- Author: Kathy Keatley Garvey
If you've ever wanted to taste exotic honeys (of course, you have!) and if you've ever wondered why native bees don't make honey (you have, haven't you?), then you're in luck.
The Honey and Pollination Center at the University of California, Davis, is hosting an international honey tasting event on Tuesday, April 5 in the Robert Mondavi Institute for Wine and Food Science (RMI) Sensory Theater, and you're invited.
The event, billed as The World of Honey--International Honey Tasting, will take place from 6:30 to 8 p.m. at RMI, located on Old Davis Road, UC Davis campus.
Participants will experience four exotic international honeys: stingless bee honey from Brazil, coffee blossom from Guatemala, Viper's Bugloss from New Zealand, and chestnut honey from France.
Amina Harris, director of the Honey and Pollination Center, will lead the tasting. The event opens with a short talk and PowerPoint on stingless bees and native bees by Robbin Thorp, distinguished emeritus professor, UC Davis Department of Entomology and Nematology.
"Stingless bees were raised by the Mayans for honey," Harris says. "Today stingless bee honey production is very low."
In his talk,Thorp will discuss the diversity of bees (20,000 species in the world) and why most bees do not produce honey. He also will cover "which ones produce honey that we do harvest, primarily bees of the genus Apis and some of the many stingless bees."
Student tickets are $12.50, while tickets for UC Davis affiliates are $25, and $30 for the general public. To registrar, access the Honey and Pollination Center website at https://registration.ucdavis.edu/Item/Details/190 or contact Elizabeth Luu at luu@caes.ucdavis.edu or Amina Harris at aharris@ucdavis.edu. The last day to register online is Sunday, April 3.
- Author: Kathy Keatley Garvey
The Department of Entomology and Nematology will offer honey tasting from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. in the Briggs Hall courtyard. Last year's event drew some 3000 people. The process is easy: take a toothpick, dip it into the honey container (no double-dipping) and savor.
This year visitors can sample six different varietals of honey: coffee blossom, meadowfoam blossom, buckwheat, creamed clover, cotton and chestnut, according to Extension apiculturist Elina Niño. Across the hallway, in Room 122, folks can check out the bee observation hive from the Harry H. Laidlaw Jr. Honey Bee Research Facility. Niño and staff research associate Billy Synk will answer questions about bees.
Several blocks away, the Honey and Pollination Center, located at the Robert Mondavi Institute for Wine and Food Science (RMI), will offer honey tasting: avocado, orange blossom, sage, sweet pea, meadowfoam and UC Davis wildflower. Visitors can purchase the UC Davis wildflower honey, said Honey and Pollination Center executive director Amina Harris. And yes, there will be a bee observation hive at RMI, too. How fast can you find the queen bee?
Meanwhile, the "Wings of Life" will be playing continuously in the RMI's Sensory Theatre. It doesn't get any better than this!
Harris encourages visitors to "bee all you can bee" by wearing bee or honey costumes or "come dressed as your favorite pollinator." Arts and crafts activities for children are also planned. Think bees. Thank them, too. You'll see bees foraging in the Good Life Garden that fronts RMI. Vegetables, fruits, herbs...they're all there.
Saturday is a also a good time to visit the Häagen-Dazs Honey Bee Haven on Bee Biology Road, west of the central campus. Planted in 2009, the half-acre bee friendly garden is operated by the UC Davis Department of Entomology and Nematology. It is open from dawn to dusk every day for self-guided tours. There you'll see honey bees from the nearby Laidlaw facility doing what they do best--pollinating. Keep a watch out for other pollinators, too. They include sweat bees, digger bees, bumble bees, carpenter bees and butterflies. Then mark your calendar for May 2 to return to the haven from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. for the fifth anniversary celebration, coordinated by manager Chris Casey.
Yes, Saturday April 18 promises to be a "honey of a day" and a "honey of a picnic."
- Author: Kathy Keatley Garvey
How about almond, yellow starthistle, leatherwood, cultivated buckwheat, safflower and wild oak?
