“In 2025, the March equinox happens on March 20 at 5:01 A.M. EDT. This falls on a Thursday and is the astronomical beginning of the spring season in the Northern Hemisphere and the autumn season in the Southern Hemisphere.”
With all the gloom and doom going on around us and especially on TV, please remember SPRING.
Spring Equinox
Not just that this is a time of year when we have roughly equal day and night time, but think about spring as a renewal.
Get away from the lines at shopping and the negative news being promoted.
Go outside and listen and view nature.
Baby Chick
This is not the end of the world, but a new beginning, a fresh start.
Prepare for your garden, think about what you can grow instead of what is not on the shelves at Walmart.
“Observe nature around you!
Are the worms emerging from the earth? (The March Full Moon is called “The Full Worm Moon” for this very reason!)
Watch the arc of the Sun across the sky as it shifts toward the north. Birds are migrating northward, along with the path of the Sun.
Are you noticing that the days are getting longer? Did you know that the increasing sunlight is what triggers birds to sing? Cool, eh? Enjoy our Bird Songs page.
Are the daffodils poking up their heads? Trees, shrubs, and flowers are sensitive to temperature and day-length, too! Since ancient days, people have used them as indicators of when the weather is right for planting. For example: Blooming crocus are your cue to plant radishes,parsnips, and spinach. See more of nature’s signs.
Can you feel the Sun getting stronger? The longer days bring high temperatures. Both we and the animals around us strip off our clothes and heavy coats!
Are you craving fresh foods after a long winter? A Spring Tonic, using the early greens of spring, maybe just the thing you need! Also, find some new spring recipes using what’s fresh and seasonal!”
Dandelions
Check It Out!
“Sayings
Bluebirds are a sign of spring; warm weather and gentle south breezes they bring.
One swallow does not make a spring.
In spring, no one thinks of the snow that fell last year.
When the dandelions bloom early in spring, there will be a short season. When they bloom late, expect a dry summer.
Don’t say that spring has come until you can put your foot on nine daisies.”
Quick Tip
“For glad Spring has begun, And to the ardent sun The earth, long time so bleak, Turns a frost-bitten cheek. – Celia Thaxter, American poet (1835–94)”
Cherry Blossoms
Bibliography:
Boeckmann, Catherine. “First Day of Spring 2025: The Spring Equinox.” FIRST DAY OF SPRING 2025: THE SPRING EQUINOX, Old Farmer’s Almanac, 20 Mar. 2025, www.almanac.com/content/first-day-spring-vernal-equinox#.
I have read several articles about the bees going through another colony collapse and or a large bee die-off in commercial apiaries.
I am not denying that we may have seen a reduction in bee populations but what I would like to look at is what I think the reasons may be.
Whenever I tell people that I keep bees, the first question is do you get honey from your bees?
Honey Bees Building Comb in Warre Hive
That is the main reason people think you would have bees.
Why else would you go to all the trouble and expense that it takes to have bees?
Yes, pollination of our plants is a good reason but the honey bee is not very effective as a pollinator compared to other bees and pollinators.
Honey Bees
The Mason bee and Leafcutter bee are much better pollinators except they do not produce honey.
Mason Bees Emerging
Let’s focus then on the honey and the honey bees and compare the problems that we are having with bees to other agricultural entities such as chickens, hogs, cattle, etc.
The United States has been having problems with diseases in our livestock, especially our large commercial operations using confined feedlot operations known as CAFO or “Concentrated Animal Feeding Operation”.
CAFO
To be able to make a high profit on a commodity product, it will take a big or large-scale operation due to the slim margins that are available.
The way to achieve that scale is with large numbers placed in close proximity to each other.
The livestock is fed from bulk formulated rations with most getting some form of preventive treatment in the feed or by shot.
Most of the time this bulk feed is produced from GMO corn that has been sprayed and chemically fertilized by the grower.
Spraying
The sanitary conditions can be marginal with keeping so many together with what space has been allocated for them.
The livestock does not have a diversity of genetics due to traits that have been selected for, such as gain per day and or product produced such as eggs per day.
It is my opinion that the problems that we see in livestock is what we are seeing in the bee population which is management.
We the beekeepers are not letting the bees be bees.
We inspect, manipulate, move around, pack hives next to each other, fog and treat with all types of preventive medications, select the queens, remove the natural honey and feed high fructose corn syrup, and the list goes on.
Beekeeping organizations love speakers with PhDs, it gives the credibility and the peace of mind that science is here now and we can remove anything natural.
I remember I went to a state meeting one time and one of the PhD speakers was doing a talk and slide show on how to artificially inseminate queen bees!
