zones and windbreaks can be corridors connecting natural landscapes through an agricultural matrix. Trees and shrubs in an agroforestry system can provide stable nesting sites close to crops. Farmers should take care to design their system specifically for local beneficial insects, because what works in Florida might not work in Washington.

B: Habitat assessment/improvements

Week 9 farm journal 

Tuesday 5/25. Inspected all the mason bee houses on the farm (3 sites) and found most holes full, which is good news. This means no cleaning until fall. 

At home I cut some bamboo tubes and rolled paper tubes pencil-width about 6-7” long. Weeded and prepped another section of the plot. 

Thursday 5/27. It was rainy. I placed some tubes into the yellow bee house. They have the date marked on them and are easy to unroll for folks (or maybe me) to check on them in the winter, although it’s probably too late in the year for anything to nest in there. 

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Transplanted some Stachys Hidalgo and bulb flowers Iris, Scilla, and Chionodoxa that my classmate brought. Also moved some mullein to a permanent spot and admired some poppies that just bloomed. 

I also added a bee bath on the weekend when I came by to water. I found it at the thrift store and thought it was perfect because it looks like a flower. 

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Finished report

Native bee habitat at TESC organic farm

C: Film and media analysis

My favorite resources this quarter

Our Native Bees by Paige Embry is delightful to read. It’s filled with beautiful photography of various species. Embry joins scientists hunting the endangered Bombus franklini, participates in the Great Sunflower Project, visits landowners implementing bee-friendly systems, and more.  They found that the study of North American bees is still in its youth. We need much more research to accurately track what they eat, which species are endangered or thriving, and how they respond to environmental changes like fire and climate change. It’s important that citizens get involved to help gather data. In the meantime, Embry advises that gardeners let things get a little wild; leave bare ground and brush, plant clover in your lawn. 

PolliNation: a Pollinator Health Podcast is a great hub for hearing from professionals; researchers, entomologists, farmers, beekeepers etc. It gives due attention to native bees, honey bees, and other pollinators. Episode 148: John Ascher – 10 Oregon Bees is full of advice on how to get involved as a citizen scientist collecting quality data via iNaturalist. 

The Pollinators was my favorite film. It had great cinematography and interviewed an array of people. Often pop science films about agriculture are loaded with scary imagery and pressure to have a certain take-away. This one did not.

D: Tasting research

Honey bees (Apis mellifera) are the “gigantic migrant workforce that supplies us with a good portion of our favorite foods.” (Embry 2018) They can also make honey, which is in salad dressings, desserts, savory-sweet glazes, beverages, and other dishes in culinary traditions all over the world. 

I was curious to learn about honey because of a sensory experience I had that befuddled me. I’ve always heard that honey is too high in sugar and low in water to “go bad”, yet two bottles of honey I bought at the supermarket last year seemed spoiled, with a funky smell that told me not to eat it. While my distrust of large companies tells me I was right not to eat it, everything I’ve read this quarter makes me think that smell was probably just the kind of flower the nectar came from. Some flowers smell weird to us. Honey cannot spoil unless adulterated by water. 

E: Sensory analysis

Plans for honey tasting in fall

Sarah asked me to lead a honey tasting in the fall. I plan to share an overview on the biology of how honey is made, the agricultural practices involved, and how it’s processed. Then we’ll taste some honey that might surprise people; molasses-y buckwheat, something fruity like orange, something bready like alfalfa, and one or two “wildflower” honeys. We’ll use the flavor wheel, terminology, and evaluation methodology from The Honey Connoisseur to record our experiences, and share out. I will have them recall any memories that come up and imagine what they could use those honeys for. 

F: Special events

I wish I had attended more events, but I was super focused on Bees and Agroforestry. The ecologies of power workshop was definitely the most memorable.

G: Cooking

My favorite thing to make with honey was salad dressing. I even used mead one time in place of wine or vinegar. It adds a fruity sweetness, and pairs well with pretty much any fixins except tomato. 

Honey flavor is diverse, a reflection of where the bees migrated to that year, what the weather was like, and what they ate. You can cook the same recipe with honey of the same floral origin year after year and get a different outcome each time. I think that diversity is a lot of fun.

H: References

1. Embry, Paige. (2018). Our native bees: North America’s endangered pollinators and the fight to save them. Portland, OR. Timber press
2. Black, S. H. Vaughan, M. (August 2006). Agroforestry: Sustaining Native Bee Habitat For Crop Pollination Agroforestry notes, 32. Link
3. Wilson-Rich, N. (2014). The bee: a natural history. Sussex, UK: Princeton University Press