Farmers in Winter-musings on Pollinators

Its always been strange to me to think about going south for a winter vacation. Growing up, winter for me was about winter sports... skiing, sledding, ice skating, cross country skiing and snow shoeing... as well as hibernating, cocooning and meditating.

But this year we did go visiting in Florida...

Farmers in Florida

On a laneway very much like our own...except not frozen and dormant,

where the Calusa People used to thrive.

Egret

and now we do, as the climate is much more mild than New England.

From one Coast to Another

Swimmer

White Heron Fishing

See you Later Alligator!

To Coconut Grove!

 A place rich with growth

limestone

Beauty

interesting life

and light.

So here is where I come to pollinators,

in a butterfly house in Coconut Grove, Fla.

Knowing that upon returning to Boston I would go to Organic Bee School I became interested in other pollinators as well. Butterflies, like bees, have gone through a big decline this year. Being a little afraid of insects, I would have never thought keeping bees would be something I would do. My purpose for wanting to learn how to keep bees is that they are endangered. After watching More than Honey and contemplating the collapse of bee colonies possibly being from a combination of chemicals, mono-crops and human handling of Bees, I wanted to help bees be bees in nature, and then bees would be helping me if I am trying to grow food on a diversified farm. I want to be part of a process of healthy natural life. A little honey would be very nice too, of course.

 Bumbler

Bumble bees pollinate as well as Honey Bees. Bees are productive pollinators especially when they are gathering pollen. They do this when they are building brood. But wasps and many other insects birds bats and animals also pollinate. Some while eating, some incidentally, and some because of deception of the plant-which mimics either pheromones of a specific insect's mate or scent of their larva's food to attract it to mate or lay eggs. How clever and fascinating nature is, if sometimes cruel.

 Pumpkin Flower October 2013

If bees do pollinate about 1/3 of our food supply, life seems a lot less interesting without bees. Even if you don't like insects or honey, we currently are relying on bees. Humans are in fact capitalizing on their industrious nature, by not only harvesting their products-wax and honey-but trucking them all over the country to pollinate huge mono-crops like almonds, blueberries, strawberries, etc. Bees also pollinate cacao. No bees, no chocolate.

The chemicals we use on these mono-crops are harmful to the bees being brought to pollinate them, as well as butterflies and other life, including mine. Recent increase in the use of neonicotinioids-used as insecticide on crops-is linked to these losses in our pollinators. Without butterflies there would be less beauty, without bees life wouldn't be as sweet.

Early-late one night

waiting for the cold to end so he can go outside.

Winter

In winter we shovel snow, burn wood, plan for spring, work outside when its warm, do paperwork when its cold, cook root vegetables, rack the hard cider, go to bee school and order bees, store the bulbs, glean the seeds, and think about whether or not we want to have chickens this season.

In Hollywood

Green berries appear in the fall.

The berries turn red for the beginning of winter

and the leaves are green until after Christmas when they begin to fade to yellow.

When a tree falls in Hollywood

it falls in a fork

and is suspended by a supple Holly Tree.

Natures fine sculpture in a forest gallery 

so viewers can see inside a fallen tree.

Daily Harvest 12/29/13 motivated by deer

We think deer took a bite or two of most of the turnips and even bit clear through some of them and left the tops.

Some of the greens were eaten and some left, so we decided to harvest.

They are still pretty small.

But the even smaller ones we took a chance on leaving them...to grow?

Last Light on Final Days of 2013

On one of Decembers shortest days a red sunset illuminated strips

of branch and trunk

and lichen

then faded

and descended

Daily Harvest 12 22 13

Roots

Horseradish for the Winter Solstice

Harvesting Horseradish

Ed and David dug it up in the warm weather near the winter solstice, leaving some in the ground for next year.

Dirty roots with perfect white flesh

While we were there we dug up the carrots

and beets and looked under the hoops.

Under this one fresh greens...

still.  Baby greens...

and evergreen babies.

Daily Harvest portion horseradish and carrots 12 22 13.

Grated horseradish in apple cider vinegar and water with salt.

Perfect on steak for a holiday Dinner.

Winter Farmer's Market JP, MA Saturday December 21st 2013

Visit the Egleston Farmers Market for your Xmas shopping. There will be a craft fair and lots of good food for sale. I will be selling Photos from the farm and beach matted and/or framed as well as cards and postcards.

 Finally Froggy

Ivory Silo

 Birch

Also Red Berries in December(below) and more, such as Daily Harvest pictures from Summer and Fall and more recent photos from a stormy day at the beach.

Red Berries in December

Hard Apple Cider and Vinegar

Fermenting cider turned out to be as it is called-hard. First I fell off a ladder(dont worry I wasnt injured) harvesting the apples-see past post in the blog archive on the right entitled "Daily Harvest 10/21/13 Apple Picking." Then because of my chemical sensitivities I almost alienated my community needing help with my sustainably grown and organic apples and not being able to help with the commercial variety. Luckily that day turned out fine and was super fun-see past post entitled "Making Apple Cider 11/3/13." Then understanding and obtaining all the equipment was the next challenge coupled with not being full time at the farm. This caused some of our cider to start to turn to vinegar. The other challenge for me is the science. Hydrometers are one thing, but measuring viscosity, acidity, etc. seemed overwhelming. Then adding chemicals to kill off some things and encourage others, and adding yeasts and sugars seemed too dangerous to my health concerns. And the final straw of borrowing a hydrometer and promptly having it disappear into a void in the barn made me realize that using my intuition smell and taste to determine what to do next and choosing the method of add nothing to the mixture and accept what you get was the way I had to go. 

We used two kinds of apples. The bulk of our apples were from our tree here on the farm; an old variety with a bit of tannin, but still some sweetness and a nice rich taste. The other variety were a bushel of drops from Hutchins Farm. They were much sweeter. We tried to make cider with the pure Ivory Silo variety to see what it would be like(since the fresh cider tasted so delicious,) but unfortunately due possibly to their make up and natural state or more probably to the fact that we did not have the airlocks we needed in the beginning, most of this has started turning to vinegar. What I have done with it, is to deprive it of oxygen and put it in a cooler place to see if those yeasts will be discouraged but I am resigned to eventually make vinegar with it and/since I wanted some anyway. In the above picture you can see the 3 gallon carboy which is a mixture of the 2 kinds of apples with a good golden color brewing away. It has bubbles rising slowly and deliberately. This has always had an airlock. It has been siphoned once and smells and tastes bad like blueberry wine before it is ready. The 1/2 gallon mason jar on the left is mostly Ivory Silo apples that did not seem to have as much of the vinegar yeasts. I added a little of the other mixture to it to top it off(so it did not have so much head space thus oxygen) and see if it would continue to ferment and not turn. It is not fermenting as well as the bigger carboy and is darker in color. I moved the two more than 5 feet apart just in case. In the end this is all such a beautiful and fascinating experiment that I am not complaining, just musing and learning and waiting to see what happens.