Like a bubbling brook creating music as it splashes over stones, so the trickle (and sometimes torrent) of flowers creates a panorama of color rippling across the landscape.

Spruce buds and hazelnut catkins, honeyberries and apricot blossoms, apple blossoms and honeysuckle, a sea of autumberries, and countless other blooms adorn the yard. Time outside is aromatherapy. (As long as the neighbors aren't spreading manure or chemicals or burning trash, or Canada isn't on fire with the wind blowing our direction. Unfortunately, country life is not always idyllic.)

The bounty from our bees is a marvelous reflection of this smorgasbord of nectar and pollen. I can see why they have people breath air from bee hives as respiratory therapy. If you ever get a chance to breath the aroma inside a healthy hive, do it (especially one with access to a wide variety of plants). It smells better than any essential oils, potpourri, or herbal blend. (Don't breathe into the hive, though. Your CO2 upsets the bees.)

The honey is wonderful, too. Duncan harvested a few frames this past week, and we are sampling different sections and enjoying the different flavors. You can taste the autumberries, and apple blossoms and honeysuckle. There's one spot we found that tastes something like cinnamon red hots. I have no idea what the ladies found to brew up that honey. Catnip honey is wonderful, and oregano honey is spicy. Borage is always a hive favorite, because the flowers keep replenishing nectar.

The life we've chosen is a ton of work at times, and messy as can be, but it appeals to my urge to explore new things - and to know what's going into our food and have an opportunity to create better food. With the nutrient value of most commercially produced food continuing to decline (more on this below), it's something I can do to increase the nutrients back into our diets. Spending time in the garden is also good for your health in and of itself.

I know gardening is not for everyone, so if you can't tackle it yourself, try to find a local producer that you trust. You can help them stay in business while they help you put better food on your table. You also help strengthen local supply chains, which is good from a preparedness perspective.

All our best to you and yours,

Laurie (and August IV, August V, and Duncan)

This week's featured articles...

The pollen counts are sky high right now, which smells great but can lead to stuffy noses, headaches, and sore throats. If you suffer from seasonal allergies, check out this list of home remedies for natural allergy relief. August tried some of the honey from our hives yesterday, and said it made a dramatic difference in his sinus headache.

If you don't have the option to sample local flowers via honeybees, you can sample some of them directly. The top 15 list features edible flowers that are most commonly used and easily identified. For the adventurous eaters, we’ve also added an edible flower list featuring over 50 more flowers you can eat. We share which parts of flowers are edible (flower petal or whole flower), how they taste, and how to use them. (Check out the cute birthday cake a friend made for me a few years ago.)

I've seen the peach harvest starting in the peach Facebook group that I'm in, so I figure it's time to share peach preserving tips again, plus the easiest way to peel peaches.

This popped up in my Facebook memories today - our backyard, 10 years ago. So I decided to take some photos from today. So much has changed!

What I'm reading right now - "Cu-RE Your Fatigue: The Root Cause and How To Fix It On Your Own".

How Bad is the Nutrient Decline?​
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From "An Alarming Decline in the Nutritional Quality of Foods: The Biggest Challenge for Future Generations’ Health"https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC10969708/​
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The nutrient exhaustion started long ago, but after 1900, the rate of dilution increased incessantly and after the green revolution exponentially. On the basis of available nutrition data, it was observed that in the past 70–80 years, the nutritional dilution rate was up to only 20%, whereas 80% dilution happened during the last 30–40 years.

According to numerous studies [18,19,20,21] in many countries, the nutrient density and taste quality of fruits, vegetables, and foods crops have fallen extremely in the previous 50–70 years regarding sodium (29 to 49%), potassium (16 to 19%), magnesium (16 to 24%), calcium (16 to 46%), iron (24 to 27%), copper (20 to 76%), and zinc (27 to 59%). Mayer [22] observed declines in the nutrient levels of twenty vegetables from 1936 to 1991, including calcium (19%), magnesium (35%), and copper (81%), as well as in the nutrient levels of twenty fruits, including sodium (43%), magnesium(11%), iron(32%), copper (36%), and potassium (20%).

Numerous scientists [23] found a significant percentage decline in the mineral content of thirteen fruits and vegetables during 1963 to 1992 in the U.S., including calcium (29%), magnesium (21%), potassium (6%), phosphorus (11%), and iron (32%), as well as a decrease in the mineral levels of twenty fruits and vegetables during in the last fifty-one years (1936 to 1987) in Britain: calcium (19%), magnesium (35%), sodium (43%), potassium (14%), phosphorus (6%), iron (22%), and copper (81%).

Thomas [18] reported theatrical losses in copper (76%) and zinc (59%) during 1940 to 1991 and 1978 to 1991 in different vegetables, respectively. Similarly, Alae-Carew et al. [24] reported 50% less availability of water and use of saline water (3–4dS m−1) significantly reduces yield and nutritional quality of fruits.

Likewise, pronouncements in [7,22] showed a consistent decline in the quantity of protein (6%), calcium (16%), phosphorus (9%), iron (15%), vitamin A (18%), riboflavin (38%), and vitamin C (15%) in 43 different fruits and vegetables over the past half century. Jack [25] reported a fall in nutrients such as calcium (26.5%), iron (36.1%), vitamin A (21.4%) and vitamin C (29.9%) in vegetables from 1975 to 1997.

Different vegetables lost a greater part of their iron, including cauliflower (60%), collard greens (81%), mustard greens (51.3%), onions (56%), and watercress (88.2%), and vitamin A in broccoli (38.3%), cauliflower (68.3%), collard greens (41.2%), and parsley (38.8%).

A sharp decline rate was observed in calcium, with 57.4 percent in lemons, 58.8 percent in pineapples, and 65 percent in tangerines during 1975 to 2001.

The authors also observed from available nutritional data that the phosphorus levels dropped in different fruits such as apples (30%), bananas (52.4%), oranges (30%), peaches (36.8%), tangerines (44.4%); there were reduced amounts of iron in bananas (55.7%), grapefruit (85%), oranges (75%), peaches (78%), strawberries (62%), tangerines (75%), and watermelons (66%); and bananas (57.4%), grapefruit (87.5%), peaches (59.8%), pineapples (55%), strawberries (67.1%), apples (41.1%), and watermelon (38%) lost vitamin A.

Ficco et al. [26] observed that the Mg content of fruits decreased by 7 to 25 percent and vegetables by 15 to 35 percent. Bruggraber et al. [27] observed a significant decrease of 0.35 mg 100 g−1 (−95%) of iron from the 1930s to 1980s in fruits.

Apparent declines in copper from −34 to −81 percent signify minute absolute changes as 100 g−1 dry produce of vegetables has a gigantic natural range from 0.11 to 1.71 mg (1555%); in fruit, it varies from 0.10 to 2.06 mg (2060%); and in grains, 0.1–1.4 mg (1400% range) along with its copper availability is hugely subject to the nutrient dilution effect [28].