Reviews & Resources – Winter 2010-2011

Reviews
Natural Beekeeping: Organic Approaches to Modern Apiculture by Ross Conrad
and Hive Management: A Seasonal Guide for Beekeepers by Richard E. Bonney
The Sound of a Wild Snail Eating by Elisabeth Tova Bailey
Through the Eyes of a Stranger – Yaro Tales Book One by Will Bonsall
Minnie Rose Lovgreen’s Recipe for Raising Chickens
Organic Parenting – The Prevention of Parent Deficit Disorder by Koko Preston, M.A.

Video: Living Downstream, based on the book by Sandra Steingraber

Web Resources
AGR-Lite
USDA National Organic Program (NOP) handbook
The Pesticide-Induced Diseases Database
UC Davis Soil Resource Laboratory’s smart phone application
Organic-Approved Pesticides – Minimizing Risks to Pollinators

Book Reviews

Natural Beekeeping: Organic Approaches to Modern Apiculture
by Ross Conrad
Chelsea Green, 2007
245 pgs., paperback, $35

and

Hive Management: A Seasonal Guide for Beekeepers
by Richard E. Bonney
Storey Publishing, 1990
152 pgs., paperback, $16.95

I recently returned to beekeeping after a 40-year hiatus. I kept two hives in the early 1970s in southern New England and moved those hives with me when I relocated to northern Maine. The bees caused me little trouble, and all went smoothly until a large bear broke his hibernation fast by dining on both my hives. In several late night visits, he totally trashed my hives, and I took it as a sign that beekeeping was going to be too difficult in Maine.

When I decided to try again this year (in a bear-free part of Maine), I found that the world of beekeeping had changed dramatically and I was going to need some guidance in this new, strange world populated with myriad pests and diseases unheard of 40 years ago. I started by attending workshops at the 2009 Common Ground Fair and decided to try to do beekeeping organically, if possible. I chose Ross Conrad’s book to be my principal guide.

Conrad’s book has a wealth of information on managing hives and specifically methods to address control of such major insect pests as varroa mite and animal pests as skunks, raccoons and bears, as well as chapters on such common bee diseases as American foulbrood, chalkbrood and nosema (caused by a protozoan). Most Maine beekeepers consider nosema a serious challenge best met by using antibiotics, but Conrad claims he doesn’t have significant problems with it and doesn’t offer any organic solutions for its control. If you have only one book on bees, this is probably the one to get, especially if you intend to manage them organically. There really isn’t much competition.

After reading Conrad’s book I still had some vagueness in understanding bee behavior and how to interface with the bees with management practices that were based on a solid understanding of this amazing social insect. When I read Bonney’s book, that vagueness was greatly diminished. He says, “Our true, long-term success as beekeepers comes only after we have come to understand the intimate lives, behavior, and motivations of the bees. … To be successful it is imperative that the aspiring beekeeper have a good grasp of the behavior and motivations of the bee.” Bonney’s book does an admirable job of relating the motivations and behavior of bees to management practices used by human beekeepers. If you understand why bees behave a certain way, it’s easier to understand why you manage in a particular way. Bonney also organizes hive management by season, which makes keeping on top of hive related chores easy.

These two books serve well as the starting point for new beekeepers. Conrad’s has a wealth of detail necessary to implement a successful organic hive management strategy. Bonney’s gives an easily followed, seasonal management guide and an introduction to the hive mind that determines how the hive responds to different management practices.

I also suggest that you register your hive(s) with the state. It costs only $2 for a backyard operation, and when you request a registration form, you will get a wonderful packet of information in the mail. To request a registration form, contact Tony Jadczak, Maine State Apiarist, Maine Dept. of Agriculture, Div. of Plant Industry, 28 State House Station, Augusta ME 04333-0028, anthony.m.jadczak@maine.gov; http://maine.gov/agriculture/pi/apiary/.

