Friday, June 27, 2008

Short but sweet

Here's another reason to stock up on the food reserves. I heard about this problem with the bees a while ago, but the article linked here talks about the continued effects of not having enough bees for food production. For me, the possibility of no food being available at all is a lot scarier than the rising food prices, which are scary enough by themselves. Lack of bees affects large crops and backyard gardens alike.
Fewer bees means less honey by association, and honey is an excellent food storage item. If you store it correctly--cool enough conditions--it can last for years. It's about 1 and 1/2 times sweeter than sugar. Hey, it can't hurt to have your food storage taste good, right? :)

4 comments:

The Scavenger said...

Marie, we are lucky enough to have plenty of honey bees here at our place. We don't keep a hive, they are just wild and a lot of them. We see them working the clover in the front yard all day long. Thank goodness for those little guys.

Chris

Marie said...

We don't really see them around here, but they're out there, and I hope they stick around. I don't remember thinking about them much at all before there started to be a problem. They sure are necessary for food production, and the honey is an added bonus!

Ron said...

I really enjoyed the article, Marie. I have not been over here in a while, thanks to my slow Internet, but I see I have a lot to learn about food storage from you. :)

Like Chris, we've got lots of wild bees around here. It sure is a bummer to hear that many are dying out though. I love watching them climb way down into a big squash flower. :)

I love your (and your Mom's!) thrifty tips about food storage. Everyone should ask themselves: what would I do if the grocery store was empty? or they no longer accepted cash?

Ron

Marie said...

We like the bees here, too, from a distance. :) I heard there were some around the rasperries a little while after I wrote this post,and that's a good thing. We want them in the backyard, just not too close to the kids.
No food availability or cash with no value would definitely be a scary scenario--I guess then skills and food would be among the most valuable things to barter, and I hope everyone is working on acquiring both. Thanks for your comment!