Nurturing Nature Nurtures Us

Today is World Bee Day, a time to celebrate our fabulous pollinators that have kept nature ticking over for millions of years. Without bees, we would lose a huge percentage of the foods we enjoy; fruit and vegetables, coffee and chocolate, not forgetting all that delicious honey. We rely on them to pollinate cotton crops so that we can wear t-shirts, jeans and linen blouses. Even our canvas trainers need bees to bring them about!

I took our mobile glass beehive to some nursery schools this week and the young children were fascinated to watch a couple of thousand bees crawling over the wax frame to make honey and feed their young brood. They enjoyed dressing up as bee keepers and had been tasting honey in previous days as preparation for meeting me.

I find keeping bees such a privilege; to be able to peek inside a hive that could home up to 60,000 bees – check that all is well, guess what they are planning to do over the coming days before my next visit, and ensure they have enough food to keep them well fed and enough space to store all that honey that they are busy making.

Our bee keeping courses, both Full Day and For Children, have been especially popular this year, so we’ve added in some extra dates to ensure that there are enough spaces all round. So whether you are thinking of taking it up as a new hobby or just want to experience what it is to nurture nature – check out the course details and come and join us.

 

Watching the weather and speculating the seasons is a key part of working with nature. This time of year, I wait for a short window of opportunity to make Elderflower Cordial

I want to be sure that the tight buds have opened up their blooms to reveal the delicious pollen and nectar, but I need to harvest the flower heads before the bees pollinate them and they start to transform into elderberries. I follow the recipe in my book Living the Good Life in the City which uses 40 heads of elderflowers, 4 lemons (pared & sliced), 170g citric acid and a heavy syrup made with 5kg sugar and 3ltrs of water. This is enough to make around 8 bottles of lovely cordial.

Whilst I’m more than happy for the bees to find my strawberry plants!

I’ve got several varieties of strawberries planted at the allotment – I just love perennial crops that faithfully yield a harvest year on year – this selection was chosen to give me juicy fruit from May through to August/September. I must confess that there are some unplanned plants in the strawberry beds (others might call them weeds!), but a timely sort through with the reward of hidden treasure is something to look forward to.

Whilst celebrating bees and fruit and flowers, we mustn’t forget the delight of hugging a hen. The comfort of their soft warm feathers and delightful clucks telling us that they feel safe in our arms, is a natural therapy that nurtures our soul.

We wouldn’t be Hen Corner without giving regular opportunities for guests to come and visit the chickens!

Whether you are thinking of starting your own flock or just want to hang out with the girls for a couple of hours, we’ve got both Family Feathers & Fun and Urban Hens – Keeping Chickens in London coming up soon – and we may have a special chicken announcement on the way…

Do take time to enjoy nature whilst the days are longer and the weather is fair, watch the young birds as they take their fledging flights, walk by the water and look out for cygnets and goslings, spot trees that have been pollinated and are starting to grow young fruit.

Nature is amazing and we need to nurture it and receive it’s nurture back…

Coming up at Hen Corner:

May

Full Day Bee Keeping Saturday 23rd

Bees for Children Tuesday 26th

Family Feathers & Fun Friday 29th

June

Introduction to Making Cheese Wednesday 10th

Full Day Bee Keeping Tuesday 16th

Urban Hens – Keeping Chickens in London Wednesday 17th

Growing the Good Life Thursday 18th

Introduction to Scandinavian Baking Thursday 25th

Full Day Bee Keeping Saturday 27th

July

Urban Hens – Keeping Chickens in London Wednesday 1st

Bees for Children Saturday 4th

Full Day Bee Keeping Tuesday 7th

Bees for Children Tuesday 28th

Pasta Together (Families) Thursday 30th

Other news:

• We’ve tasted our first strawberries and blackcurrants and have mastered a fabulous rhubarb fool
• I’ve spent lots of time with schools teaching pasta, bringing the bees and helping them learn about keeping chickens
• I’m off to The Homestead Festival in Tennessee! supporting Omlet as they showcase their fabulous Eglus

Jobs for the week:

• Prepare the hens to meet 300 local school children at Syon House tomorrow
• Start harvesting our honey on the bee keeping course this weekend
• Get ready to tell all those homesteaders about our urban smallholding here in London

May seems to be that switch that turns spring into summer

Are you ready for that?

I hope to see you soon,

Sara