Bee Afraid

Sunday Meeting High Fashion...
Tua's indifference to the color pink is
evident below.




This photo was part of a series of pictures we put together for a new PBS cooking show. Our working title for the proposed show is Cooking for Baby. It may be broadcast on your local PBS station in the near future. Here Tua is all ears as Bug explains the finer points of mincing garlic.








A recent article put out by the Agriculture Extension at Penn State highlights a disturbing trend in the apiary field. It seems that over the last three summers, bee keepers and crop watchers alike have noticed a distinct drop in pollenation activity. Bee numbers are down. I have chosen to draw on this for a couple of reasons. The first concerns our food supply. Contrary to popular belief, food is not produced at the grocers. 85% of the food we buy is grown. ( I'm trying to think of just one food item in our house that is not agrarian in its base.) Keeping in mind the amount of work that goes into the production, consider the role of the bee, whose job it is to leave the colony for the sake of gathering sustainance. Yet in the fulfillment of that role, the land is able to yield a harvest. It's a wonderful image of labor in humility and the broad net of blessing cast upon the many by the faithfulness of one. Beyond that, the bee is a necessity of sorts. To the agrarian community, the bee has a role that's almost as good as the sun. Without it, we might have to resort to the 15% of the grocer that is otherwise....

I have just found something in the cuboard that fits the bill. Despite its name, Chicken of the Sea is not ag-based and therefore owes nothing to the bee.

So the drop in the bee population. Pretty dire unless the tide turns. Inspired by Sir Branson and Mr. Gore in their efforts of last week, I have decided to offer a reward to anyone who can come up with a solution to the matter of the disappering bee. I will offer a Maple sapling from our backyard. The reward pales to Branson's 25 million award for harnessing hydrogen, but a maple tree will certainly last longer.