Yarn, Tupelo honey and CCD
I was a bad girl. I went to the yarn shop in Duncansville. I was going to go with Ruth but she was sick. Mom decided she wanted to ride along. What a lovely day it turned out to be!
I wasn't going to buy yarn. I really wasn't! No! REALLY!! But Carla got Louet's Gems in and she had it in lavender and one with a lavender stripe and she was gently waving them back and forth at me and I could hear them calling my name and ...
well ... I caved. Alright? I caved.
Mom was pretty good about it. The color, I mean. I could hear her mentally screaming "NOT PURPLE!" but she didn't vocalize.
Then we went next door to the tea shop. I treated mom and myself to a fresh-brewed iced tea. Heavenly. That's also when I picked up my Tupelo honey.
As it turns out, Tupelo honey is very expensive for honey. All honey has increased in price since CCD (colony collapse disorder). Even the naff stuff you get from the supermarket has gotten more expensive. Just because the bees aren't given special pollen to collect doesn't mean its any easier or that more are around to do it.
We(Penn State in general and University Relations in particular) have been putting out stories on CCD for a couple years (big surprise since several of our researchers are leading the investigations into the cause!) but out at Ag Progress I learned a couple of things: CCD isn't any closer to be solved because more possibilities for the cause keep popping up; it doesn't affect all colonies in the same area; honeybees, while being "general" pollinators, do not pollinate every flour, fruit and vegetable. The bumbles take care of the tomatoes. Now I'm sure if there was not much else to select from, a honeybee might deign to stop by a tomato plant but that's not their pollen of choice.
Of course CCD isn't affecting the other bees because they aren't the communal creatures honeybees are. By the same token honeybees are the ones with the honey.
All this talk of pesticides in the hive wax makes me wonder about burning beeswax candles. I really hate the idea of not being able to have my beeswax candles.
Back to the Tupelo. I did have a moment of guilt thinking about the hard work the bees did and the decreasing number of bees. However that moment passed rather quickly. There is also another honey I saw that I need to get then next time: rosemary and lavender! I have no idea how that will taste since the honey doesn't taste like the pollen doesn't taste like the flower.
Poor bees. No two ways about it, I'll be snapping up more of their yummy honey. They'll just have to learn to deal. After all, this is about me and not them, Uh hu. Sure.
