I LOVE BEE VOMIT!

Because as you know, honey is bee vomit.

And I LOVE honey!

Why do I need to always be so crass? Because that's just how I roll. That's just how I roll.

So yes, my Winnie the Pooh-like affinity for honey.

It's amazing stuff. While it is one of the most gloriously sweet and wonderful substances I've ever had the pleasure of consuming...it has historically been used in medicine since, well, pretty much the dawn of man. There are countless ailments for which it is considered to aid in remedying. Circulation, infection (as it has anti-biotic properties), digestion, respiratory, and can nourish your skin from the outside in.

Obviously one of the most common ways we use honey is for oral consumption. I put it in everything from tea, salad dressings, to parfaits, marinades and sometimes- sometimes...I'll just eat some off a spoon. Not a lot, as the sweetness sometimes is too much to bear...but just enough to make me dizzyingly- and gloriously thankful for the tiny-fuzzy-noble honey bee.

 I'll pontificate about my adoration for bees now...

Did you know bees are responsible for over 75% of the produce we see in our supermarkets? They are the humble drones that flit and flutter about between blossoms pollinating our plants. It's a known saying "once the bees die, so will we". I don't doubt this for a moment. We are so interconnected (we being all the creatures on this beautiful blue marble flying through space) and rely so heavily on one another for survival. Which is why we need to do something.

And this amazing creature is up against the clock.
With the rise in use, and abuse of pesticides our black and yellow winged partners in life are having a hard time. Colony collapse disorder (CCD) which is being linked to pesticides. NO BUENO! Pesticides are not helpful to us for a multitude of reasons (that I will get into another time possibly). But really what needs to happen needs to start at a grass roots level. It's up to us- the conscientious individuals- to save the bees. In doing so we will be saving ourselves.

With huge companies like Monsanto, and Bayer using their billions of dollars to slowly cripple industries that help and heal- the many millions and billions of mindful inhabitants of this planet can each do their part to help the survival of one of the most incredible creatures.

HOW though? Well, to start- plant bee friendly plants. Some of those include the following:
Clover
Dandelions  (NOT A WEED!! STOP KILLING THEM! THEY'RE MEDICINAL!)
Marigolds
Poppies
Sunflowers
Zinnias  (Apropos of nothing, my most favorite flower...)
Clematis
Cosmos
Crocuses
Dahlias
Echinacea (a great medicinal herb to have growing too!)
English Ivy
Foxglove
Geraniums
Hollyhocks
Hyacinth

And MILKWEED! Milkweed is a great flower that bees love! If you plant anything to make your yard a haven for our friend the honey bee, this is the one.

I have some friends who are bee keepers and plan on interviewing them in the coming weeks to share some information about what it entails. Hopefully it will inspire some people to take it up as a hobby, or who knows- maybe even a profession. One day I'd love to have a space to have a few hives of my own.

* * * * *

BEE POLLEN

I'm obsessed with bee pollen. It's basically pollen, stuck together with honey. It's got tons of protein and amino acids. And for those who have holistic inclinations- it's known to remedy fertility issues, circulation (like honey), immunity, allergies and craving cessation. It's absolutely a superfood because of how amazing the health benefits are.

Some of the best ways to eat it are strait up off a spoon (it's got a funky, weird taste at first- I've still not mastered the art of eating it this way...) and mixed into a smoothie, juice (I try to pulverize it so it is more of a powder and easy to blend it in) or some yogurt.

This spring as so many of us will begin to start our gardens (more on details of my attempt to do so in another entry...) please don't shoo away our closest ally, and noblest flying friend. Remember, it is bees who are the only creature on this planet who actively make something that we desire, and serve a greater purpose than we can fathom.



“The keeping of bees is like the direction of sunbeams.” 
― Henry David Thoreau