– Adam Tomash

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The Sound of a Wild Snail Eating
By Elisabeth Tova Bailey
Algonquin Books of Chapel Hill, 2010
192 pgs., hardcover; $18.95

This book is a treasure. “Beautiful,” says Edward O. Wilson. The text by Elisabeth Tova Bailey, illustrations by Kathy Bray and book design by Anne Winslow all show tremendous care and love for this little subject, the woodland snail.

Bailey was bedridden and extremely debilitated during part of an illness that has spanned almost two decades, resulting from an unknown pathogen that apparently caused acquired mitochondrial disease, and followed by harmful side effects of a drug that was later withdrawn from the market. While bedridden, she received a gift of a native woodland snail in a potted field violet from a good friend.

The snail quickly became the focal point of Bailey’s world, as she watched it glide down the side of the terra-cotta pot, gently waving its tentacles, exploring the dish under the pot, and beyond – always returning to sleep under a violet leaf in the pot by the following morning. The snail’s nocturnal adventures soon explained the square holes in nearby papers, and prompted Bailey to offer real food – withered cut flowers at first – which, Bailey discovered, she could hear the snail eating.

This short but deep and poignant book continues to explore the life of the woodland snail, through Bailey’s acute observations and later reading; and it observes how the slow, purposeful life of the snail (and of the author) contrasts with the hectic pace of the lives of Bailey’s human visitors. “My illness brought me such an abundance of time that time was nearly all I had,” writes Bailey.

Readers, like Bailey, learn fascinating details about the woodland snail as this book progresses. When Bailey’s caregiver added a little garden soil to the pot to cover the violet roots, “The snail was not pleased.” It avoided the garden soil, sleeping on top of a violet leaf instead of under – until the friend replaced the garden soil with woodland humus, and the snail resumed its sleeping place under the leaf. The snail’s sensitivity to its environment is like Bailey’s, as her illness left her extremely sensitive, especially to toxic substances in the environment.

As Bailey learns more about the snail, she has an aquarium landscaped with native plants, mosses, lichens, bark. “It was a world fit for a snail, and it was a welcome sight for my own eyes as well.” The snail’s “ … tentacles quivered with interest and it set off to investigate …” Bailey learns from scientific texts and from naturalists’ writings about snails’ spiral shells, their slime, their evolution, diversity and movement around the world, their brain, memory, intellect and communication, romance and reproduction.

This little book, perhaps the most exquisite I’ve read in years, is top on my list of holiday gifts for those who love clear, concise, powerful and beautiful – often humorous – nature writing and insights into animal (including human) behavior. It heightened my appreciation for the life around me.

– Jean English

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Through the Eyes of a Stranger – Yaro Tales Book One
By Will Bonsall
Xlibris, 2010
Available from Will Bonsall, 39 Bailey Rd., Industry, ME 04938; from www.xlibris.com, 888-795-4274 ext. 7876; and from some local bookstores
366 pgs., paperback; $19.99; hardcover, $29.99

Will Bonsall is well known to Common Ground Fair enthusiasts for his in-depth knowledge and practice of homestead food production and germplasm preservation, and for his entertaining talks at the Fair about those subjects. Reading Through the Eyes of a Stranger is like spending time in a futuristic Will’s World, a world that exists five centuries after the Calamitous Times (the 21st century) destroyed societies, when the new society in Esperia has returned to living fairly well. Because the people of Esperia decided to be Stewards of the Earth rather than, like their primary opposites, the Anagaians, masters of other people, they developed renewable resources and learned to cooperate with one another. They experiment with new sustainable technologies to keep improving life, and with social, political and even defense philosophies to move other exploitative, violent or oppressive societies toward more stable, sustainable and peaceful places.

