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Bee Thoughtful: How to turn your land into a bee friendly habitat

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Turn your land into a bee friendly habitat

As we’ve already mentioned in our introduction, the bees are in serious trouble. Recently, seven species of Hawaiian yellow-faced bees were added to the endangered list. While some headlines out there would have you believe the entire class is on the list (it’s not)- this is still great cause for concern.  We’re starting you off with a few tips that will help you turn your land into a bee friendly habitat so we can all help keep them around. Keep checking back for more over the coming weeks.

Choose bee-friendly plants

You will make the bee population very happy if you make the effort to plant native wildflowers, flowering herbs, berries and varying flowering fruits & vegetables. Here in Massachusetts, honeybees favor:

  • Mint, basil, sage, thyme, oregano, lavender, chives, buck wheat.
  • Strawberries, blueberries, raspberries, blackberries.
  • Cucumbers, tomatoes, winter squash, pumpkins, watermelon, flowering broccoli
  • Crocus, black-eyed susans, lilacs, wisteria, tulips, sunflowers, clovers, snowdrops, bee balm, honeysuckle, peony & more.
  • Maple, Willow, Black Locust and Sumac are great trees to plant if you have the space.

All of these plants make for excellent food sources for bees. Remember not to get rid of your dandelions, as those are the early Spring “go to” food source for bees before everything else has bloomed. When it comes to bees, dandelions are NOT weeds. Ideally you will pick the plants that have the longest blooming cycles, and/or the ones who have successive blooms. You want to encourage the bees to keep coming back over and over again.

Be sure to keep the same plants together, ideally one square yard of the same kind. It will do a better job at attracting the bees, and they’ll have plenty to work with when they find them.

Let your plants flower

Let the flowers on your plants remain as to allow the bees to get the pollen and nectar from them when they need it. When you grow herbs or veggies like Broccoli, leave the plant intact after you’ve harvested. Letting the plants go to flower give the bees an extra food source, especially toward the end of the year when everything else is dying. You should leave these plants in the gardens until the flowers are gone.

One mans weed is a meal for the Bees

Society would have you believe that weeds serve no purpose and only exist to frustrate the passionate gardener, this is unfortunate! While the aesthetic of certain weeds may not match your taste, consider the benefits dandelions, clovers, loosestrife, milkweed, goldenrod and other flowering weeds can give to our struggling bee population.  The reality is, these weeds are crucial to a bees ability to survival.
If you have a nice lawn, leave the weeds alone. Find the beauty in them and appreciate their role in providing an extra, much needed food source for the bees. Sometimes looks aren’t the only thing that matter when you’re trying to serve nature over yourself. It certainly doesn’t mean you can’t take good care of your landscaping, but bee thoughtful 🙂

 

In the coming weeks we will be sharing information on the importance of quitting the chemicals (pesticides, herbicides etc). Please stay tuned and plan to implement these pieces of advice for the upcoming Spring season and beyond. Thanks for beeing thoughtful. Share your tips with us in the comments!

all natural wildflower honey turn your land into a bee friendly habitat

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Baking with Honey instead of Sugar

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Baking with Honey

More and more I am reading about people swapping out traditional white sugar for honey- usually raw. If you’re anything like me, that probably sounds a little bit too daunting. After doing some research, incorporating honey over table sugar may be worth it.
Not only are the antioxidants a good reason to make the switch, but honey’s sweetness means you get to use less in your recipes!

Baking with Honey

 

Choose Your Flavor

If you’re looking for a potent and more sweeter flavor, experts seem to suggest purchasing a darker honey. Light honey will have a more subtle flavor.

Plan Ahead

Since honey is going to stick to your measuring cups, be sure to have some oil, egg whites or even water ready to use as lubricant. This will not only assist with getting the honey out, but it will ensure more accurate measurement.

You may also want to study the recipe before beginning so you know how much honey you’ll need. All recipes that call for 1 cup of sugar will translate into 1 cup of honey. Anything beyond a cup of white sugar will get more complex. It is said you should use around two-thirds as much honey to sugar- three-fourths if you’re baking a really sweet treat!

Adjusting the Recipe

We already mentioned you will work on the proper levels of honey to use based on how much sugar is called for. For every cup of honey used after the first, you will need to reduce the liquid ingredients measurements by 1/4 cup. Baking with Honey will almost always result in a very moist end result. Limiting the other liquid ingredients in relation to potentially excess honey will ensure a balanced cook.

Also, if baking soda is not already in the recipe, be sure to add 1/4 teaspoon to your batter for every cup of honey. It will cut the acidity of the honey.

Enjoy!

Other than what’s described, you should be good to go! I know I will be giving it a try and will document the experience for a later post. Experts do suggest monitoring the cooking more than usual as it may brown faster. You want to give yourself time to adjust the temperatures if necessary.

What are your experiences baking with honey? I would love to hear the good, the bad and the delicious!