Backyard Orchard News
'Invited' Guests and 'Uninvited' Pests at the Bohart Museum Open House Nov. 19
When the Bohart Museum of Entomology hosts its open house, “Uninvited Guests: Common...
Bohart Museum volunteer Noah Crockette, a high school senior planning a career in entomology, stands by the many items in the museum's gift shop. (Photo by Kathy Keatley Garvey)
These are some of the stuffed animal critters available in the gift shop: (clockwise, from left) louse, bed bug, tardigrade, ant and mosquito. (Photo by Kathy Keatley Garvey)
Entomologist Jeff Smith, who curates the Bohart Museum's butterfly and moth collection, has made these insect collection boxes, available at the gift shop. (Photo by Kathy Keatley Garvey)
What to Do with Your Uninvited Guests in Your Home
Worried about uninvited guests gathering in your home without an invitation or your...
Carpet beetles in whole wheat flour, as identified by Lynn Kimsey, director of the Bohart Museum of Entomology. (Photo by Kathy Keatley Garvey)
A cellar spider making itself home. (Photo by Kathy Keatley Garvey)
Monarchs: Should They Go or Should They Stay?
So here we are, planning a long-awaited 113-mile trip from Solano County to Natural Bridges State...
Marilyn, a butterfly enthusiast from Fairfield, ready to release two monarchs at the Natural Bridges State Park's monarch sanctuary. The butterfly mesh habitat is from the Bohart Museum of Entomology, UC Davis. The "Got Milkweed" monarch t-shirt is also from the Bohart. (Photo by Kathy Keatley Garvey)
A male monarch, born and bred in Vacaville, lingers before fluttering off to the monarch sanctuary. (Photo by Kathy Keatley Garvey)
A monarch cluster 80 feet high in a eucalyptus tree at the Natural Bridges State Park butterfly sanctuary. (Photo by Kathy Keatley Garvey)
Let's Hear It for the Bees and Beekeepers
Let's hear it for the honey bees. Right now they're scrambling to gather nectar and pollen from...
Two matched pairs of honey bees on a blanket flower, Gaillardia. (Photo by Kathy Keatley Garvey)
Olive Harvest at Grumpy Goats Farm
Yesterday I was an agritourist. Pamela Marvel and Stuart Littell, owners of Grumpy Goats Farm, in the Capay Valley of Yolo County, invited me to be part of their annual olive harvest, joining the "friends and family" contingent and picking alongside a hired picking crew. Grumpy Goats is a twenty acre organic farm planted with multiple varieties of olives that are pressed into prize-winning extra virgin olive oil. For me, the day was an adventure. I got to enjoy a sunny fall day being part of an ancient rite of the season, and I got to spend a few hours with some people whose paths don't often cross my own.
Being a guest, I didn't arrive until 9:30 or so, after a beautiful drive through the surrounding farm land. Stuart was there to meet me, introduced me to the other friends and family, and offered me coffee and pastries. With my own picking basket strapped on, I started picking. The young trees were soft and kind, giving their fruit easily with a gentle pull. Even the lowest branches almost dragging on the ground bore olives to harvest. The rhythm was easy on the body - no ladders to climb and lots of trays close by to dump olives when the picking basket began to get heavy. The crew of men and women worked fast around me, and I learned by watching. The other family and friends guests and I tried to keep up, and talked as we picked.
After a few hours it was lunch time. Stuart and Pamela put on lunch for the "family and friends", while the crew gathered to eat by their vehicles or in the shade of the trees. We talked and ate and enjoyed the pleasant day, learning more about each others' lives. Then it was time to go back to picking. This time I joined in with the hired crew, trying not to get in their way.
I thought of the election earlier this week. I thought of our new president-elect and the fearful changes that might be coming for this kind woman and her family and her friends. I wondered what harvest day would be like for Stuart and Pamela next year, or the year after. This agritourism adventure connected me briefly to people whose kindness and friendliness I hope to be able to repay before too long.