We see this world through the eyes of young Yaro Seekings, who was raised as an orphan in Anagaia, was wrongfully convicted of murder there, and escaped to Esperia. This first book in what will be a trilogy combines Yaro’s adventures and growth (including a romance) with his increasing understanding and appreciation of the way things work in Esperia – using wind, water, solar and human power, and thinking of everyone, or “living in the big house,” i.e., favoring collectivism over individualism.

Bonsall says (at yarotales.com), “The book was never conceived as a great work of literature, nor yet a manifesto or panacea for the ills of modern global civilization. Rather it hopes to contribute some thoughts on the nature of sustainable culture (not such a modest goal at that) and to suggest one (only one) possible version of what such a society might look like.”

I found it relaxing and reassuring to read a few chapters of the book each evening, getting to know the likeable, wide-eyed, optimistic Yaro. The steady accomplishments of tiny Esperia in the face of the powerful Anagaia, like the good works happening throughout Maine and influencing, bit by bit, the rest of the world, gave me hope. The details in the book inspired me: Reading about meals using chestnuts and hazelnuts has me thinking I should hurry up and plant these species.

Whether using human-pulled rollers to pack down snow; bicycling, skiing, boating or walking from place to place; getting fiber from hemp, flax or sunflower stalks; or using solar reflectors to boil maple sap, Through the Eyes of a Stranger is packed with ideas to make us all stewards of the earth. Like the Common Ground Fair, there’s some idea or technique here that will appeal to everyone and will help move us toward a more sustainable world.

– Jean English

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Minnie Rose Lovgreen’s Recipe for Raising Chickens
As told by Minnie Rose Lovgreen
Edited by Nancy Rekow and Chaya Siegelbaum
NW Trillium Press, Bainbridge Island, Wash.; www.nwtrilliumpress.com
32 pgs., paperback; $13

In 1912, Minnie Rose Lovgreen set out to sail across the Atlantic on the Titanic. The ship was late departing, so the impatient Britain boarded another ship – and arrived safely in Montreal. Lovgreen ended up on Bainbridge Island, Washington, where she was a dairy farmer with her husband, and where she raised and closely observed chickens. Her book – dictated to Rekow as Lovgreen was dying of cancer in 1975 – makes the reader feel she is in the room with Minnie, listening to her down-home but fairly thorough description of how to raise laying hens, from eggs to adults. This charming little book gives enough information to inspire people to raise chickens. Readers will need more detail on structures and organically approved practices, but Lovgreen will get them started. I particularly liked Lovgreen’s descriptions of various poultry sounds and their meanings.

– Jean English

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Organic Parenting – The Prevention of Parent Deficit Disorder
By Koko Preston, M.A.
Copyright 2009 by Book Publishers Network, Bothell, Wash.; www.bookpublishersnetwork.com
146 pgs., paperback, $14.95

In Organic Parenting, Koko Preston of Rockland, Maine, shares her years of experience as a mother, grandmother and parent coach/self-change guide. She tells how to bring harmony to family life. “To me,” Preston says, “living organically, raising organic produce, and so on, naturally includes raising children according to nature.” Preston laments society’s increasing need to deal with “feral children” who “do not know love, are unattached, and do not know how to live” as a result, she says, of separating mothers from children, primarily, and, secondarily, due to the absence of fathers in the home. Excesses and abuses of technology and consumerism compound the problem. She urges that parents find a way for the mother to stay home with children; that the family consumes healthful foods; that children get enough rest; have appropriate stimulation, plenty of exercise in the sun and fresh air; have a sense of safety, security and belonging; and that parents eliminate toxic stimulation from TV, computers, radios, cell phones and other technologies. Take it easy, says Preston. Keep life simple. Always lovingly hold a crying baby. Always speak respectfully to children. “Children are just like flowers. When their needs are met, they blossom. They are happy, and a happy child is able to be a ‘good’ child.”

