While traditional homesteading meant to live like, well, a homesteader—one whose life was built off the land, thriving on self-sufficiency—today’s modern homesteaders don’t all fit into the Little House on the Prairie image you may have in your mind. In fact, modern homesteaders don’t all live on prairies or even farms, nor are they all […]
Tag Archives | bees
Getting Grounded
I was fine until I got sick. Isn’t that always how it goes? It was nothing serious, mind you…just that plaguey cough and flu thing that’s going around. But of course, I pushed through it because people depend on me. And that’s just what we do. We push until we can’t push any longer, and […]
The Lessons of Bees
On National Honey Bee Day, let’s give props to our pollinators and, maybe, learn how to be better humans. by guest blogger Jeff Csatari, executive editor of Men’s Health and Women’s Health books Once upon a time…I was a bee. During the summer before my senior year of high school, I pollinated apricot trees for […]
“Bee” the Solution
by guest blogger “Coach” Mark Smallwood, Rodale Institute executive director Honeybees are the only insects to produce food eaten by humans. To make just one pound of honey, worker bees have to fly 55,000 miles and tap 2 million flowers. Each honeybee’s wings beat about 200 times per second, creating their infamous buzzing. Throughout […]
A New Hive Mentality
by guest blogger Coach Mark Smallwood. This past winter was another tough one for the humble honeybee. Winter losses as reported by beekeepers nationwide rose from 22 percent in 2011/2012 to 31 percent in 2012/2013. Bees pollinate more than 70 of the 100 crops that provide 90 percent of the world’s food.
Help Honey Bees Survive This Winter
By guest blogger Heather Mattila. Honeybees are far and away the most important pollinator in today’s agricultural landscape. They pollinate more than 400 crops worldwide, help to create about a third of the food we eat, and contribute an estimated $12 billion to our nation’s food supply. But where do they go in winter? The answer might surprise you!
City Gardens: The Bees’ Needs
By guest blogger Amy Freitag Amy Freitag is the executive director of New York Restoration Project (NYRP), a nonprofit organization dedicated to restoring and maintaining parks and community gardens in under-resourced New York City neighborhoods. It turns out that there is a lot to bees. After the first of my three days of beekeeping school, […]
Queen Bees, Cellphones, and Colonel Mustard in the Ballroom
By guest blogger Annie Spiegelman (a.k.a the Dirt Diva) A recent study, conducted this spring in India, found a link between the disappearance of honeybees and cellphones. If only it were that simple. Colony collapse disorder (CCD) was found in the United States and various other countries in 2006. Beekeepers started noticing queen bees—normally very […]
Scratch
Raised on America’s first organic farm, Scratch author Maria Rodale learned how to make everyday favorites from, yes, scratch — the way you remember them; the way they turn out best.
Order NowOrganic Manifesto
Drawing on findings from leading health researchers as well as conversations with both chemical and organic farmers from coast to coast, Maria Rodale irrefutably outlines the unacceptably high cost of chemical farming on our health and our environment.
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