The Beekeeper's Lament by Hannah Nordhaus

Here's one for my top 10 books read list 2011: the beautifully told The Beekeeper's Lament by Hannah Nordhaus. Think of it as an update (circa the Apocalypse) to Douglas Whynott's Following the Bloom.

Read Nordhaus' interview with The Millions here.

(I think we need to change the way we think about honey: it shouldn't be marketed so much as a commodity as an artesanal product, like wine. We need beekeepers to add more information: origin, flora, breed, methods of care, processing, etc. How do you know the honey you buy at your local grocer isn't adulterated with antibiotics and corn syprup? Well, in many cases, you don't. Is it really from Vietnam --or laundered there, originally from China? I would love to see more information on the labels and more informative producer websites. One of the beekeepers who is making some very interesting efforts in this direction is Marina Marchese, author of Honeybee: Lessons from an Accidental Beekeeper.)

More anon.

Following the Bloom: Across America with the Migratory Beekeepers by Douglas Whynott

They say beekeepers are the last cowboys. But bees are so very different from cattle. Writes Whynott, "Bees inspire, they make people imagine and dream." His Following the Bloom: Across America with the Migratory Beekepers is a delightful read about a world-- I would assume-- that has since changed dramatically with rampant suburban development and colony collapse disorder, among a multitude of challenges for the bees. Back in the 1980s, Whynott, an avid beekeeper and one-time state inspector, dropped everything to follow the migratory beekeepers, an eccentric bunch who, for the honey produced and hefty pollination fees, hauled thousands of hives across the country, from California's almond groves to North Dakota's clover to Maine's blueberry barrens, Cape Cod's cranberry bogs and Florida's orange groves. The book is deeply researched, the portraits of both the bees and their keepers vivid, and the writing poetic. More anon.