Applegarth Farm: harvesting dandelion pollen

Monday, May 16, 2011

harvesting dandelion pollen

One of my worker honey bees gathering the dandelion harvest of pollen. There are thousands of bees gathering pollen this time of year, dandelion pollen is a favorite. They feed it to their young to help them grow from babies to adults. Can you see the pollen she's gathered on her sides, she's getting full and will then carry it back to the hive to unload and go out again. Honeybees are tireless workers when the weather's nice, they are wonderful to have and watch through the different seasons.

3 comments:

House Built On Stone said...: thank you for this post i always wondered where the pollen went and its a beautiful photograph too; May 20, 2011 at 12:07 AM
Jewel said...: Your welcome House built on Stone.; May 20, 2011 at 3:57 PM
Anonymous said...: gives me the sneeze-zees & the itch-eez.; June 10, 2011 at 6:42 AM

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Our goal here at Applegarth Farm is to raise children that play in the woods and gardens, and know where their food comes from. To feed the animals and care for their young, to gather eggs, and milk goats, to eat fruit off of trees, and berries from the bushes that we grow, and to eat from the gardens. We are working towards, and teaching them to be as self sufficient as best we can.

With the economy in the state it is, our plan has become even more important. Being able to live on less is one of our goals. Working from home, or close to home is another goal, and growing and harvesting most of our food is a big goal we've been working towards.

We live in a handbuilt home, our heat comes from the firewood we cut, and cooking is often done right on our woodstove. We grow a lot of our own food, and are building our home slowly with cash for materials, and the time to work on it. All of the buildings have been built over the years by my husband from trees grown and milled right on our farm, or from salvaged lumber.

The beginning years started here with no electricity or running water, and were lived in a small cabin, slowy building and clearing land. We are still trying to live as self sufficiently as we can. I am a homemaker and work part time in the nursery (plants and trees) business. We are raising children, tending animals, gardening and cooking from scratch.

Some of the topics you will hear about are; gardening, cooking, beekeeping, chickens, rabbits, building and timberframing. Along with some of my adventures in soapmaking, candlemaking, animal husbandry, plus the everyday of what's going on around the farm. Future building projects include a goat barn, a root cellar, and a pizza/bread wood fired oven. Come learn along with us, and share homesteading skills you are learning. I'm looking forward to meeting others that share a similar path that we're on, or simply others who dream of homesteading.