Who in the world would want to do that?
I believe that the answer to the bee die-off is pretty straightforward; let bees be beesand become bee havers.
Bee Pollinating
This is what has been happening in the regenerative agriculture movement, is letting the flock or herds be in a natural environment.
The soil is the starting point.
Healthy soil, which is not tilled and the plants are not sprayed with herbicides, pesticides, fungicides, and insecticides, will produce a diverse plant ecosystem that will allow all pollinators to thrive, especially bees.
The bee hives should be inspected maybe once a year.
Stop and think, a feral colony of bees is not inspected, they do not build hives next to other hives, the colony swarms, a queen is selected, they store honey they make for the winter, no splits are done or box rotations with queen excluders. The bees know how to take care of themselves.
If a colony dies, then it was weak and that is nature’s way of selecting strong survivors.
Feral bees are not treated for mites, are not fumigated, and if they encounter smoke, it is from a fire, not a beekeeper.
Most bees come out of Georgia.
3lb Bee Package With Queen
The commercial beekeepers have to constantly buy new bees to try and keep up with the ones that die off.
That is where I always got my bees from, until now.
I am trying to capture a feral colony to start a hive.
Swarm Trap
I have already put up a Bee House to place Mason bees in this next week.
I ordered Mason bees and Leafcutter bees for the pollination of gardens.
I tried capturing a bee swarm last year with swarm traps but was unsuccessful. I am in an area where thousands of acres are commercially farmed for corn and soybeans.
Every summer I have seen spray trucks in the fields along with aerial spraying.
I am not sure if any feral bee colonies can be found where I am at but I plan on placing swarm traps this week and try again.
In conclusion, so many problems in agriculture tend to be manmade.
Hopefully, with regenerative agriculture gaining momentum, nature will have a chance to sort out our mess.
Check It Out!
Bee Swarm Trap
Quick Tip
100% WINTER BEE SURVIVAL – “Secrets” to Success Horizontal Hive Natural Beekeeping by Leo Sharashkin (apiary in Cabool, MO)
We had 100% COLONY SURVIVAL THIS WINTER… again! I take little credit for that – but there’s a feeling of satisfaction in seeing natural beekeeping of “Keeping Bees with a Smile” work so well. Here are our “secret” ingredients to success:
1) LOCAL BEES ONLY – I never bought a single bee, only catching local wild swarms. We live in a remote place with almost no beekeepers to bring in package bees from elsewhere – keeping the genetics of the local bee population intact.
2) PESTICIDE-FREE ENVIRONMENT – we only locate our bee yards at thriving organic farms (please support them!) and at our own private bee reserve, so bees are not poisoned by insecticides and other agrochemicals. “Better living through NO chemistry” is our motto!
3) TREATMENT-FREE BEEKEEPING – we never treat our hives against Varroa mites or any parasite or disease. If a colony dies, we just multiply those that thrive to take the place of those who fail. So we constantly select for healthy and productive colonies that stay healthy without medication.
4) NUTRITION – our bees are never fed sugar – only their own honey and beebread. And I keep an unholy pile of unextracted frames full of honey and pollen to give back to the bees if they are ever low on stores. I also plant wildflowers to complement the wild nectar they forage on.
5) GOOD HIVES – Layens hives’ frame shape helps bees create an uninterrupted brood nest ideal for wintering and spring build-up. We use both insulated hives (the best) and non-insulated solid wood hives (which I insulate with wool pillows for the winter).
Bibliography:
Received by Leo Sharashkin, 100% WINTER BEE SURVIVAL – “Secrets” to Success, 28 Feb. 2025.
Ever go mushroom hunting outdoors? Finding mushrooms and eating them fresh is an experience for the taste buds. “Don’t eat a mushroom unless you’re certain it’s an edible variety!”
I can remember when I was really young, my grandpa and I would go out in the woods to look for mushrooms.
We didn’t always find them but it was a lot of fun just being in the woods.
Grayson Highlands State Park In Virginia
As I grew older, some of the guys I worked with would go hunting for mushrooms.
I don’t know how they did it but they always came back with a hat or a small basket full.
They would then fry them up.
You might ask how they fry them at work, well I used to work in some pretty rural areas, and having the means to cook at an office was not out of the ordinary.
That was also the first time I ate coon.
But back to the topic of mushrooms.
The guys I had worked with had hunted mushrooms since they were little kids, same as my grandpa and they knew what they were looking for and where to look.
In today’s world, that type of knowledge is not as common as it used to be.
In fact, I would caution anyone to look on the internet to determine if the mushroom they brought in from the field is edible, to be sure, and go to a very reputable site.
