Caring for Bees

For the past month I've been learning about bees - three evenings a week and a practical session at the weekend.  So my confidence with the bees has increased - but unfortunately nobody has sent them on a course to learn about humans, so the other day they were very cross and we both got stung several times!  At the moment, they are busy getting ready for winter, and we're feeding them with bee-cake (made from honey, powdered sugar & pollen) each week to keep them nourished. 

We started off with two colonies at the beginning of the summer, then divided one at the end of the summer, so we're now taking care of 3 hives. Bees are social insects living together in a hive, and the care of bees is incredibly important, since they play a fundamental role in our sustainability. They collect nectar and pollen and turn it into honey, and while visiting flowers in their pursuit of nectar and pollen, cross-fertilziation is achieved,. Without this we would not have many of our basic food products, and, perhaps even more importantly, plants would fail to make seeds for future generations.  So caring for bees is not only a rewarding hobby, but actually our social responsibility.
CT
 

Well cleaning

When we first discovered the well, a few years back, it was so infested with blankets of slime and nastiness, we poked it with a stick, decided it wasn't very deep (or exciting), made a secure cover, and then more or less forgot about it.  This summer there's been a water crisis in the village, so we decided to open it up and investigate what sort of well we have...
For the last 3 months we've been pumping out the water, removing buckets of slime/rubbish/plastic/glass/rubble/wire/mud, then letting it fill up again - and at 5 metres down we still haven't reached the bottom.  Soon our ladder will not be long enough, so we'll have to dangle off it to mine the slime pit..

As and when we do reach the bottom, the next question will be how we set up a management/pumping method to make best use of it.

Gorgeous Garlic

How much is enough garlic? We planted some garlic in December last year - 2 kg: we ate fresh garlic all through the late Winter & Spring (probably about 3 stems every 2 days or so) and picked just over 5 kg of dry garlic heads in June.  That allows us approximately 100grams of garlic per week through the year - nowhere near enough!  Also, when I've got a basket of gorgeous garlic sitting there looking at me - I just feel like using even more than usual... so it may never be enough.  The moral of this story is that we should plant more next year...
CT

Ederli and the tea factory

Ederli came from Brazil to "workaway" with us last week, and we heard all about his family tea business back home in the South of Brazil, producing tea. So while he was with us we arranged for him to meet and tour two of the local tea factories in Yalova: Akdem & Evcay, both of which kindly hosted Ederli and sent him away with a heap of great ideas - and samples! He's a graduate in Business Administration, and after completing this trip, is expected to return home and take over the reins of the family tea business, so the experience of seeing "our" tea production will be invaluable.

Ederli's company grow Mate tea, and here in Yalova theycombine it with various herbs to make a number of different herbal & health teas. Both Akdem & Evcay blend and produce fruit, spice and herbal teas, as well as a range of other products made from the same ingredients. They travel the country collecting herbs and spices from the wild, and the Yalova model forest is one of their primary resources. The products are collected in the villages, and a comission agent is responsible for the local organisation, and sending to the factory for processing. Bulk orders are made up for the herbalists, and tea-bags for sales through the supermarkets. Buy them and try them for yourself!
CT

drip irrigation

Getting the old drip lines out of the container: (Bruno supervising)

Three years ago when we moved, we picked up yards and yards of drip lines from the old strawberry beds, which were coiled round and packed into the container - now they are all working once again, connected up round the field and delivering water drip by drip to the newly planted trees. You just never know when something might come in useful! -again.
CT

civ civ civ civ !!

Four chicks!  Pinky has successfully produced four beautiful civ civs in four colours: white, off-white, pink & grey-ish black.  Today they are 6 days old and have been out of the flower pot for a walk.

And another hen (maybe) is sitting on some more eggs: Darky decided she wanted to sit on eggs last week and she is adamant - attacking & pecking anyone who dares to steal her clutch... So each day we duly removed the eggs she had claimed, and each day she obstinately refused to come out of the loft and just sat there in the heat, brooding.  So on Saturday we decided to allow her four eggs - but to keep her separate I made a nest for her and her eggs in a large flower pot.  She ate all the food, drank the water, then took a flying leap, jumped out and called for Cocky to come and rescue her - which he did; she ran off after the other hens and I took the eggs & put them in the fridge. (scrambled eggs for lunch that day).
Sunday we had the same procedure, and I ended up chasing a delinquent hen, so today she's securely shut up inside the flower pot with fresh hay, feed, water, and some eggs and a roof she can't escape through.
All this means that there's not an egg to be had in the house - this morning's muffins had to be made with yoghurt to stick them together, no eggs left!
Cost per egg (CPE) also remains high, no longer reducing by the day, and our eggs are (thus far) at least 3 times more expensive than buying eggs from the shop. But so-oo delicious.
CT

Planting a forest

We've been planting trees for the past month or so... planting into unresponsive solid ground is heavy, slow work, and dragging water to them every couple of days is also slow, heavy work.  But it's so exciting!! We're planting a mixed forest garden, creating a varied mix of species around the perimeter of the property: lots of prickly things to discourage browsing by grazing (Pyracantha, Hippophae, Berberis), nitrogen-fixing plants to nourish the soil, (Eleagnus, Acacia), fruit trees (Almond, Pomegranate, Plum), firewood trees, forest trees, and loads of natives (Native to Turkey).
As well as the trees, we're also planting bushes to fill in the spaces in between, and together we're expecting them to give the field a rich hedge-row enclosure: to encourage bees, birds and other wildlife, without compromising the spaciousness of the property: The area being planted is 450 metres long, and about 3 metres wide.  150 trees & 450 shrubs.
They're going to need watering for the rest of this year (next rains are 4 months away), but after that will be on their own.  The planting mix is designed so that taller growing trees provide shade to smaller plants, which in turn shelter the base of the taller trees and keep the ground cool.  Mulching our young forest trees will be next winter's task.
CT