'Peasants' in Europe can help us.
Deepest France!
I am still waiting (after more than a month) for ‘France Telecom’ to repair my line. Until it is fixed I am working around the problem of an internet connection. This is why I have been ‘absent’ – when so much is going on. All my local friends here are ‘peasant farmers’, and they are very concerned about the bee crisis. I have been doing my 'blogging' in the village!
People here are very suspicious about any food that comes from an unknown source – the local ‘supermarket’ displays ‘origin’ for every product and if it is not ‘Lot et Garonne’ people avoid it!. ‘En plus’ there is a very local barter system in operation – most of what people eat comes from within the village ((I’ll give you some eggs for your honey). Everyone is worried about the current Bee Crisis. They are ‘peasants’ but all except me have ‘ADSL' and read widely.
What can we do? Here people are very careful about which ‘produits’ they use. I have been told (NO – I have been ‘instructed’ – ) to put nettle leaves under my tomatoes, or at least to drive a copper wire into the stems before I resort to ‘sulphating’. Any food that does not come from within the village might have been 'treated' and it is viewed with suspicion! (Personally I think this ‘the right way to go’!).
I brought a load of crayfish back home after a weekend in the next ‘Departement’ with friends. Nobody here was interested, although locally caught crayfish are a delicacy. That’s how deep it goes. And it is GOOD – at every meal (each of which last several hours!) you are given the detailed history of every part of the menu. It would be unforgivable in this part of France to use Spanish strawberries when local ones were available. If it is not the season for melons – then don’t eat melons! Simple really.
Back to my Bees. There is a lot of knowledge here – not ‘book-stuff’, but ‘life-stuff’. My friends here are very aware of the problems with Bees in America, and even more aware of the potential consequences than most. They do not use pesticides, and everything they grow is ‘organic’ – by default. They know where every morsel of their food comes from. Our bees are safe here, for the moment!
My friends here are wise in ways that we have forgotten – we would do well to listen to them!