Photo by ROMAN ODINTSOV from Pexels
The result of being wrong or getting wrong information can be a mild sickness and in some cases depending on the mushroom, you can die from eating it.
Now that the cautions have been discussed, I would like to point out some ways to grow mushrooms at home.
One of the easiest ways to grow mushrooms is straight out of a box.
Two young entrepreneurs started a company called Back to the Roots.
They have a growing kit that is complete and in a box.
Back To The Roots
From “Back to the Roots” website: “In a college class, we learned that mushrooms could grow on recycled coffee grounds. After watching hours of how-to videos and turning our fraternity kitchen into a big science experiment, we eventually decided to give up our corporate job offers to instead become full-time mushroom farmers. What started as curiosity about urban farming has turned into a passion for “undoing food” and reconnecting families to it through fun, delicious, and sustainable “ready to grow” and “ready to eat” products.
What type of mushroom does the Mushroom Mini Farm grow?
Our mushroom mini-farm grows gourmet Pearl Oyster mushrooms. They’re commonly found in Europe and Asia and are used increasingly in a variety of cuisines for their velvety texture, smooth taste, and dense nutrient content.
What is the Mushroom Mini Farm growing on? Is it eco-friendly?
The Mushroom Mini Farm is made from all organic recycled waste including corn cob and sawdust.
What is the white layer covering the mini farm?
The white layer is mycelium! It’s similar to the “roots” of the mushrooms (if mushrooms had roots).
What do Oyster mushrooms taste like?
Oyster mushrooms have a mild flavor that is very versatile when it comes to the food they complement. They have a delicate, velvety texture that pairs well in pasta, skewers, soups, salads, and anything else you like to put mushrooms in! They taste amazing, especially when they’re so fresh, and can be eaten raw or cooked. Chef Alice Waters of acclaimed Berkeley restaurant Chez Panisse has raved about their authentic, nutty, flavor. See what she has to say!
What are the health benefits of eating oyster mushrooms?
Oyster mushrooms are extremely healthy and rich, given that one-third of their dry weight is protein. They contain amino acids and enzymes that have been shown to boost the immune system and are rich in vitamin C, vitamin B complex, and most of the mineral salts required by the human body. Calcium, phosphorous and iron content in oyster mushrooms are double the amount found in most meats. They are also known to lower cholesterol, boost the immune system, and may even inhibit tumor growth.”
If their story doesn’t sound like enough of a reason to start growing mushrooms, then you need to listen to Paul Stamets’s “6 Ways Mushrooms Can Save The World” Ted Talk.
Mushrooms taste good, are good for you and they may even help save us from some of the disasters looming out there in the world that could alter our life.
Well, that sounds a little strong, anyone for a fried mushroom?
Check It Out!
Mushrooms as Medicine with Paul Stamets at Exponential Medicine 31.54
Quick Tip
Wild mushrooms: What to eat, what to avoid “Don’t guess,” advises Tradd Cotter, who has been cultivating mushrooms for more than 20 years
Buy a regional field guide to learn what mushrooms grow wild near you.
Seek to identify at least the genus of the mushroom you have found (identification keys include the stem, a spore print, what the mushroom is growing on, and the structure of the stem base, which could be below ground).
Take two collecting baskets when foraging. Put mushrooms positively identified as edible in one. Put mushrooms you are uncertain about in the other. You won’t get sick by simply touching a toxic mushroom, he said.
Be extremely careful if you are a pet owner and want to take your dog on a foraging trip. Dogs lead the list as victims of deadly and poisonous mushrooms — more than any other animal or humans, Cotter said.
You may have decided that you want to start raising chickens so you have your own healthy fresh eggs or maybe you plan on giving chicks to your children for Easter. Now, where do you put your chickens and how do you keep them from predators?
Living in an urban environment can be challenging to keep chickens or for that matter, almost anything that you would consider from an agricultural standpoint.
Chickens can exist in a city environment and thrive quite well.
One of the keys to the chicken’s thriving is making sure that they are not a meal for the neighbor’s dog or other potential predators.
As much as we love chickens, so do many other animals that would love to make a meal out of them.
Free Range
To help prevent this a chicken coop needs to be placed where the chickens can be safe and have a place to roost away from harm.
Since chickens have become popular to raise in the city or urban areas, chicken coops have become more available in many different styles, shapes, and sizes.
I have had an interest in the mobile type of coops so the chickens can help with bugs in the yard and turn, the eggs will have that deep yellow yolk that tastes so good from ranged chickens.
This particular coop was purchased and modified to be mobile.
