Black Beekeepers Are Reclaiming Vacant Lots In Detroit To Create Bee Farms

[mfcorey1]

When Detroit natives Timothy Paule and Nicole Lindsey noticed the numbers of dilapidated and vacant lots in their beloved city rising, they decided to implore a creative new solution to revitalize some of these spaces. Paule and Lindsey co-founded a nonprofit organization called "Detroit Hives" and began to purchase vacant properties and repurpose them into fully functioning bee farms.

"I went to the local market that I normally go to, and he suggested that I try some local honey for my cough," Paule said as he reflected upon a recent cold that he just couldn't get rid of as the inspiration behind their efforts to begin to cultivate honey. "He said you consume local honey because it has medicinal properties."

When he began to feel better, him and his girlfriend Lindsey began to also consider the number of allergies and other health-related reactions that were probably a direct result of the environmental hazards in the growing number of unkept properties in Detroit. They meshed their ideas of helping to reclaim fertile spaces in their city with the seemingly medicinal properties of locally sourced honey created "Detroit Hives."

https://www.becauseofthemwecan.com/blogs/stories/black-beekeepers-are-reclaiming-vacant-lots-in-detroit-to-create-bee-farms

[hlthe2b]

1. WONDERFUL! I hope they can get businesses and homeownerss to plant

bee-friendly (and butterfly-friendly) plants and contain the use of pesticides. A lot of urban areas have stagnant standing water issues too, which means mosquito breeding and thus use of insecticides to ward off West Nile and other mosquito-born viruses.

I see this as a hopeful trend, though.

[democrank]

2. Win-win all around.

Great article, thanks for posting.

[Me.]

3. So Glad To Hear Detroit Is Being Renewed

in so many creative ways

[ismnotwasm]

4. K&R

[NickB79]

5. Have any detailed studies been done for contaminants in the honey?

After decades of leaded paint, lead gasoline fumes, and all manner of solvents and chemicals being leached into the soil, I'd be interested to see if the local plants are bio-accumulating these compounds and passing it up the food chain into the bee's honey derived from their flowers.

[hatrack]

6. There are all kinds of interesting things in honey - depending on the plant

EDIT

Johnny Morris, a travel journalist from the United Kingdom, puts its Turkish predominance partly down to history, too. In 2003, for his popular travel column called ‘Grail Trail’, he went to taste mad honey in Trabzon, a Turkish city that’s backed by mountains and faces the Black Sea. “It’s got a long history in Turkey,” he says. “It was used as a weapon of mass destruction for invading armies.” Indeed, in 67 B.C. Roman soldiers invaded the Black Sea region under General Pompey’s command, and those loyal to the reigning King Mithridates secretly lined the Romans’ path with enticing chunks of mad honeycomb. The unwitting army ate these with gusto, as the story goes. Driven into an intoxicated stupor by the hallucinogenic honey, many of the flailing soldiers became easy prey, and were slain.

This rich history, along with Turkey’s 18th Century trading tradition, seems to account for mad honey’s persistence in the present day — and the fact that it is purposefully harvested there. And yet, finding it still amounts to something of a treasure hunt. In the province of Trabzon — which contains the city of the same name — mad honey is particularly entrenched: it’s where the Romans met their end thanks to the toxic honeycomb all those centuries ago. Yet, “We had to go searching for it quite a bit,” Morris says of his own quest to find deli bal.

To get it, he went venturing into Trabzon’s mountains, enquiring along the way. Eventually, in Trabzon city’s older quarters, he found a place willing to let him in on the secret: a shop stocked with gear for the avid apiarist, and selling all types of honey. (Morris also bought a beekeeping outfit while he was there. Does he wear it? “Only for fancy dress parties,” he says.)

The large, frothy jar of deli bal itself — which the shopkeeper called rose-of-the-forest honey (orman komar bali) — was surreptitiously extracted from beneath the counter, amid warnings not to overconsume, Morris recalls. The honey he tried went to his head after just a teaspoonful — all he dared consume after learning about deli bal’s legendary strength. “It did make me feel quite light-headed,” he says. The honey’s potency seems to have turned it into a treat reserved for those in the know. “I think that the responsible shop keepers know they shouldn’t be selling it to strangers,” Morris says. “They are a bit wary of marketing it.” Turedi explains that Turks in the region have the know-how to consume it responsibly. “Local people are able to distinguish mad honey from other honeys. It causes a sharp burning sensation in the throat and thus it’s also referred to as bitter honey,” he says.

EDIT

https://modernfarmer.com/2014/09/strange-history-hallucinogenic-mad-honey/

[Blue_Tires]

7. NO BEES

[csziggy]

9. BEES ARE COMING!

[stopwastingmymoney]

8. Kick for a wonderful idea

They must be growing gardens to support the bees too, yes?

We don't keep bees but my friend/next door neighbor and I garden for bees and now butterflies (milkweed going in this spring). I have two large old Rosemary bushes that bloom almost year round and those were the beginning. They love any flowering herb - oregano, mint and sages. I wish I could taste that honey!

It's very satisfying to see those little guys buzzing around and we have hummingbirds too!

I recommend it