Holiday Market Place
The club’s second annual Holiday Marketplace will be held at the December meeting. All members will have a chance to sell their wares, and yes, we look forward to honey, as not everyone had a great harvest. Fair prices prevail (but the club will not take a percentage.)

The club will be selling Cape Cod Honey cookbooks, copies of The Queen and I by Ed Weiss, text books, honeystix and honey candy. We will also have available discounted Bee A Cape Cod Honey Tees and BCBA polo shirts.
Members’ hand lotions, lip balms, soaps, soothing salves, beeswax candles and ornaments will be available for Christmas shopping and stocking stuffing. Due to the shortage of sturdy tables at the Community Building, if you plan to bring items for sale, please bring a table to display your items on. Thank You.

I have been informed that many delicious holiday treats will be there to sate our sweet tooth’s as well.

Note- everyone that receives this newsletter is welcome to attend our holiday get-together. For those of you contemplating beginning beekeeping, it is a good time to meet and socialize with beekeepers, see what products your hive can provide besides honey, and the bee school schedule should be confirmed by then.

• Two matching glass jars (size and honey color) either Classic or Gamber - Do NOT Label
  
• Air dry jars, do not towel dry – leaves lint -
  
• No honey on inside of caps - extracted honey must fill jar to within 3/8 inch with no visible
  gap between honey level and the cap
  
• the score card will include density (moisture content), absence of crystals, cleanliness, flavor, appearance of container, and accuracy of filling
  
• The Board has issued gift certificates of $25, $15, and $10 for 1st, 2nd and 3rd place entries
  If you need jars to compete, contact either Ed (833-9696) or Claire (888-2304)

PLEASE print your order clearly, or use the order forms in the catalogs and bring to the January meeting, with your check. Don’t forget to put your name and phone number on the order. If you won’t be at the meeting, mail to: Ed Osmun, 18 Solomon Pond Rd., E Sandwich 02537

Gardener's Gab
The following was summarized from Matthew Shepherd's Pollinator Conservation Program for the Xerces Society, and sent along by Leslie Lichtenstein. Keep these points in mind when those seed catalogs start arriving.

Choosing the Right Flowers
To help bees you should provide a range of plants that will offer a succession of flowers, and thus pollen and nectar, through the whole growing season.

Use local native plants. Native plants, which are usually best for native bees, can be used in both wild areas and gardens. Research suggests native plants are up to four times more attractive to native bees than exotic (nonnative) flowers. Native plants are also usually well adapted to your growing conditions and can thrive with minimum attention.

Use heirloom varieties. For the garden, heirloom varieties of herbs and perennials are good sources of nectar or pollen and thus provide good foraging. Mixing garden and native plants will make a garden attractive to both pollinators and people.

Chose several colors of flowers. Bees have good color vision to help them find flowers and the nectar and pollen they offer. Flower colors that particularly attract bees are blue, purple, violet, white, and yellow.

Plant flowers in clumps. Flowers clustered into clumps of one species will attract more pollinators than will individual plants scattered through the habitat patch. Where space allows, make the clumps four feet or more in diameter.

Include flowers of different shapes. There are nearly four thousand different species of bees in North America, and they are all different sizes, have different tongue lengths, and will feed on different shaped flowers. Therefore, providing a range of flower shapes means more bees can benefit.

Have a diversity of plants flowering all season. Most bee species are generalists, feeding on a range of plants through their life cycle. By having several plant species flowering at once and a sequence of plants flowering through spring, summer, and fall, you will support a range of bee species that fly at different times of the year.
Native plants for bees

Native plants should be your first choice to help our native bees (and our more domesticated girls). Listed below are some plants that are good sources of nectar or pollen.

Aster Aster, Black-eyed Susan Rudbeckia, Caltrop Kallstroemia, Currant Ribes, Elder Sambucus

Goldenrod Solidago, Huckleberry Vaccinium, Joe-pye weed Eupatorium, Lupine Lupinus, Purple coneflower Echinacea, Rabbit-brush Chrysothamnus, Rhododendron Rhododendron, Sage Salvia

Snowberry Symphoricarpos, Stonecrop Sedum, Sunflower Helianthus, Wild buckwheat Eriogonum

Wild-lilac Ceanothus, Willow Salix

Garden plants for bees

Basil Ocimum, Cotoneaster Cotoneaster, English lavender Lavandula, Giant hyssop Agastache

Globe thistle Echinops, Hyssop Hyssopus, Marjoram Origanum, Rosemary Rosmarinus

Wallflower Erysimum, Zinnia Zinnia

My students know I keep bees and are always bringing me in stuff about them! -- Leslie

An Osterville Tale of Horror
At Armstrong-Kelley Park, we have had a disaster with wax moths. Has anybody ever tried to clean frameswith a hot air gun which would melt the wax but retain the base frame for new foundations?

Come to A-K Park for pretty Christmas lights and, if you hurry, "Get A'Board or "Post A Poem" for a unique holiday gift which helps to "grow" goodness as well as the gardens of Armstrong-Kelley Park. Boards are $100. and poems are $300.
Call Carl Mongé at 508-420-3635 or email carlmonge2@msn.com for details

Recipe Corner
Honey Crunch Recipe

• 1/3 cup margarine
• ¾ cup firmly packed brown sugar
• ¼ cup honey
• 1 tsp vanilla
• 6 cups Kellogg's Crispex cereal
• 1 cup mini-pretzels
• 1 cup salted mixed nuts, vegetable cooking spray

1. In a 13 x 9 x 2 baking pan, combine Crispex, pretzels and mixed nuts and set aside
2. In large saucepan, over medium heat, combine margarine, sugar, and honey. Bring to a boil an continue to boi for 5 minutes. Do Not Stir. Remove from heat and stir in vanilla. Pour syrup over cereal mixture, stirring until well coated
3. Bake at 250 for about an hour, stirring every 15 minutes. Let cool on cookie sheets. Store in airtight container. Yields 9 cups

Microwave Recipe –

1. In a 1-quart or larger microwave dish, mix thoroughly 1 and ½ cups granulated sugar and ½ cup light corn syrup.
2. Microwave on high, stirring every few minutes until the mixture is clear and bubbles become thumbnail sized (about 10 minutes). STOP immediately if the mixture begins to brown. A wooden spoon is very effective for stirring, as it can be left in the dish while heating.
3. Pour into a shallow mold made of cardboard, or a container lined with paper to cool. The candy will become brittle and can be slipped on top of the frames where the bees can consume it.

• 12 oz Flat Panel Bears- $12. per 24.