Chicken Coop – Rear
Chicken Coop – Front
Handles were added and wheels to the back of the coop.
Along the base, reinforcement was added to help keep the chicken coop from damage when moved.
Chicken Coop – Side
Chicken Coop – Side Entrance
This is a good design and modification.
One to two people can move this coop and provide the chickens with new grass and bugs to eat.
Another design is one my son-in-law came up with.
This design gives the chickens more room to move around plus by sliding on some temporary wheels, the whole thing can be moved to a new location as often as you need or want.
Nesting Box Access Above White Door
Opposite Side
As you can see the temporary wheels leaning against the coop, attach to a bar that is underneath the whole structure.
By grabbing hold of the bars in the front, the whole structure can be moved in the same way you would move a wheelbarrow.
The nest boxes can be accessed from both sides and two doors help facilitate cleanout.
The structure is a little bit heavier than the first but can still be managed by one person or if need be two.
This setup also allows for more chickens with a greater surface of exposed grass within their reach.
Rear of Chicken Coop
Front of Chicken Coop
I used to have a pretty steep slope in my backyard.
I tried to figure out how to have a mobile chicken coop that can be stable and not tip over.
I have even thought about in my case using a stationary chicken coop but making the area where the chickens can range, mobile.
I would have done this with electric poultry fencing.
An example of a beautiful stationary chicken coop was my neighbor’s.
Stationary Chicken Coop
Stationary Chicken Coop – Front
Stationary Chicken Coop – Inside
Ramp
To provide more of a run, poultry fencing can be used.
The fencing can be easily moved and can also help deter predators from killing and eating the chickens.
This would require a bit of work to herd the chickens around the established fenced area.
One idea might be to attach more than one fenced area so they can be moved between areas.
This is a work in progress and I am sure I will have a learning curve as to what will work and what will not work for my situation.
Check It Out!
Stationary Chicken Coop Plans
Quick Tip
How to Install an Electric Poultry Fence Video 6:27
Bibliography:
“6 Week Old Chicks.” Poultry 6 to 8 Weeks Old | Purina Animal Nutrition. N.p., n.d. Web. 27 Feb. 2025
Up until a few years ago, I had not heard of gluten intolerance, but now my church even has gluten-free communion. So, what is gluten and how does it affect our bodies?
Gluten (from Latin gluten, “glue”) is a mixture of proteins found in wheat and related grains, including barley, rye, oat, and all their species and hybrids (such as spelt, kamut, and triticale).
It sounds like gluten should be good for us except for that part about the glue.
When you take flour and mix it in the water you will form an elastic material that can be shaped, stretched, and formed.
This material is known as dough and is used to make bread and cakes.
Sometimes even extra gluten is added to form different textures in cakes.
Bread Dough
“But those same “binding” properties also interfere with the breakdown and absorption of nutrients, including the nutrients from other foods in the same meal.
The result can be likened to a glued-together constipating lump in your gut, which can impede proper digestion.
The undigested gluten then triggers your immune system to attack the lining of your small intestine, which can cause symptoms like diarrhea or constipation, nausea, and abdominal pain.
Over time, your small intestine becomes increasingly damaged and inflamed.
This in turn can lead to malabsorption of nutrients and nutrient deficiencies, anemia, osteoporosis, and other health problems.
The condition can also cause a wide array of other symptoms that are not gastrointestinal in nature, including neurological or psychological problems, and problems related to the skin, liver, joints, nervous system, and more.
Celiac disease is also connected to autoimmunity.
If you’re diagnosed with celiac after the age of 20, your chances of developing an autoimmune condition skyrocket from the average 3.5 percent to 34 percent.
Undiagnosed celiac disease is also associated with a nearly four-fold increased risk of premature death.”
Gluten can be found in a lot of food products such as beer, pasta, all sorts of bread like pretzels, bagels, pizza, and the list goes on.
So I have to ask, why can some people tolerate gluten while others can not?
Industrial Farming Practices
Is this another one of the new-age allergies?
I never even heard of gluten intolerance until the last few years.
There are several factors that have contributed to the rise in this intolerance and a lot has to do with the hybridization of wheat which has resulted in higher levels of gluten protein.
Another change is the wide use of glyphosate (Roundup herbicide) being heavily used in wheat production to stimulate more seeds and higher yields.
Wheat
Roundup is used as a “Preharvest” on wheat.
The application is absorbed into the wheat and kills the wheat since it is not GMO, thus producing a more even harvest.
This is not allowed on wheat used for products like beer.
Preharvest
Higher yields sound like a good thing, and they can be, but in the last 15 years or more, the use has greatly increased along with the rise in Celiac Disease.
