To bee or not to bee...

 

We've been enjoying some late brassicas as our spring greens, as the purple sprouting broccoli and Romanesco cauliflower become ready. Unfortunately for me, this means other plants in that family have given up growing leaves and have turned their attention to flowers in the heat, including our kale and rocket.

 

 

 

This year, it's actually been really exciting rather than disappointing to see this happening. Beauty is in the eye of the beholder after all! The flowers are edible and make a pretty garnish to a salad or stirfry, but it's the wider effect of the flowering that's really drawn my attention.

 



 

I've been doing some beekeeping research since my birthday in July, when we decided that bees would make a great addition to our home and garden. Thankfully there is a beekeeping shop and club nearby in Newcastle, but as luck had it, on the day we ventured out to buy our hive, the shop door closed right as we drove in. Not deterred, we went to a local bookshop and found a book on the subject instead. Here is where things got interesting, as I soon realised this was a major undertaking including checking the hive fortnightly (involving a full bee suit and smoker) and processing huge amounts of honey at just the right time... not to mention the fact that we're in a normal suburban street with neighbours on either side and swimming pools to deal with. Once I got to the section about swarms and stings I was pretty intimidated, but thought I might check out the Hunter Valley Amateur Beekeepers website for inspiration. There I found links to information about stingless bees, and all my problems were solved.

 

 

The Upsides:

 

1. Environmentally friendly

These stingless bees are Australian natives, and the species we are getting lives naturally in this area. This means there are no concerns about introducing more European bees into the area and the various problems they bring.

 

 

2. Low maintenance

It's best not to open your hive at all, except a year or two down the track if you want to split them to create more hives.

 

 

3. NO STINGS!

Just in case you missed the point earlier! Apparently they can bite you with their little jaws, but it's only if the hive is disturbed and not nearly as painful as a sting. This means no bee suit, no smoker, and no cranky neighbours.

 

 

4. Fewer pests and diseases

Many of the pests and diseases affecting European honey bees are not an issue for these little fellas, so you don't need to constantly be checking their hive. They are excellent guards, so many pests attempting to enter the hive are destroyed.

 

Tetragonula carbonaria (note the white fuzzy face)

 

The downsides:

 

1. Sensitive to extreme temperatures

The European honeybee can live and function at both higher and lower temperatures than many of the native bees. Tetragonula carbonaria are the species most commonly kept, and I wasn't sure they would survive here due to the cold winters. You can imagine my excitement when I saw them feeding on our rocket and kale, as they only forage 500m from the nest, that means they are alive and well, not far from here!

 



 

2. Lower honey production

European bees are so popular for their epic honey making ability, which outperforms the native bees by many times. A stingless bee hive may produce 1 to 1.5 kg of honey per year, provided the temperatures are suitable and there are plenty of flowers to collect honey and nectar from. This pales in comparison to honeybee hives, but is also more convenient to collect and process.

 

I'm convinced that they're a much better option for us, and we've ordered our first hive!

 

We attended a workshop this week with Tim Heard and Tony Goodrich to learn about the bees and how to keep them, and were all the more excited and inspired to meet our new 'pets'. Pictures were taken on a phone, so apologies for the quality, but that spiral hive is such a beautiful creation.

 

Tony demonstrating splitting a Tetragonula carbonaria hive.

 

 The top half of the hive

 

 The bottom half

 

If you're inspired (and I hope you are!) Tim's website is full of great information, and his workshop was invaluable. John Klumpp's book Australian Stingless Bees also has lots of great information, and I highly recommend it.

Now to find the perfect place for our hive while we are waiting for it to arrive!

March is for... going nuts

This month has been a rough one in so many ways, sometimes it's hard just to keep all the pieces together. One bonus of working with plants is that they often force you to stop in your tracks and just wonder at the way they live and grow.

My first introduction to Bunya pines was from my enthusiastic Botany teacher at university, Geoff Burrows. Geoff is so knowledgeable and passionate about his work that you just can't help but get carried away in his excitement, and experience a true nerd moment. He studies Bunya pines (Araucaria bidwillii) among other things, and explained to us the interesting way that the seeds germinate, forming a tuber-like storage organ under the ground that can wait until the conditions are right for emergence. For this reason the seed is highly nutritious, requiring a fair amount of fuel for the sometimes long wait. What really made my ears prick up though, was his casual comment that the 'nuts' are absolutely delicious. You just have to wait until the tree is mature enough to produce seed, and dodge the falling cones in late summer when they come down.

No small feat, as they are usually at least the size of a human head or a football, and come crashing from the tops of the trees. Quite deadly! While working previously at a display garden nearby, I used to have my morning tea sitting under the big Bunyas- until the day I saw a smashed cone not far from where I usually sit and decided to move. They sure make an impression, often shattering when they hit the ground. They are like a giant pine cone, but more dense and solid, and break up into 'scales' that contain the seeds. Over my 4 years gardening there, I hopefully cut open many a seed, but they were always empty. The trees there were probably at least 15 years old, but didn't seem to be mature enough to form a proper nut.

After moving on to my current nursery job, one of the staff brought in a car boot full of Bunya cones collected by her husband from a local park. They were bigger than I was used to, and had a promising weight to them. Knowing we couldn't possibly propagate and sell so many of the pines, I took a couple home.

It takes a bit of work to get the nut out, but I found secateurs to be the best tool for the job, slicing open the scale and removing the shell. This is pretty easily cut in half, releasing the white, thumb-sized kernel inside. I couldn't help but eat one immediately, and the flavour was sweeter than I expected, a bit like a giant cashew. Afterwards I had a panicked moment of trying to remember if you were supposed to cook them before eating? I survived, and the wide world of the internet assured me I wouldn't be sick, but that they were even better to eat cooked. We roasted some at home, and found them to be quite filling and similar to roasted chestnuts, but a little tough. I've since seen recipes that call for boiling them first, before roasting, frying or pureeing them. I still have a little bowl of them left, so I'll have to give that a try next! In the past in the Bunya mountains of Queensland where they originate, local aboriginal tribes would time gatherings to make the most of the harvest, eating them fresh and cooked in fires.

 

It does surprise me that they're not eaten more widely or grown commercially nowadays, but I suppose that's due to the long time before a tree produces edible nuts, and the dangers of having a tree in your backyard or paddock. Perhaps one day we will have enough land to be able to grow a few, but for now I'll ration the ones I have left, and keep a close eye on those local parks...