Those are the varieties that will be offered by Extension apiculturist Eric Mussen of the UC Davis Department of Entomology and Nematology at Briggs Hall on Saturday, April 12 during the 100th annual campuswide UC Davis Picnic Day.
Mussen will be offering honey tasting to one and all--come one, come all--from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. And it's free. You grab a toothpick, poke it in the honey dish, and enjoy.
Folks don't usually like the bitter taste of almond, Mussen says. That's why you won't find it sold in stores. His favorite? Starthistle. It's an invasive weed, but don't tell that to the bees. They love it.
It's also a good time to ask Mussen about honey bees and check out the glassed-in bee observation hive in 122 Briggs. There you can look for the queen (she's the one with a number on her thorax) and watch the colony at work. In addition, the UC Davis Department of Entomology and Nematology is planning scores of educational displays and fun activities. You can learn what an insect is--how it differs from spiders and other critters. You can create maggot art, follow the termite trails and "bet" at the cockroach races. You can learn about forensic, medical, aquatic, apiculture and forest entomology. Like pollinators? Learn about the major pollinators in your backyard. Like fly fishing? Tie a fly.
At the Bohart Museum of Entomology, home of nearly eight million insect specimens, you can see insects have been recently discovered and insects that are threatened and extinct. You can also hold Madagascar hissing cockroaches and walking sticks (live!) in your hand.
All in all, it plans to be a fun day for picnickers who love bugs--or want to learn more about them and what they do.
- Author: Kathy Keatley Garvey
If you want to learn more about bees, honey and pollination, then you'll want to attend the debut event of the newly formed Honey and Pollination Center at the University of California, Davis.
Themed "Bounty of Pollination: More Than Just Honey," the event is set from 1 to 5:30 p.m. on Saturday, Oct. 27 in the Silverado Vineyards Sensory Theater at the Robert Mondavi Institute for Wine and Food Science (RMI).
It's “an afternoon of lively discussions, unique tastings and interesting displays on the science behind honey and non-honeybee pollinators,” says RMI spokesperson Tracy Dickinson.
Clare Hasler-Lewis, executive director of RMI, and Ed Lewis, vice chair of the UC Davis Department of Entomology and faculty director of the Honey and Pollination Center, will welcome the crowd.
Among the speakers will be Amina Harris, owner of Z Specialty Foods, Woodland; Rebecca Ets-Hokin of the San Francisco Bay Area, certified culinary professional, who will discuss “Varietal Honeys—Blending the Flavors in the Kitchen”; and Neal Williams, UC Davis assistant professor of entomology, whose topic is “Integrated Pollination Strategies: Managed and Wild Bees for a Sustainable Future.”
Also planned is a best honey competition, a Pollinator Partnership activity, and a reception that will include tastings and best honey competition results.
The cost is $60 per person, with special discounts for UC faculty, staff and students.
Folks attending will definitely walk away with a greater appreciation of honey bees and wild bees.
And a greater appreciation of one of nature's most treasured treats--honey.
- Author: Kathy Keatley Garvey
If you're looking for something to do tomorrow (Saturday, April 16), it's UC Davis Picnic Day, a campuswide annual event.
Over at Briggs Hall, Extension apiculturist Eric Mussen of the UC Davis Department of Entomology Department faculty will be offering a taste of honey to visitors. Actually, more than one taste of honey. First, there's the honey derived from orange blossoms, clover, cotton, starthistle and other plants that you can sample. And then there's the taste of honey via samples of Gimbal's Fine Candies, San Francisco. The company donates funds to UC Davis for honey bee research.
Honey tasting time: 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. The place: Briggs Hall courtyard. Cost: Free!
News flash: Mussen will be wearing his "Show Me the Honey" t-shirt.
Human beings aren't the only ones who love honey. Drones (male bees) do, too.
Today bee breeder-geneticist Susan Cobey was conducting a class at the Harry H. Laidlaw Jr. Honey Bee Research Facility on Bee Biology Road when a few drones escaped.
Several wound up by a window, and someone (yours truly) offered them a taste of honey. You think drones are fed only by their sisters, the worker bees? No. They can sip honey, too.