The BUZZ: No Pumpkin Pie
Did you know that honeybees are not native to North America? Honeybees (Apis mellifera) have been tended since ancient times in Europe and the Middle East, but were first brought to the Americas on ships to provide honey and candle wax.
So, when the pilgrims sat down to their first Thanksgiving dinner in the autumn of 1621, there was no honey on the table. And, there was no pumpkin pie. In fact, there were none of the bee-pollinated foods that have become part of the holiday tradition, like cranberries or apples.
The first recorded arrival of honeybees in North America was one year later in 1622 when hives were brought ashore at the Virginia colony. The honeybees, stressed from their sea voyage, readily took to the pollen and nectar afforded by the Spring meadows and forests of the new colony. Some swarmed off and went feral, making their way deeper into the American heartland.
Native Americans knew their native bees, but did not have a word for the honeybees which they noticed arriving just before the settlement of Europeans. Some tribes called them the “White Man’s Fly.” It would be more than 200 years later in the mid 19th century before honeybees arrived on the West Coast and Hawaii either by migration west or by ship. Since then, both honeybees and native bees have co-existed, offering the benefit of pollinating our food and maintaining the balance of natural areas. In fact, one of the most iconic foods on our Thanksgiving tables, the cranberry, relies on pollinators to set fruit. It’s estimated that only about half of the blooms in modern cranberry bogs set fruit, and depend on the honey bee and a few species of native bees to do the job.
Pollination is also essential for pumpkins. In fact, there are some species of bee that specialize in pumpkin and squash pollen for survival. Their range matched that of the native squash plants the bees depended on for food. The squashes and pumpkins couldn’t reproduce without help from those particular bees. They depend on each other.
Squash Bees (N.Anderson, Xerces Society)
This Thanksgiving, we are not only thankful for our bee-pollinated bounty, but extremely thankful to all of you who faithfully sent in your observations, or at least took time to learn more about the role that bees play in our lives.
And we give thanks for pollinators. After all, without them, there would be no pumpkin pie and cranberry sauce!
Best,
Freddy B
PLEASE NOTE: If you are looking for a great gift, check out our beautifully made bee calendars and notecards. By doing so, you will be supporting a community focused on pollinator conservation.
Comments
Pollinators and Food
Wow! Thank you all for your comments. It's gratifying to see that this newsletter is being read.
I did not mean to imply that there were no pumpkins and cranberries because there were no honeybees. In fact, I go on to say that native plants like squashes and the vacciniums are dependent on native bees. Still are to some extent.
There was no pumpkin pie, because it had not been invented yet. And, while roasted or boiled native squashes were most likely served at the Plymouth gathering, pumpkin pie was first recorded in a 1651 French recipe book by Francois Pierre la Varenne called Le Vrai Cuisinier François.
The point I’m making, however, is that we would not have any pumpkins, pie or otherwise, were it not for the specialist bees that ensure fruit set.
And, commercial production of cranberries is dependent on both honeybees and native bees (mostly Bombus species).
So here's the take-away: *We need both native bees and honey bees to ensure the type of food security that we all give thanks for.*
And, while honey bees might be considered an "invasive species" , the same epitaph could be applied to European settlers. The fact is that we're all here now, and in order for this delicate balance to be maintained, the health of both native bees and honey bees is extremely important.
Otherwise, there would be no pumpkin pie.
And I, for one, am very thankful for pumpkin pie.
And also thankful that so many of you are reading the newsletter. Best Thanksgiving!
Freddy B
Buzz: no pumpkin pie
If there was no pumpkin pie at the pilgrims' first dinner this would not have been due to a lack of honey bees. Pumpkins are North American and have evolved with North American specialist pollinators in the genus Peponapis. Similarly, large cranberries (Vaccinium section Occycoccus) are North American and are mostly pollinated by native bumble bee species.
There is a Peponapis page on this website at Gretchen's Guide to Bees.
and an actual picture of one
and an actual picture of one in the text of the newsletter. Read my comments above.
Honey Bees and Thanksgiving
"...there were none of the bee-pollinated foods that have become part of the holiday tradition, like cranberries..." Is it really accurate to imply that cranberries weren't part of the first Thanksgiving meal because there were no honey bees at that time? Cranberries and pumpkins, pollinated by native bees, were available to and eaten by the indigenous populations of the New World long before the arrival of Europeans. They weren't part of that first feast, but not because there were no honey bees to pollinate the plants. Or am I misunderstanding the article?
please see my comments above.
please see my comments above.
Pumpkins, cranberries and native bees
"And, there was no pumpkin pie. In fact, there were none of the bee-pollinated foods that have become part of the holiday tradition, like cranberries or apples."
Of course there were cranberries! They were pollinated by native bees by using buzz pollination. Honey bees don't know how to perform buzz pollination. They do pollinate cranberries and blueberries but do a poor job compared with many native bees. About pumpkin pie, perhaps there was no pie because there was no wheat flour; but pumpkins were efficiently pollinated by native bees as you pointed out. In fact there were a staple of Native American diet.
I used to believe the story about the "White Man's Fly" but apparently there is no documentation to support it.
of course there were
of course there were cranberries. but not in the scale that we enjoy them today. see my comments above.
No Pumpkins? No native pollinators?
"So, when the pilgrims sat down to their first Thanksgiving dinner in the autumn of 1621, there was no honey on the table. And, there was no pumpkin pie. In fact, there were none of the bee-pollinated foods that have become part of the holiday tradition, like cranberries or apples."
I think that the author needs to revisit the above statement. Long before there were honeybees there were native pollinators involved in the plant world. The Americas were not entirely devoid of fruiting plants. A few that first come to mind although I'm not absolutely sure they are native to North America are: Concord grapes, paw paws, crabapples, cranberries, squash, tomatoes and beans. Honeybees are not the only pollinators on the planet. In fact if we want to get technical, honeybees are an invasive species to the Americas. I am not advocating that we try to remove them and I am aware that in order to have things like almonds and apples we can't do it without the honeybee. The quantity of food we need to survive as humans is quite dependent on them but they did displace quite a number of the native pollinators, which are coming back as the honeybee declines. (It's just that the native pollinators don't get the job done very well in terms of food production).
thanks for your comments.
thanks for your comments. Duly noted. Please read my comments below.