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Bee Thoughtful: Not all Honey is created Equal

Not All Honey is created Equal

In 2016, Food Safety News revealed a study that claimed over 76% of honey sold in your average store is “fake”, full of toxic syrups and sugars. They are also supposedly rotten with antibiotics and heavy metals.

It starts with the diet

Without a strong nutritional foundation, bee colonies will suffer greatly. They greatly rely on carbohydrates, as they are a key source of energy needed for foraging and hive activities. Honeybees naturally find their carbohydrates when collecting honeydew and nectar.

Unfortunately, many commercial honey manufacturers supplement their colonies with sucrose solution, inverted sugar syrup, or syrups like starch syrup and high fructose corn syrup. As you can imagine, the kind of honey produced is not anywhere near what you’re led to believe and it has no nutritional value.

Antibiotics

While the intentions may be good, the high doses of antibiotics given to honey bees for disease prevention are a huge disadvantage in many ways. These veterinary antibiotics, such as chloramphenicol, streptomycin and sulfonamides can do great harm to humans in large amounts. For example, chloramphenoicol could cause cancer and aplastic anemia. It is simply “unnatural” to be treating honey bees in this way and it directly negatively affects not only bee colonies, but their honey product as well.

Pesticides

Anyone in tune with the state of our environment knows pesticides are to blame for a lot of our problems. That’s why it drives me nuts to read that the European Food Safety Authority labeled clothianidin as too dangerous to be used on crops, yet the U.S. remains deaf and blind to the risks.

Quite frankly, America isn’t paying attention, as that very chemical is still used on nearly 143 million acres of our crops. This and other pesticides like imidacloprid and thiamethoxam are not only linked to death but are still widely used in the U.S. – failing to follow other countries lead in banning them. This is no joke.

It’s just… fake

Honey should have bee pollen. That’s how this whole thing works in the natural world. However, in the land of greed- commercial honey manufacturers use special equipment to extract the pollen. They then mix in honey from other countries (which, is illegal!) – leaving people with absolutely no idea where it came from. Very shady stuff.

How do you know it’s fake?

-Artificial honey will stay in tact if you put a drop on your thumb, whereas fake honey will spill and spread quickly,

-Pour a glass of water- and drop a teaspoon of honey into it. If it quickly dissolves, you have fake honey on your hands. Real honey will stay solid and will fall to the bottom of the glass in tact.

-If you’ve had your honey on the shelf for a long period of time, you should see that it has crystallized if it is real. Fake honey will look like plain old syrup forever and ever.

-Be careful if you try this one- it is said if you dip the tip of a matchstick in honey and then go to light it- the flame will burn off of the honey. If it’s fake, it won’t light because of its “moisture”.

While we do not yet make our own honey (we’re learning!), we only source ours from the best. All natural, delicious, and rich with REAL nutrients!

Intro: What is Environmental Awareness?

Environmental Awareness

“Living Green”, “Eco-Friendly”, “Environmental Awareness” – all of these terms are frequently used to often describe the exact same thing, but are they all the same? Environmental Awareness is work toward and advocacy for protecting the natural environment from pollution and destruction.

Over the last decade or so, more people are waking up to the needs of our planet. The environmentalism movement has played a large part in helping society understand our role as humans. Environmentalists are of the mentality that it is our responsibility to protect, respect and preserve the natural world from destructive forces. They are right.

Several high profile man-made natural disasters, like the BP oil spill, have contributed to the growth of the environmentalist movement. Unfortunately, most people don’t concern themselves with these problems because they aren’t directly affected.

Another component is the fact that it is easy to feel discouraged. We are doing so much damage to our planet that it often feels as though one person or one group of people could never make a difference. While it is true that it would be much harder to make any significant changes on a large scale with a small number of people, the harder we work to educate and spread awareness- the better odds we’ll have and doing our job.

Living Green is being Environmentally Aware

When you hear people say “Go Green!”, “I only buy organic” or even, “we are very eco-friendly”… those are people that acknowledge the small but powerful impact their choices have on our environment.

We often do (and will continue to) discuss simple ways to live green. There is so much hype around simple lifestyle changes, that I believe people think it is harder than it is. Remember that there large corporate powers that be who want you to feel like you could never make a difference.

Big companies have a lot at stake, after all. The more environmentally conscious we are the harder their jobs become. They don’t want to see large eco-friendly regulations to get in the way of their cheap and irresponsible manufacturing practices. Propaganda, misleading advertising, and denial are key tools to their world spinning round.

Those of us who are passionate about the environment are more than willing to offset their message and do so in a number of ways.