– Jean English

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Video Review

Living Downstream, based on the book by Sandra Steingraber
Filmed by Chanda Chevannes, 2010
85 min., see www.livingdownstream.com for purchase and rental options

Sandra Steingraber lets us into her life in this beautiful film, shot in and around places she calls home. She wants viewers to know what she and her scientist colleagues are learning about cancer-causing chemicals, information shared only rarely by doctors with their patients. We travel with her along the Illinois River, back to the industrial heartland where high cancer rates are linked with chemicals used in agriculture and manufacturing.

The guiding influence of Rachel Carson (shown here in old film clips) is pervasive throughout Living Downstream. Its author, who carries on Carson's work, likes to point out a critical difference: Whereas the writer who launched an environmental movement with Silent Spring would not disclose the breast cancer she fought during the last years of her life, Steingraber is fearless about revealing her own bladder cancer diagnosis 30 years ago and the likely causal factors. Today, unintimidated by any concern that personal revelations will impeach her science, she invites us into the exam room to witness one of the invasive screenings she must still endure annually, followed by a worrying time, when cytology results she receives are ambiguous.

Near the end of the film, we see Steingraber on a lecture tour addressing two very different groups – one receptive, the other hostile. She can likely count on members of a Bioneers audience to help shape a future where allowing chemicals to cause cancer will be unthinkable. But a sterner message is in order for affluent industry loyalists and board members visibly uncomfortable with what she has to say at the Abraham Lincoln Museum in Illinois: There she urges that we all become carcinogen abolitionists; even one death from cancer is too many. "With the right to know comes the duty to inquire," she says, and from that flows "the obligation to act."

– Jody Spear

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Web Resources

Farmers can assess the federally subsidized whole farm insurance product called Adjusted Gross Revenue Lite (AGR-Lite) free by using software from the National Center for Appropriate Technology. AGR-Lite protects farm revenue rather than specific commodities produced. This assessment CD is available from NCAT at 1-800-346-9140. In early 2011, it will also be on the Web.

NOP Handbook
The USDA National Organic Program (NOP) has published a handbook providing guidance about the national organic standards and instructions outlining best program practice to help participants comply with federal regulations. It covers the allowance of green waste in organic production systems, approval of liquid fertilizers in organic production, certification of organic yeast, processed animal manures in organic crop production, reassessed inert ingredients, and calculation of dry matter intake for NOP’s access to pasture requirements. It also includes instructions concerning organic certification, such as recordkeeping, steps to certification, and organic certificates; accreditation procedures, such as how to apply to become an accredited certifying agent; international procedures, such as how USDA determines equivalence of foreign organic standards to those of the NOP; compliance and enforcement measures, such as how to handle complaints; and appeals procedures for certified operations or accredited agents.

Access the handbook at www.ams.usda.gov/NOPProgramHandbook. Printed copies are available from Standards Division, National Organic Program, 1400 Independence Ave., SW., Room 2646-S, Ag Stop 0268, Washington, D.C. 20250-0268; telephone: (202) 720-3252; fax: (202) 205-7808.

Pesticide-Induced Diseases Database
The Pesticide-Induced Diseases Database at www.beyondpesticides.org/health, released by Beyond Pesticides, contains hundreds of entries of epidemiologic and laboratory studies linking preventable diseases – including asthma, autism, learning disabilities, birth defects, reproductive dysfunction, diabetes, Parkinson’s and Alzheimer’s diseases, and several types of cancer – to pesticides.

Smart Phone App
The UC Davis Soil Resource Laboratory’s smart phone application uses UC Davis’ online soil survey to identify soils and access soil survey data from any place in the 48 contiguous states with cell phone coverage. Using a cell phone on the soil site, callers can get soil profile sketches depicting soil horizons, series names, landscape position and taxonomic classification. See http://news.ucanr.org/newsstorymain.cfm?story=1325

Pesticide Application
“Organic-Approved Pesticides – Minimizing Risks to Pollinators,” from The Xerces Society (www.xerces.org), tells how to select and apply pesticides for organic farm operations while minimizing pollinator mortality.

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