behind the scenes
A special event in Plymouth centered on a film about bees and beekeepers called “Queen of the Sun” promises to be a honey of an evening.
Called “A Night of Food Film” by its collaborators, Plimoth Cinema (the ongoing film series at Plimoth Plantation) and Plymouth Farmers’ Market, the evening includes the feature film, inventive tastings of locally sourced cuisine from the market’s farmers and food-makers, and a speakers’ panel of local beekeepers spiced with the plantation’s foodways expert.
Directed by documentary filmmaker Taggart Siegel, “Queen of the Sun” is about the bee crisis caused by billions of honey bees going missing from their hives, a development with catastrophic potential for world agriculture. Beekeepers, scientists, and social critics have wrestled with causes of the disaster both small and large, from microbes to fundamental man-made shifts in the balance of nature.
Siegel said he made the film after learning about the importance of the disappearing bees and reading a quote attributed to Einstein: “If bees die out, man will only have four years of life left on earth.”
While the truth of that assertion has been disputed, the undisputed importance of bees to our environment led him to spend three years making the film.
“It’s about bees and the people who love them, and then about the danger that they’re in,” said Kathleen Wall, the plantation’s foodways culinarian. Given what scientists are calling the recent “colony collapse syndrome,” the alternative bee habitats these beekeepers created have become more necessary, Wall said.
The film doesn’t get mired in predictions of doom. “It’s what people can do in little places that make a difference,” Wall said.
What makes a difference to the June 2 event at Plimoth Cinema, the ongoing film program that offers independent and foreign films in an area that doesn’t get them anywhere else, can be summed up in a word — food.
Plymouth Farmers’ Market, an established market that’s launching its new outdoor home at the plantation on June 7, is arranging food for the event from its vendors, including honey samplings from the Pembroke-based business Queen Bee Hone
y Products, and recipes made with locally grown rhubarb, garlic, and asparagus, and locally produced rabbit, duck, pork, beef, chicken, cheese, bread, greens, and organic cranberries.
The event will take place outdoors in the museum’s courtyard to the accompaniment of traditional and bluegrass music by Yesterday’s Country. Celebrated Plymouth chef and caterer Martha Stone will be on hand to offer local seasonal recipes.
“Plan to arrive hungry and thirsty for the flavors from Southeastern Massachusetts hives, fields, and busy bee kitchens,” said Nicole Logan, the plantation’s public relations manager.
Filmgoers will not only get to taste the honey but also tip back a specialty cocktail called the Bees’ Knees. The after-film talk includes Paul Comello, whose Queen Bee Honey Products uses honey and beeswax harvested from local beehives on 100-acre Rocky Run Farm, an organic farm with plenty of fruit trees. Eight years ago Comello started with one hive and now has 30. Pembroke’s Howard Scott has 30 years’ experience in beekeeping and is the author of five books, including “Bee Lessons,” which weaves together complex connections between human and bee societies.
Wall, the plantation’s culinarian, will talk about how honey bees, not native to America, came to the New World. “European settlers in the 17th century didn’t know about the importance of bees to orchards. They wanted bees for honey. [But] when you bring European flowers, you need European bees.”
The biggest impetus for the European importation of honey bees into America turned out to be the need for wax to make candles, she said.
You can burn fish oil for light or make tallow candles if you have a whole herd of cattle to work with, but none of those products work as well as beeswax candles. “They burn clean,” Wall said.
We may not need candles for light anymore, but we need honey bees to fertilize crops such as blueberries, apples, watermelons, citrus fruits, and almonds. “Queen of the Sun” offers a look at what people are doing to keep the wings of those “angels of agriculture” beating.
Robert Knox can be reached at rc.knox2@gmail.com.
© Copyright 2012 Globe Newspaper Company.
