Without the honeybee, there would be no Thanksgiving Feast! “If the bee disappeared off the surface of the globe, then man would only have four years of life left. No more bees, no more pollination, no more plants, no more animals, no more man..”      —Albert Einstein  We’re very thankful that the little honey bee who has helped provide the food for our holiday feasts. Without the honeybee, we’d be facing even more dire circumstances. Meaning…there would be NO food. Of course, honeybees don’t pollinate everything going onto our holiday tables, but they factor into the entire food chain from plant to animal to table for most foods we enjoy. It really is quite amazing to understand the importance of their role in the world’s food sources. “…research shows that bees are responsible for pollinating approximately 16% of global flowering plants and around 400 agricultural crop plants.”1 First, a quick shout out to all the other bees including solitary bees, bumble bees and other stingless bees that play a role in pollination. You guys also ROCK when it comes to pollination! For this blog post, though, we are focusing on our favorite little bee, the honeybee, naturally. :) We thought it would be fun to look at some of the traditional holiday foods we typically serve during the holidays and how the honeybee helps with their pollination. Let’s start with the veggies. No Thanksgiving table is complete without squash… be it pumpkin, zucchini or decorative gourds. Do honeybees pollinate these plants? Yes indeed, they are all pollinated by honeybees, which are considered essential to these plants’ survival. What would Thanksgiving be without pumpkin pie? We shudder to think… What about cranberries, the staple of many Thanksgiving tables? These delicious berries are also pollinated by the honeybee. Many growers use migratory honeybees for cranberry pollination. And the honeybee is the most effective pollinator of the cranberry flower. How about green bean casserole, roasted Brussel sprouts or chestnuts in your stuffing?  Honey bees! Love a great Thanksgiving pie? Honeybees are re an important contributor to the pollination plan of apples, peaches, and pears. Can you imagine NO APPLE PIE?! Do you bake or garnish with Almonds? (Macadamias? Brazil Nuts? Cashews?) All of these nuts would suffer without the participation and pollination from the honeybee. The data is staggering. “The California almond industry requires approximately 1.8 million colonies of honey bees in order to adequately pollinate nearly one million acres of bearing almond orchards.” 2 So…do bees help pollinate…the turkey?? Well, not directly of course but, the honeybee is responsible for pollination of certain berries, like raspberries, that turkeys feed on in the spring. Honeybees also help pollinate clover during summer and holly in the winter, which are both eaten by wild turkeys. Farm raised turkeys are often fed a diet of corn-based grain.  While corn is mostly wind-pollinated, honey bees do love to gather the pollen and while rummaging through the corn tassels clouds of pollen are released, thus aiding in corn’s naturally occurring pollination process. And finally, a cautionary tale from the orchards in China…from the Xerces Society Guide “Attracting Native Pollinators”… “In China’s Sichuan Province, one of the largest apple producing regions in the world, farmers perch on ladders in mountainside orchards to pollinate blossoms by hand. The farmers have adopted this practice because wild bees are now absent in their area.” At Little Bee of CT, we give thanks to the honeybee all year long, though during the season of giving thanks, it means a lot to us to help you understand the important role the honeybee plays in the food chain, and on your Thanksgiving table. Check out our website to browse our all-natural products created from the beeswax and honey produced by the amazing honeybee. Don’t forget to follow @littlebeeofct on Instagram and Facebook to see what we’re getting up to each week! And look for our next free giveaway, with a golden honey theme, which will be posted soon. Thank you for supporting Little Bee of CT and the busy beekeepers around the world!   https://www.worldatlas.com/articles/which-crops-plants-are-pollinated-by-honey-bees.html https://www.abfnet.org/page/

We were supposed to be on safari and flying over the Serengeti desert in a hot air balloon for my parent’s 50th anniversary this year. When COVID-19 struck we knew immediately that our very special experience which had been in the works for 2 years was not going to be possible. Fortunately, the virus has not directly impacted us. We still wanted to celebrate the occasion in some special way, but what would be appropriate during this difficult time? We ultimately decided that a small gathering of close family members it would need to be (much to Mom’s delight!). The Evening It needed to be simple, but elegant. An easy menu. A time and a place where our small group could gather under our massive oak trees, relax and appreciate the silence of a country home, and reflect on how fortunate we all are to be able to celebrate this milestone together. The Table The 16ft table was draped with a crisp, white tablecloth and in lieu of a table runner, dove grey linen napkins laid corner to corner to create a diamond pattern. The Light It’s funny, we always liked candles, but really didn’t appreciate the ambiance they create until we started making our own from beeswax. We love the simplicity of rolled beeswax candles. We love that there is nothing toxic or artificial in them. We love that they are appropriate for both casual and more formal use, at any time of year. The light they emit is truly exquisite, but especially at night. For this event we used a variety of sizes our brand new 5” diameter triple wick, our 3” and 6” pillars as well as our 2” votives in a variety of white-washed wood and glass candle holders and lanterns. The Flowers We think flowers make all the difference in a table scape. Whether they are professionally created, or “weeds” picked from the backyard and arranged in glass jar, flowers bring a visual “oompf” to an entertaining space. Our gorgeous flowers were designed by Brenda Christie of @bouquetsandbeyondct in Woodbury, CT. Brenda created us an array of light, bright arrangements of Coral Charm and Festiva Maxima peonies, Playa Blanca and Tiffany peach roses, Allium, Engrym (thistles!) and HERBS! Rosemary and mint to be exact. The inclusion of herbs was an unexpected way to improve visual interest, texture and scent on a warm summer evening. The Result It goes without saying that the evening was a success. It may not have been Africa, but it was far more meaningful in a different way. Sometimes the simple things are those that matter the most.

The job of an event planner is to curate the perfect venue, clothing, ceremony, and decor. Their aim is to reflect the personality and values of the event. For instance, beeswax candles have recently found a place in ‘green’ weddings, since they are a symbol of both elegance and sustainability. So it is no surprise to discover what many planners are saying, “there’s no candle-light like beeswax. The soft amber glow of pure beeswax is beautiful and romantic… You can trust beeswax to be long burning, with no chemical additives, and safe to burn in the presence of your family and friends.” Read more at the New York Times: In Search of the Best Candles Explore our products to go with the next event you plan!