Raise Environmental Awareness With Us

You don’t need to be a large facility with tons of money to help spread the word of the environmentalist movement. We sure aren’t! You just need your beating heart and access to people you do and don’t know.

Whether you chose to write pieces online about the importance of conservation, preservation and environmental protection- or encourage your friends, family and coworkers to pay more attention to their use of electricity, water and creation of trash… Every little bit helps.

At Dalby Farm we have many programs designed to educate the youth of our community to respect nature. We give them sincere, positive experiences with nature at a young age so they will grow up wanting to take care of their environment. Just as we’ve carved out a specific target to focus our environmental efforts toward, you can do the same. Think about what is easiest to implement in the context of your life and go for it. The only way you could hurt the environmentalist movement is by not participating. Everybody can do something- just pick your place!

We are more than happy to help you get started, just reach out or sound off in the comments below. Stay tuned, we have a lot of educational material coming your way!

Winter Bird Feeding – A Few Tips

Winter Bird Feeding Tips

If you’re in New England like we are (or anywhere that gets cold in the winter) you may consider feeding the wild birds if you aren’t already. Ice and layers of snow over the course of one large (or many small) storm has the potential to cut off many of the natural resources birds rely on for survival. The last thing we want is to see hundreds or even thousands of birds starve to death, right?

To ensure a healthy, successful winter bird feeding season check out our tips below.

Use big capacity feeders

If you don’t have any large bird feeders consider putting out multiple medium sized ones. This is important during major storms so there is plenty of food to go around to all the birds in your immediate surroundings. Visit your local hardware stores or wild bird stores- they are bound to have excellent options for feeders.

Offer nutritious seed & plenty of fat

This is a very important winter bird feeding tip! Ideal seed mixes consist of black oil sunflower seed, hulled peanuts, white millet seed and niger seed. Be careful of “filler” seed mixes, where there is more mixed grains with little nutrition than anything else. It pays to read the bags before you buy them.
Also keep in mind that birds burn more calories in the winter as to stay warm. Providing suet is a good way to ensure you’re providing them access to quick energy. Woodpeckers and insect-eating birds will give you special thanks for thinking of them!

Be consistent & feed all Winter

Believe it or not, the birds who find your feeders will likely stick around. Don’t let them down! If you begin feeding on November 1st, keep your feeders full until mid-March or early April. As long as there’s snow and ice, there will be birds relying on your kindness & feeders. Try to pay attention to the food supply and aim to avoid any length of time where they are empty. It only takes one huge storm to negatively affect the bird population if they can’t find enough food to survive.

Don’t forget water

It may seem counterintuitive, but birds can still become dehydrated in the winter even when surrounded by ice/snow. Filling your bird bath or simply leaving a pan of water on the warmer winter days could make all the difference!

Remember the ground feeders!

Do your ground-feeding birds a favor by stamping down the snow underneath your feeders so they can have easy access to the seed that falls. Too much snow will deter the doves, and other birds from hanging around trying to eat the droppings.

Keep your feeders clean

Every so often head on out with some warm water and clean the feeders. Chances are they’ll get a little grimy as the season goes on. Give them a good clean, let them dry- and fill ’em right back up again.

Stock up on seed

I didn’t know this until recently- but go seed shopping over the Fall this year. Places will often discount the bigger bags because they’re making room for their winter merchandise. Buy several bags and never run out, especially in the dead of winter!

5 Myths About Living Green

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Myths about Living Green

Whenever you see or hear something that discourages your desire to live more efficiently and with a mind to the environment, don’t listen. If you get the feeling that there’s nothing YOU can do to help take care of our planet, change your attitude! You have more power than you think! There are many myths about living green out there designed to make you believe you could never make a difference.

1. You could never make a difference

Don’t you love it when people say ‘their vote doesn’t matter’? I have the same reaction to that statement as I do to the claim that a single individual could never make a different when it comes to eco-friendly living. I get frustrated. Something as simple as choosing to spend your money (which in this world, is your power) on products that were made with the planet’s interests in mind. Make an effort to look for products that use a high percentage of recycled materials. The more people who band together in movements like this the greater the chance we have against inconsiderate manufacturers and corporations.

2. Eco-friendly groceries are more expensive

Did you know most food travels anywhere between 1,500 and 2,500 miles to get to your grocery store? (*NRD Council) So when they say buying eco-friendly food is more expensive, they must not be factoring in the transportation and fuel costs alongside all that carbon! Shop for locally grown groceries, ideally from farms that grow on-site. Not only will you help stop enable these irresponsible cross-country transport methods but you won’t be supporting the commercial use of all the (or at least, as many) pesticides or artificial ripening agents. You’ll keep petrochemicals out of the ground, and further help reduce crude-oil usage. Every little bit counts!

