Emily - one my clients - won the semi-final of this  contest! She has a bokashi bucket in her company’s office and her mother is using bokashi on Bowen Island. Congratulations Emily!!

From an article in the Vancouver Sun:

Emily Jubenvill is more than just an environmentally minded Vancouverite.

She is the greenest person in Canada, and one of five people worldwide in the running to become the "Greenest Person on the Planet."

…

More than 600 people from 25 countries entered the contest, which posed a series of questions testing entrants’ eco-commitment.

Fifty of them were named finalists in the global search for the greenest person, with voters asked to cast their ballots for the top five contenders. Source

Tammy T was featured in a blog post last summer. Yesterday, she sent this email and I received permission to print it here.

I have officially entered the hive mind. It is what I had wanted to do so that I may understand her more succinctly. It is a bit creepy though, when the aging next door neighbor now appears to be a failing queen and the groups of teenagers at the skate park across the street are moving like a cluster of bees at the edge of the hive. I hear the buzz in everything, the tiny tapping of bee feet on wood is my new favorite sensation in my ears and having those same feet clinging to my skin as they walk along my fingers, hands and arms is by far my favorite skin sensation these days. I love being with them, I love learning from them.

The queen though has been a mysterious figure to me since the get go. I know her power and I know some of her challenges these days, but I had yet to meet her. It wasn’t until I met her absence that I began to understand a bit more of what it was that she possessed. And like I said, I have yet to truly meet her, but in time I suppose, in time.

When a hive loses its queen you know it right away, it sounds like a box full of mourning monks chanting the same sorrowful LOUD tone. ZZZZZZZOOOOOHHHHHHHHHHHH as opposed to the higher pitch of ZZZEEEEHHHHHHHHHHHH. I am working on understanding the frequencies of pitch and scent used by the bees. The subtleties are where the communication happens in the hive. When I first heard the sorrowful sound I had no idea what it was. My imagination saw the inside of the hive as a high domed cathedral and they were inside praying. I thought that this hive was a special hive, a different hive, that wasn’t so preoccupied with the hum drum of collecting nectar and instead geared her efforts in prayer. I prayed with them

A few days later a queen arrived in the mail from Pennsylvania. A queen breeder who does not use any chemicals sent her. He breeds bees that can live with the destructive varroa mite and survive (they are called survivor stock). As far as queen breeding goes he seems to have an ethical operation, but queen rearing is a whole other topic altogether!

As we put the queen cage in the hive we played a recording of a queen piping (a call a queen makes when she is being born and letting the hive know she is there). The ladies immediately settled down to a low hum. I continued praying with them.

Will they accept her or kill her? Will there be enough workers to tend the hundreds to thousands of eggs she will begin laying if they do accept her? Will she survive her mating flight or will she be eaten by a bird or grasshopper or spider? Who is to say? There are so many variables in this whole wide world of bees. Nature! So many variables! Makes me want to pack it up and go get a predictable office job so I can buy things to keep it all in control! For someone who is such a proponent of the wild nature of life, I must admit that sometimes I do get flustered with just how wild things really are and I crave some semblance of control. But aha, the bees have called me and I have heeded and so, and so, I humbly submit to the wild nature and ride the ebb and flow of the life and death of the Hive.

For there really is only one Hive. All bees feel it, all the backyard bees that are being loved and treated with such care can feel and are affected by the murder of the queen mother that happens every spring when the majority of beekeepers re-queen their hives to prevent a failing queen or swarming. I believe that we all have the ability to feel these subtleties. It is just that the bees don’t have a choice. Subtleties are how communication happens and if the entities in the wilderness were to tune off the subtleties they would die. Unlike humans who have been trained to tune them out so that we can survive. Imagine if we were in tune with all the subtleties of our world today? We would be completely bombarded with so many chemicals and loud sounds and strong vibrations of our modern industrialized, mechanical, technological era that we would be incapable of doing much else.

I find the Hive mind is much different than the Human mind. It is all connected for sure, but I find that there are so many sections and segments…fragments, I suppose, in the Human state. The Hive mind is continuous and ever flowing. Life, death, pain, love, mystery, assuredness, community and conflict all exist at once. There is no separation between me and my enemy. I will kill you if you try and enter my domain. I will hurt you if you try to steal from me, AND you are me. We all exist as one. I suck on the nectar of your soul and you feed me. I am filled with love and you are love. We all exist as one. Blessed bee

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Update: 14 August 2007 - Bees gone! See comments.

T. who I met through the Guerrilla Gardening Meetup Group asked me if I could host a bee hive in my garden. My house neighbours said okay in exchange for some honey.

They arrived tonight….

A Boy Bee

T[apprentice] & S[teacher]

There are bees in both boxes. The cardboard box contains a swarm with a virgin queen. S wants the bees outside to go inside and to stop the established bees from killing the new ones, she sprays the swarm with a mixture of sugar water and vanilla.

The old bees will lick the vanilla mixture off the new bees because they taste good and be accepted as friends.

In just over a day the swarm started building a honeycomb

Here they are at the entrance of their new home

Eventually they will get inside

Another view of the honeycomb they made

Daylight pics to be added in a few days….
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My focus on composting and sustainability has led me to some interesting places on the ‘net. Lately, I’ve been looking for extra compost bins on Vancouver Craigslist. While reading the posts, I find many people asking for worms aka wrigglers to start their own worm bins. This is great news. Even though I offer for sale a completely different [better] composting system, - no fruit flies, no odour - I am happy to see people take the steps to reduce their food waste.

