Backyard Orchard News
Handing Over the Bees!
Beekeepers circled biologist Randy Oliver, commercial beekeeper, scientist, writer and educator, as...
Beekeeper-scientist Randy Oliver of Grass Valley gestures during his presentation. (Photo by Kathy Keatley Garvey)
Randy Oliver hands over bees to beekeeper Ettamarie Peterson of Petaluma, a member of the Sonoma County Beekeepers' Association and the Western Apicultural Society. (Photo by Kathy Keatley Garvey)
Beekeeper Etta Marie Peterson displays a handful of bees as a cell phone photographer captures the moment. (Photo by Kathy Keatley Garvey)
If a bird in the hand is worth two in a bush, what's a handful of bees worth? Ettamarie Peterson, Petaluma beekeeper and member of the Sonoma County Beekeepers' Association and the Western Apicultural Society, displays a handful of nurse bees. (Photo by Kathy Keatley Garvey)
California Red Scale Workshop on Biology and Management
On Sept 28, Dr. Beth Grafton-Cardwell led an all-day training on the nitty gritty details of...
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What Attracts Bees to Blossoms? A Surprising Discovery by UC Davis Ecologist Rachel Vannette
You're watching honey bees foraging in a field. They buzz toward a blossom, sip nectar, and...
A honey bee heads toward a lupine blossom. It's not just the nectar she's scented. UC Davis community ecologist Rachel Vannette has just published a paper in New Phytologist journal that shows nectar-living microbes release scents or volatile compounds, too, and can influence a pollinator's foraging preference. (Photo by Kathy Keatley Garvey)
Microbial stains (fungi and bacteria) isolated from floral nectar. (Photo by Rachel Vannette)
This is the electroantennogram (EAG) assay set-up. (Photo by Bryan Smith, USDA-ARS)
Still Dirty at Thirty! Hoes Down Harvest Festival at Full Belly Farm
The Hoes Down Harvest Festival invites all to play on October 7, 2017
Dru gave a spinning demonstration and introduced the visitors to a few sheep. Annie, Dru and two other women in the wreath-making group gave a wreath-making demo and led a tour of the farm. Dru remembers, “ It might have been a potluck; we didn't sell any food. There was some sort of music, probably bluegrass. People walked down to the creek. The trail was all overgrown then; there wasn't a path. It was a miracle that people came, even some people we didn't know! We probably sold about five wreaths that day.” That was the first Hoes Down Harvest Festival and the start of a tradition enjoyed by thousands of Northern Californians.
A few months later, at the annual EcoFarm Conference of California organic farmers, an announcement on the bulletin board invited everyone to the second annual Hoes Down Harvest Festival, a fundraiser for the EcoFarm Conference, tickets $5 a person. There was no going back.
In the early years, creativity thrived on a shoestring budget. Dru recalls, “for three or four years we used to to put up long irrigation pipes and string a huge nylon tarp that had come from Christo's ‘Running Fence' project to make a big tent.” These days, a crew sets up large festival tents and awnings for the event.
After running entirely on volunteer energy for more than fifteen years, the organizers hired a former Full Belly Farm intern, Gwenael Engelskirchen, as part-time Hoes Down coordinator in 2002. Gwenael, who now works with the UC Sustainable Agriculture Research and Education Program, says she started in late spring. The monthly organizing meetings at Full Belly Farm usually were ten or twenty people – each taking responsibility for an area; music, crafts vendors, kids area, food, even a committee on how to make the festival environmentally friendly. For many years, before biodegradable plates and utensils, Hoes Down organizers borrowed hundreds of dishes from Davis's Whole Earth Festival, which were washed by several shifts of volunteers all day and into the night.
After months of organizing effort, another 400 volunteers show up for the festival to be part of what has become well-managed organized chaos. Gwenael says, “From a farming point of view, you watch the total transformation of a working farm to an event facility and back in a weekend. On Friday the volunteers arrive and set everything up – the tents, the tables, the stages and everything else. On Saturday, thousands of people arrive for the festival and many stay for Sunday tours and classes. On Sunday afternoon, the clean-up crew takes it all down. On Monday, Full Belly is back to work as a working farm.”
All of the proceeds from the Hoes Down Harvest Festival go to non-profit organizations that support sustainable agriculture and rural living. Over its thirty year history, the festival has raised about a million dollars. The 2016 Hoes Down Festival raised about $90,000. None of the money raised has gone to Full Belly Farm; it has all been donated to organic farming and local agricultural organizations. Beneficiaries include the Ecological Farming Association, Community Alliance with Family Farms, agricultural scholarships for local high school students, the local 4H club, Future Farmers of America, and other local organizations.
You are invited to bring friends and family to join the fun!
Full Belly Farm, 16090 County Road 43, Guinda CA 95637?
MAIN FESTIVAL: ?Saturday, October 7, 2017?11am - 11 pm?
BUY YOUR TICKETS HERE!??
Admission Prices?
Adults: $25 online, $30 at the gate?
Children (2-12): $5 - ?Under 2: Free?
Saturday Night Camping: $30 per car - no reservations are needed!
Visit California Farms and Ranches - learn more at www.calagtour.org
You Gotta Love Those Praying Mantids!
You gotta love those praying mantids! An orchid mantis and a ghost mantis fascinated visitors at...
UC Davis Entomology Club members (back, from left) Lohitashwa "Lohit" Garikipati, secretary; Maia Lundy, past president; Chloe Shott, president; and Crystal Homicz, treasurer, greet guests at the Bohart Museum open house. (Photo by Kathy Keatley Garvey)
UC Davis Entomology Club officers, secretary Lohitashwa "Lohit" Garikipati and president Chloe Shott, show the praying mantids. (Photo by Kathy Keatley Garvey)
A female orchid praying mantis, reared by Lohitashwa "Lohit" Garikipati, explores her surrundings. (Photo by Kathy Keatley Garvey)