The American Museum of Natural History

This spring, I visited the AMNH near Central Park in NYC. It’s a huge museum! I limited myself to only the insect-related exhibits and I still didn’t see everything. (I forgot to reserve tix for the “What’s in a Name?” exhibit, a collection of rare books, entomological illustrations, Warhol art, and the “surreptitiously displayed” “whimsical” Withus oragainstus longhorn beetle. Sounds intriguing – a must for next time!)

The exhibits I saw were excellent:

The Davis Family Butterfly Vivarium – an exotic butterfly house with a pupae incubator. It was magical, although my favorite butterfly houses are still native ones like Ladew Gardens’.

The Solomon Family Insectarium – really neat! There’s a huge honeycomb exhibit, lots of info on honeybees, other bee species, and all sorts of interesting insects + a ginormous leafcutter ant farm.

“Extinct & Endangered” – Levon Biss’ macrophotography, which is best appreciated up close and in person.

Erie Eclipse Trip

We were lucky enough to be able to travel to Erie, PA to see the total eclipse. Craig planned our trip nearly a year ago. We were worried we wouldn’t see much because of the cloud cover, but the clouds cleared enough at just the right time for us to see the totality and immerse ourselves in one of the most outstanding natural science moments of 2024.

Until this month, I had only ever seen a partial eclipse. The Totality was everything they said it would be – incredible!! Such a neat experience. Witnessed flocks of circling birds beforehand, felt the temp drop during the event (so much so that I had to put my jacket on), and was able to see Baily’s beads, solar prominences, and the stellar corona. Hard to capture with words how extraordinary those three and a half minutes were!

Lots of hiking, a bit of beachcombing, and prayers for our bees…

Unfortunately, our prayers turned out to be last rites because most of our bees did not survive winter. It’s always sad but not uncommon. We’re constantly trying to up their odds of winter survival. Beekeeping is both an art and a science… and a little bit of faith.

Queen Rebecca (a.k.a. Boudica II) survived! She is the sole queen to make it through winter. Her line continues to be robust and strong. Long live the Boudicas!! 😀

We lost all our hives over the winter. Total and complete bummer, but unfortunately not an uncommon experience. Craig’s beekeeping buddies lost most of their hives too. Everyone ordered new nucs this year from Central Maryland Beekeepers Association. Because the starter hives come from Florida, everyone’s been wondering how delivery and distribution would be handled this year due to COVID-19. CMBA made several changes to the way the pick-ups are normally handled to keep things safe and compliant with current state orders. If everything goes as planned, our new little bee buddies will be installed this weekend.

Swarm Catcher

April and May are great months for beekeepers to catch natural honeybee swarms. (For more info on what a swarm is, what to do if you see one, and who to call, check out CMBA’s site. Craig’s listed as a beekeeper to call for the 21120 area.)

What’s so great about a honeybee swarm?

Besides being just a neat nature-y thing, anecdotal evidence suggests naturally occurring bee swarms might be better adapted to our backyard than out-of-state nucs. (Two beekeeping buddies caught swarms last year. Post-winter, those hives are still alive.) If we manage to catch a swarm, and if it survives winter 2020, we want to split it into two Maryland-hearty hives next spring. There’s a lot of hoping, wishing, and praying to our plan, but that’s beekeeping.

First things first – catch a swarm. Here’s our swarm catcher. We’re going to hang it in one of our evergreens.

NEW THIS YEAR

Honeycomb

We bought some special frames, so that we could offer squares of honeycomb. If you’ve never had it, you will love it. It can be eaten plain, but is also great with tea and toast, figs and Brie, and – according to food writer Hattie Ellis – buttermilk panna cotta.

Jams and Jellies

For some time now, I’ve been wanting to add a new product to our Hereford Farm Market table, which would extend our selling season and diversify our offerings. Homemade jams and jellies seem like a perfect companion for home-harvested honey and cottage bouquets. To ensure that my methods were safe and my recipes sound, I enrolled in a water-bath canning course down at Baltimore Chef Shop, Hampden’s teaching kitchen, this past January. I hope to offer small batches, depending on what’s in season. Ideally, I’ll be using fruit from the farm market and/or local orchards.

Flowers

Before I could decide if I even wanted to do a soil test this year, UMass sent an email saying the lab was closed due to COVID-19. So I ordered some pH test strips online and bought some basic amendments based on last year’s lab test. Hopefully, all will be well. Seeds that need to be started inside have been planted and are happily growing beneath lights in my basement. (For a list of the types of flowers I’m growing this year, check out my flowers page.) In the meantime, I’m enjoying spring blooms.

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Farm Market

The Hereford Farm Market has a new website. Check out the other vendors and stay tuned for more info. As far as I know, it will still open, although there will likely be new rules for shopping and gathering. Get up-to-date info on the market via Facebook and/or Instagram.

State Parks

Governor Hogan’s stay-at-home order allows for limited hiking and biking in some state park areas. I imagine this is because exercising outside is a double benefit to people’s health. One of our favorite ways to cope with the current crisis is to take our dog, Tugg, for hikes and a swim in the Gunpowder River. We are very lucky to have such beautiful state parks so close to where we live! For DNR’s FAQs about the stay-at-home order, click here. For the Maryland Park Service’s list of state parks that are open or closed, click here.