Glyphosate can damage your gut flora and can cause severe problems.
Glyphosate has been found in the foods that we eat like pizza and bagels.
“Not only does the glyphosate seriously impair the villi in your gut, but it also inhibits a process that normally helps your body digest wheat proteins.
Glyphosate & Celiac Incidence
The gliadin in gluten is difficult to break down and digest.
Normally a reaction takes place that builds connections between different proteins in the wheat.
Glyphosate appears to attach to the gliadin as a consequence of a chemical reaction, and by interfering with the protein connections, glyphosate makes the wheat highly indigestible — more so than it already is — and more likely to cause an immune reaction and gut dysbiosis.” writes, Dr. Mercola
Another culprit contributing to the gluten intolerance epidemic is how wheat is milled and bread is made.
“The endosperm and the starch are roller milled, but all the other ingredients are first extracted and then added back in at varying proportions, depending on the requirements of the end product.
What you end up with is highly refined wheat flour that is more likely to cause GI problems.
Whole grain flour is made by grinding the whole grain using a stone mill.
Nothing is taken out and nothing is added in.
The end product contains the entire grain, hence the term “whole grain.”
The process is much simpler and less destructive to the nutritional content of the grain.
While whole-grain bread still contains gluten, it might not cause as severe a problem if you don’t have celiac disease.
Some believe the problems attributed to gluten may in fact be related more so to the chemicals used during the processing of refined wheat flour, than to gluten itself.” according to Dr. Mercola
The other thing that has changed is how long the dough is left to rise.
The dough used to rise overnight, allowing the yeast enzymes to break down the gluten.
In today’s methods the dough often only rises for a couple of hours.
Thus containing more indigestible gluten than in bread made in the past.
The best practice to not have the symptoms from ingesting gluten is to abstain from whole grains.
But I thought everyone was supposed to eat whole grains as part of a good diet.
Old Time Mill
According to “The U.S. Dietary Guidelines Advisory Committee, a group of scientists convened to offer nutrition recommendations for Americans to the federal government has said, “dietary patterns of the American public are suboptimal and are causally related to poor individual and population health and higher chronic disease rates.
” The scientists recommended diets higher in fruits, vegetables, and whole grains than is currently consumed.
“Across all ages and both sexes,” they added, “the U.S. population does not meet the goal for whole-grain intake, the inadequate intake of whole grains leads to underconsumption of several … nutrients of public health concern.” Katherine Tallmadge
It appears that unless you are on the paleo diet, you should be eating more whole grains.
As usual, the industry has jumped on the bandwagon of “gluten-free” which even French fries can be classified as gluten-free.
So what to make of this, if you have celiac disease, you do not have much choice but to abstain from gluten.
Following the US Dietary Guidelines will be hard for the rest of us if you eat processed foods and have symptoms of gluten intolerance.
One solution for some may be to eat organic foods and try to stay away from processed foods as much as possible.
It appears again that one of the health problems that many in this country are suffering from points back to the food industry.
This will only continue to get worse until we use our food dollars to vote for a change.
Glyphosate Usage On Wheat Matches Very Well With The Rise In Celiac Disease Over Time 13:13
Quick Tip
The Effects of Gluten on the Microbiome 1:14
Bibliography:
Dr. Mercola, “How Gluten and Modern Food Processing Contribute to Poor Health.” N.p., July-Aug. 2016. Web. <http://articles.mercola.com/sites/articles/archive /2016/07/02/gluten-food-processing.aspx>. Link inactive.
Tallmadge, Katherine, M.A., R.D. “The Dangers of Going Gluten-Free (Op-Ed).” N.p., Aug.-Sept. 2015. Web. <http://www.livescience.com/51826-gluten-free- diets-can-be-unhealthy.html>.
LUPKIN, SYDNEY. “5 Gluten Myths You Were Too Embarrassed to Ask About.” Abcnews, May-June 2014. Web. <http://abcnews.go.com/Health/gluten-myths -embarrassed/story?id=23645211>.
Sarah. “The Real Reason Wheat Is Toxic (It’s Not the Gluten).” The Healthy Home Economist, 4 Mar. 2018, www.thehealthyhomeeconomist.com/real-reason-for-toxic-wheat-its-not-gluten/.
“Gluten, Glyphosate, and the Industrialization of Our Food System.” ION* Intelligence of Nature, 8 Aug. 2022, https://intelligenceofnature.com/blogs/ion/gluten-glyphosate-food-system.
pictures: Photo by Nadi Lindsay from Pexels https://www.pexels.com/photo/dry-wheat-field-in-countryside-during-sunset-4982878/
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