Solitary bee bread

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This crumpet, titled “Solitary bee bread”, was served to the 150 visitors attending the Inauguration of a naked soil strip. This project was part of the festival SETU, held in the village de Ergué-Gabéric, in the french Cornwalls in the summer of 2020.

This recipe consisted of a crumpet[1] made out of spelt sourdough, cooked on a bed of caramelized toasted buckwheat seeds. It was served with dandelion salted butter and pommeau[2] syrup. The visitors were invited to butter their crumpet and add syrup themselves as you would for any 4 o'clock snack.

The inauguration speech (preceeding the service)

“A long strip of soil, fifty centimeters wide, is stripped of the plants which used to cover it, thanks to simple tools and hands. In this field, this fallow, this pasture, this meadow or this garden, someone steps forward until it reaches the first half of the naked soil strip, letting seeds of melliferous plants fall from its pockets along the way. Soon after, following one another from start to end, dancers come to repeat the steps of the Plinn dance, slowly, carefully, silently across the newly sown strip. By doing so, the dancers stamp and prepare the strip of soil which will host the guests of the upcoming winter: the discrete beings who thrive in bare soils. We sometimes can observe their burrows scattered across the grounds exposed to the warmth of the sun. She or he who has drawn this strip of naked soil on her of his land or garden, is well aware of it: by offering hospitality to these invertebrate diggers, she increases the odds of a successful harvest, of seeing her garden liven up, and the preservation of her beloved landscapes. By being of service to all, non-humans and humans, service is given to oneself.

Solitary bees, wether they belong to the Osmia or Andrenidae family, won’t miss their chance: a bare soil, liberated from mankind’s urge for productivity, is ideal ground for digging their burrows in. After mating, the fluffy females will reach the end of the tunnel and lay a ball of pollen and nectar called bee bread; then an egg; then a wall made of soil or chewed leaves; a ball of bee bread; an egg; a wall; and so on until they’ll reach the doorway of their nest. During winter, these few eggs now confined in the warm soil will transform into pupaes, then in adults, thanks to the feed carefully provided by their mothers. Then, stepping out of their burrows at the beginning of spring, the bees will, at last, taste the fresh nectar of the melliferous flowers formerly sown on the half strip of naked soil. By foraging, from one flower to another, the solitary bees will contribute to the pollination and reproduction of surroundings plants and trees, with a much greater yield that of the well-known honey bee. She or he who will have given room for solitary bees will be astonished by the politeness of these flying hosts, as they will contribute, thanks to their number and diversity, to intensify the biodiversity of local pollinators. To that end, the yield of a single crop might, in average, increase by 20%. If we consider honey bees for the delicacies their hives produce, let us not forget their solitary cousines who also are part of the ecosystems of Brittany. The world’s biomass of insects is currently loosing annually, on average, 2.5% of its total. This number is akin to the impact of the Spanish flue, repeated every year, on the insect population. This decline is not exclusive to honey bees, it is a crisis which impacts all pollinators, from flies to butterflies. Though without them, humans wouldn’t be able to produce two third of the plants they cultivate. We also bet on the potential of this strip of naked soil to foster the settlement of hosts, less directly of use to us. Among the animals that can be found in the soils of Brittany, we hope to see the Sultzer purseweb spider, a small mygalomorph spider living in a burrow, ambushed in its silk sock. A more humid soil could help see appear the swamp cricket who hides in cracks in the soil when it doesn’t sing. We could also see the Gryllotalpa, who is more shy: this rare insect, half between a mole and a cricket, sings from the tunnels it spends most of its time hidden in.

The farmer, through the surface of its agricultural land, is obviously more able to improve the resilience of these animals. Many of these farmers are indeed doing so thank to the help of the European Union and regional institutions. But for those of you, who may be modest gardeners as we are, know that nothing prevents you from preparing a strip of naked soil to host the solitary bee, as a gesture of gratefulness for their service. This is the second strip we’ve set in the area: the first one was dug in a field of the Melenig cider farm, where Christian Toullec produces cider, apple juice, pommeau and lambic. We would be delighted to see new strips of naked soil pop up in surroundings farms and nearby gardens, and why not further away, so that we can monitor their evolution in time.”

Take a sneak peek

Notes

  1. The crumpet is a very active batter cooked on one side, toasted and traditionaly served with butter and jam in the British Corwalls
  2. Pommeau is a sort of “apple wine” made out for apple juice and apple liquor
  3. ©Manon Riet