LOCAL HEALTHY FOOD FOR LOCAL HEALTHY KIDSSPRING 2014 • ISSUE 2

Save the bees!By Sissy Sugarman

What’s your reaction when you see a bee? Do you run for cover screaming, “a bee! A bee!”

I was afraid of bees until I joined our 4H beekeeping project and learned so many amazing things about honeybees. They are highly intelligent and function in a well-ordered and complex society. Bees use their honey to feed their offspring and to fuel their wing muscles – a honeybee flaps its wings about 230 times a second and would get about seven million miles out of a gallon of honey. How’s that for fuel efficiency? To collect a pound of honey, a bee would have to fly more than 50,000 miles. That’s twice around the world! Bees are fascinating, intelligent animals and are critical to our very survival.

We need bees because they are our number-one plant pollinators. Without bees, we would have no fruits, vegetables, flowers and crops like alfalfa hay which feed our farm animals. Without pollination, plants can’t reproduce. More than one third of our world’s crops depend on bee pollination. So we need the bees. But they are disappearing.

In 1945, we had 4.5 million bee hives. We have a lot fewer bees since then. A report in 2007 showed that we only had 2 million bee hives in the U.S.

Why? After World War II, farmers changed their farming practices. They stopped planting as much clover and alfalfa (which make food for bees) and started using poisons that kill weeds that provide flowers that the bees need for food.

Scientists have found that every load of pollen that a bee collects has about six pesticides (poisons) in it. Some pesticides are so poisonous that even if a bee gets a little, they can become so confused that they cannot find their way home.

We need all of our bees, so what are we going to do? Everyone can help in a few simple ways. Plant bee friendly flowers and don’t use pesticides. It’s best if you plant from seed because some plants you buy at stores have pesticides in them. Plant them in your front yard, on your apartment terrace or in your garden.

Also, get involved in beekeeping. You can learn all about it at your local 4H club or from the San Diego Beekeeping Society. With just a bit of equipment and a little knowledge, you can set up your own honeybee hives right in your backyard. I have 4 at my house and the honey harvest is one of my favorite days of the year.

It might seem like a really small solution to a huge problem, but when bees have access to good food, we have access to good food through their pollination. We can help make a big change by helping out in small ways. So let the small act of planting flowers and keeping them pesticide free help the bees survive.

Sissy Sugarman is 12 years old and lives on a hobby farm in Encinitas California with her dairy goats, chickens, turkeys, rabbits, sheep, ducks, goats, horses, cow, donkey, pig and many sweet honey bees.

Edible San Diego for Kids is produced in partnership with Slow Food Urban San Diego. • Sponsored by Sempra Energy

Because we wanted to learn about bees, we interviewed Paul Maschka, a local beekeeping

expert. He works with bees because he wants to help them, support sustainable agriculture and he also thinks it is exciting to produce honey.

Q: How do you care for bees?

A: I go to places where bees are living and people decide that it is an inconvenient place for bees to live. I determine whether the bees are friendly or aggressive and then I move them to a new home if it is possible.

Q: How do you know whether bees are friendly or aggressive?

A: You always stand to the side of a hive to watch the bees. The bees will either ignore you, or they will buzz in your face. If they buzz in your face, then back away about 10 feet. If they ignore you then you are welcome to stay. Bees are truthful about who they are.

Q: How do you move bees to a new home?

A: I don’t usually wear a bee suit, but I wear a veil, which is a bee-keeping hood, a long-sleeve shirt and pants. I don’t wear gloves. I use a smoker to move the bees. It’s important to be organized, and

to plan an escape route beforehand if the bees become angry. I also make sure everyone in the area is safe.

Q: What do people not know about bees?

A: Most people don’t know that all the worker bees are female, and that they are all sisters. The male drones mate with the queen, who comes out of the hive about once a year. After the drones finish mating, they die. The drones just use the hive for free food.

Q: We know many bees are dying. How will this affect us in the future?

A: We are finding out that bees like living near people instead of in the industrial agricultural areas. In the future, we will have more bees live closer to us in the cities.

Q: Which flowers are bees most attracted to?

A: Actually, bees aren’t attracted to a particular type of flower. But they are most attracted to flowers that blossom on trees. They go from tree to tree depending on which trees are in season.

If you’d like to see Wild Willow Farm and the bee hives in action, consider volunteering on Saturdays from 11am – 4pm. It’s a great way to learn about planting, composting, caring for animals, and of course, bees! To learn more, visit www.sandiegoroots.org/farm

An Interview with a BeekeeperBy Kristie Wong and Leah Markworth

Paul Maschka

Honey Cinnamon Roasted Sweet Potatoes4 sweet potatoes or yams, peeled and cut into 1-inch cubes

1/4 cup extra-virgin olive oil, plus more for drizzling potatoes after cooked

1/4 cup honey

2 teaspoons ground cinnamon

Salt and freshly ground black pepper

Directions

Preheat oven to 375 degrees F.

Lay the sweet potatoes out in a single layer on a roasting tray. Drizzle the oil, honey, cinnamon, salt and pepper over the potatoes. Roast for 25 to 30 minutes in oven or until tender.

Take sweet potatoes out of the oven and transfer them to a serving platter. Drizzle with more extra-virgin olive oil.

Recipe courtesy of Tyler Florence

Nut Butter Energy BarsThese bars are healthy, homemade morsels that are packed with protein and whole grain. They are great as an on-the-go breakfast or afternoon treat.

1 16-oz jar of unsweetened nut butter (peanut or almond work well)

1 cup honey

2 cups oats

¾ cup shredded unsweetened coconut

½ cup sunflower seeds

½ cup walnuts and/or almonds, chopped

1 cup raisins

Mix all ingredients with hands in a large bowl. Mixture should be on the sticky side—the oats will absorb some of the honey as it sets. If mixture is too gooey, add more oats. If too dry and crumbly, add more honey. Press into a 13 x 9 baking dish or plastic container. Place in the refrigerator or a cool place until firm.

Cut into 16–20 bars and store in covered container.

Photo by C. Armendariz

The mixture should be gooey and stiff.

Kitchen Fun: Recipes with Honey

Cooking healthy food is fun and good for you and your family. Here are two delicious, easy recipes that use honey.

Growing Fun: A Sunflower Fort!A sunny spot in your yard is all that is needed to grow a sunflower fort. Summer is the best time to do this. In San Diego, wait until May Gray and June Gloom have passed.

What you will need to get started:

• A shovel

• Sunflower seeds (try Lemon Queen variety) and optional Morning Glory or other quick growing blooming vine

• Compost or liquid fertilizer

• Sunlight

• Water

• Optional: Twine to help bind the stalks together and to create a roof, canvas or an old rug to use as a floor

Steps:

1. Dig a 6-inch wide, 6-inch deep trench where you want the outer walls to be. It can be a circle or a square.

2. Mix the soil with compost or moisten it thoroughly with liquid fertilizer.

3. Use your thumb to push the seeds into the soil, spaced about 6 inches apart. Don’t forget to leave a few feet of space unplanted to create a front door.

4. The seeds take 7 to 12 days to germinate and sprout from the soil. The plants will grow to full size in 10 to 12 weeks.

5. Sunflower plants are big eaters, so fertilize them once a week. Do not put water or fertilizer directly on the stems as this will cause them to rot.

6. When the sunflowers are about 6 feet tall, loosely tie the tops of the plants from one side of the fort to the tops of the plants on the other side of the fort (continue doing this down the length of your fort) — this will form a roof over your fort. Don’t tie them too tight, or you will damage the sunflower stems!

7. Plant Morning Glory seeds along side the stalks for additional color.