Day four of the Beekeeping course has the potential to be depressing - PESTS & DISEASE.
However, it's mainly about keeping the bees healthy and being a bee keeper not a keeper of bees. During all the sessions in between wasps and woodpeckers and hives and honey, I've been scribbling any mere mention of a bee friendly plant. One third of third of the food we eat is pollinated by the honey bee.
Not knowing my plants much beyond wild flowers, I've also done a lot of 'googling' to put plant faces to names.
Last weekend I mentioned the lady from the garden centre who wants to know more about bees for the customers who ask her advice on planting. By week two we are all a little more familiar, and I discovered, Jan works at Holden Clough Nursery; just 2 miles from my home. Jan recommends Buddleia as a bee favourite.
Borage - I love borage, great for salads and pretty in Pimms. I have grown it each year since we started our veg garden. Annoyingly it doesn't come back even though there is plenty to be seen by the roadsides. Dave our tutor, suggests I'm pulling it out earlier in the year mistaking it for a weed. Sorry Borage, will try harder next year.
Another road side favourite for the bees, but probably not for our local council is Rose Bay Willow Herb. I'll be collecting some of the whispy seeds on my way home from work this week. Smellier and more of a threat once in the garden is Himalyan Balsam - I think it's probably best I don't to import this imposter.
Poached egg plant, poppies, sedum and verbena are loved by bees. Winter favourites are apparently ivy and laurel and in the spring a host of crocuses and snowdrops get the bees off to a great start. Flowers and fruit pollinated by honey bees in their midst will do up to four times better.
My favourite, because they are so easy to grow, attractive, peppery in salads, slugs love them rather than my cabbages and as I discovered today make a great Pesto, are Nasturtiums. I was quick to get my hands on a pot of fresh Garden Pesto made by Kerry, a volunteer at Offshoots at Towneley Hall. Kerry recommends lashings of pesto spread thickly onto homemade brown bread (of course now I feel I really ought to achieve another target!)
Kerry's Nasturium Pesto
4 cups packed nasturtium leaves, plus a handful of nasturtium flowers
2 tablespoons nasturtium 'capers' (optional)
Any fresh herbs, ie mint, parsley
4 cloves garlic
1 cup walnuts (lightly toasted)
Grated rind of 1 large lemon
1 1/2 cups olive oil
Grated parmesan or hard goats cheese
1/4 teaspoon salt, adjusted to taste
black pepper to taste
Put everything but the salt and pepper into a blender or food processor and mix until smooth. (If you don’t have nasurtium 'capers' , don’t worry about it. Instead, think about adding a dash of hot sauce for a little extra bite. Don’t add nasturtium pods that haven’t been processed and brined; they can be bitter.) Add salt and pepper to taste.
Naturtium 'Capers' Ingredients.- 100g Nasturtium seeds, 200g white wine vinegar, 15g salt, 6 peppercorns, herbs such as dill, tarragon or bay.
Method.- Boil the vinegar, salt and peppercorns together, and, when cold, strain it into a wide necked bottle. Gather the seeds on a dry day, put them into the vinegar, and cork closely. These pickled seeds form an excellent subsitute for capers. They are ready to use in about 3 months but may be kept for a much longer time with perfect safety.
Even if you don't have room for a hive or indeed the inclination to look after one, by just having a few of these plants in our tubs or window boxes we are contributing to our own food chain.
A honey bee has thousands of tiny lenses so when one person runs around the garden waving hands in the air, to a bee it's like the whole of the Olympic stadium has just stood up.
When a bee is out foraging for food the last thing on its mind is to harm; it knows only too well when it has to resort to the last defense of releasing the sting it looses its own life.
However, it's mainly about keeping the bees healthy and being a bee keeper not a keeper of bees. During all the sessions in between wasps and woodpeckers and hives and honey, I've been scribbling any mere mention of a bee friendly plant. One third of third of the food we eat is pollinated by the honey bee.
Not knowing my plants much beyond wild flowers, I've also done a lot of 'googling' to put plant faces to names.
 |
| Rose Bay Willow Herb |
Another road side favourite for the bees, but probably not for our local council is Rose Bay Willow Herb. I'll be collecting some of the whispy seeds on my way home from work this week. Smellier and more of a threat once in the garden is Himalyan Balsam - I think it's probably best I don't to import this imposter.
Poached egg plant, poppies, sedum and verbena are loved by bees. Winter favourites are apparently ivy and laurel and in the spring a host of crocuses and snowdrops get the bees off to a great start. Flowers and fruit pollinated by honey bees in their midst will do up to four times better.
My favourite, because they are so easy to grow, attractive, peppery in salads, slugs love them rather than my cabbages and as I discovered today make a great Pesto, are Nasturtiums. I was quick to get my hands on a pot of fresh Garden Pesto made by Kerry, a volunteer at Offshoots at Towneley Hall. Kerry recommends lashings of pesto spread thickly onto homemade brown bread (of course now I feel I really ought to achieve another target!)
Kerry's Nasturium Pesto
4 cups packed nasturtium leaves, plus a handful of nasturtium flowers
2 tablespoons nasturtium 'capers' (optional)
Any fresh herbs, ie mint, parsley
4 cloves garlic
1 cup walnuts (lightly toasted)
Grated rind of 1 large lemon
1 1/2 cups olive oil
Grated parmesan or hard goats cheese
1/4 teaspoon salt, adjusted to taste
black pepper to taste
Put everything but the salt and pepper into a blender or food processor and mix until smooth. (If you don’t have nasurtium 'capers' , don’t worry about it. Instead, think about adding a dash of hot sauce for a little extra bite. Don’t add nasturtium pods that haven’t been processed and brined; they can be bitter.) Add salt and pepper to taste.
Naturtium 'Capers' Ingredients.- 100g Nasturtium seeds, 200g white wine vinegar, 15g salt, 6 peppercorns, herbs such as dill, tarragon or bay.
Method.- Boil the vinegar, salt and peppercorns together, and, when cold, strain it into a wide necked bottle. Gather the seeds on a dry day, put them into the vinegar, and cork closely. These pickled seeds form an excellent subsitute for capers. They are ready to use in about 3 months but may be kept for a much longer time with perfect safety.
Even if you don't have room for a hive or indeed the inclination to look after one, by just having a few of these plants in our tubs or window boxes we are contributing to our own food chain.
A honey bee has thousands of tiny lenses so when one person runs around the garden waving hands in the air, to a bee it's like the whole of the Olympic stadium has just stood up.
When a bee is out foraging for food the last thing on its mind is to harm; it knows only too well when it has to resort to the last defense of releasing the sting it looses its own life.
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