3. An appliance switched ‘off’ is not using any power

You are probably already aware of this but it’s always worth repeating. Your electronic devices, be it your computer or TV- are always costing you energy unless they are unplugged. This is because of something called vampire power, a function designed to assist electronics to turn on faster. Invest in a couple powerstrips (don’t overload them!) and click them off when you’re not utilizing any of the appliances. Remember, every little bit helps! It certainly doesn’t pay to buy into the myths about living green.

4. There is no eco-friendly way to bring your groceries home

This one cracks me up. There has long been a debate among environmental enthusiasts about whether paper or plastic is better for the planet. Here’s the thing, they’re both horrible. The production of them alone is questionable and harmful. While you could argue both can serve new purposes upon returning from the store- we can all agree in most cases they end up in the trash. Bring your own cloth bags each time you go to the store and help end the debate. Save the bags for a last minute resort if you undergo a big shopping trip.

5. The need to commute will always cost the planet something

I wouldn’t consider this entirely false- but it is definitely incredibly misleading. While it is true that we will always require some form of fuel or energy to get ourselves to work there are steps you can take to make sure you are reducing your carbon footprint. The most obvious (and most unrealistic) option is to adopt biking as your leading means of transport. Hey, if you’re eating local, shopping local, you can’t have too far to go right? More doable ways to be effective include keeping up with replacing your air filter (can get up to 10 more miles per gallon), get regular tuneups (to keep miles per gallon at its most efficient), and keeping an eye out on your tire air pressure. That’s just the beginning.

We will occasionally tackle more myths about living green because it’s important you know what’s what!

Eco-friendly Alternatives to Gift Paper

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There are so many eco-friendly alternatives to gift paper!

If you’re anything like me, there’s a piece of you that hates to see all the gift paper in crushed up piles at the end of the Holidays. Sure, it has festive patterns and designs but at a high cost. Around Dalby Farm, we aren’t into wasting resources. As such, we have explored some of the many different eco-friendly alternatives to gift paper below.

Baskets or Re-usable Pine Crates

Around our farm we have all kinds of woven baskets hanging around (literally!)- including some we wouldn’t mind parting with. There are many ways to dress up a basket or crate – such as recycled fill and decorative ribbons. Don’t want to give away a basket? Save this option for someone you feel comfortable saying “Basket not included!” to as you hand them their prize. Alternatively, check out dollar stores and thrift shops for super cheap buying options.
There’s a reason why we offer gift crates- because we hope you will re-use the durable pine crate. They make for great storage or, as you’ll see, a great vessel for a thoughtful gift!

Newspapers, Calendars, Maps

Personally I believe that presents wrapped in newspaper are the coolest. Talk about flair! While it may not be “festive” or feature as many options in design- consider the option of using marker to decorate it yourself! It will add a unique and personal touch to it in ways traditional gift wrap never would!
Perhaps there is a certain time of year or month of value to the recipient- why not pull an old calendar apart and use the relevant months. Again, another opportunity to add personal flair.
Same concept with maps. No matter which of these you were to choose- you’re bound to hear an “oooh!” for the originality and environmentally friendly approach to gift giving.

Re-Usable Gift Bags

This isn’t my favorite option but that’s probably because I’m bitter toward the stack of gift bags in my closet that I keep for precisely this reason. Who throws out a gift bag? They’re usually so gorgeous and keeping every size proves to be worthwhile eventually. So the disclaimer is: Sorry, you will run out of space for these “obnoxious” bags someday, but maybe that’s your cue to give more presents. Anyway, in my opinion re-useable bags are the gifts that keep on giving to both the recipient and more importantly- our environment.

Fabric

I thought the idea of wrapping gifts in Fabric was brilliant. I haven’t tried it myself, so I do have a few questions. Do you tie a knot? Do you enclose the item with pins? I suppose it is all circumstantial. One thing is for certain- you wouldn’t be using paper! The beauty of using fabric is that you have way more options as far as color, pattern and texture than any traditional paper- or most of these suggestions- would offer. If you happen to be giving a scarf as part of the present, consider wrapping the other items with it? Clean tablecloths, sheets, pillowcases, even socks could all come into play with this eco-friendly gift wrapping strategy.

And hey, if you really can’t stand the thought of being without your beautiful santa and snowman designs- perhaps you will consider purchasing recycled gift paper. Spread the word about the eco-friendly alternatives to gift paper this Holiday season to help raise awareness. Every little bit will help.