I have replied by email a number of times to individuals with this information:

City Famer’s Worm Composting page

City Farmer’s Worm Supplier page includes suppliers in BC, Canada, The U.S.A and from around the world.

The City of Vancouver

has a limited number of Worm Composters available at the low price of $25. The units come complete with the bin, lid and tray, worms, bedding and instructions, and a mandatory one hour workshop at the Compost Demonstration Garden [aka City Farmer - Al]. To register for the workshops or to get more information, call the Compost Hotline at 604-736-2250.

The GVRD’s Composting and Yard Trimmings page has a A Guide to Composting with Worms [.pdf file]

Finally, if you live in Vancouver, I have thousands of worms in my compost bins if you want to come over and sort through the stuff. Call or email me. My contact information is on the Home page in the left column.

Cross-posted to changeeverything.ca
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Technorati Tags: craigslist, vancouver, craigslist+vancouver, gvrd, worms, worm+suppliers, cityfarmer.org, city+farmer, compost, composting, vermiculture, worm+bin, indoor+composting

I recorded this on the weekend.

The “Video Fireplace” of nature.

This is a hive at the Strathcona Community Gardens in Vancouver, BC.

Look closely and you will see pollen on the legs of the bees as they walk from their landing area into the hive.

Aside from the wind, the sounds in the background are an industrial area [see map link above] across the street from the gardens. I’ve been here in the summer where four hives are active and I still can’t hear the bees buzzing because of that noise unless I get really close.

This clip was filmed using a Samsung Digimax D53 camera and the 3x optical zoom. I am sitting about 3 feet away from the hive. Windows Moviemaker used to add the Titles and brighten the image 1x.

Comments and feedback welcome.

Andrea Bellamy writes:
Sharing is good

City Farmer recently announced Sharing Backyards in Greater Vancouver, a website that aims to bring together people looking for a space to garden with those who have under-used backyards and are willing to share.

I received an email about this from City Farmer a few days ago but didn’t look at the website at the time. It is a googlemap Mashup and I’ve added my backyard to the list of people offering space.

Nice to see this progress…

Saving Food from the Dump - CKNWAM

Feb, 17 2007 - 3:50 AM

VANCOUVER/CKNW(AM980) - Recommendations have been made to Vancouver City Council on food composting and diverting food from the landfill, thanks to a new food policy report.

Susan Kurbis of the Food Policy Council says they looked at a small-scale community garden compost in the Strathcona district that led to some surprising results, “They were processing, actually, up to 4 to 6 tonnes a week of food that was destined normally for the landfill…out of 100 tonnes of food waste, we were able to secure 20 tonnes of finished compost.”

The report also studied ways in which edible foods, destined for the landfill, can be diverted as a resource for local charities.

Vancouver City Council Meeting 15Feb07

.pdf file Second Annual Food Policy Progress Report

Technorati Tags: vancouver, food policy council, compost, composting, waste, diversion, landfill, food bank, report

• Inulin - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
  Inulins are a group of naturally occurring oligosaccharides (several simple sugars linked together) produced by many types of plants. They belong to a class of carbohydrates known as fructans.
  (tags: 1Maven prebiotic probiotic 07feb 2007)
• Inulin recommendations match efficacy, shows study
  The ability of the prebiotic fibre inulin to boost the population of ‘friendly’ bifidobacteria in the gut works at both low and high doses without side effects, says new research.
  (tags: 1Maven probiotic prebiotic biosa ingredients Bifidobacterium 07feb 2007)
• Global Warming: The Cold, Hard Facts?
  “….Tim Ball, a long-retired professor from the University of Winnipeg and a well-known climate-change denier who has not published a peer-reviewed scientific publication on climatology in more than a decade.” Read more: http://tinyurl.com/ynmdwd
  (tags: climatechange globalwarming media analysis canada 07feb 2007 oil company shill)
• Urban farming against hunger
  The United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization has opened a new front in its battle against hunger and malnutrition – in the world’s cities where most of global population growth is set to take place over the next decades.
  (tags: 1Maven 100+mile+diet sustainability urban gardening agriculture 07feb 2007)
• 10 things you shouldn’t buy new - MSN Money
  MSN…hmmmm. A career ending move would be include the first release of any new software program - like Windows Vista or WordPress 2.1 [I use WP 2.0]
  (tags: advice funny reference 07feb 2007)

I attended this meeting as I said I would here

I don’t have reporting skills to take word for word notes, so I’ll let the pictures do the talking instead:

A very diverse group….

…with many interests and agendas. Some want to plant flowers in grey/concrete spaces. Others want to grow food in abandoned spaces and community gardens. Some have access to garden and growing space while others don’t.

The co-ordinator of this event is Oren

wearing the cap.

Ward is beginning a business making and selling turn-key raised bed gardens and is chatting with Eileen who grows flowers in over 900 square feet of garden space in a number of community gardens.

Justin - who went out and built his own community garden near where he lives - wants to setup a non-profit group to organize offical community gardens in various parts of the city, is talking with Jan who has done similar work in the U.S.

It will be interesting to see where this leads.

The meeting was held at the Foundation Lounge which served a great food platter for all of us.

http://commgardens.meetup.com/56/?gj=sj5
ooo

Technorati Tags: guerrillagardening, vancouver, bc, changeeverything, guerrilla, gardening, urban, landscape, activism, community