Reading Round-up: Robbing the Bees

Bishop was featured on the news show, CBS Sunday morning, as well as National Public Radio’s Splendid Table touting her knowledge of the flying, stinging, creepy-crawlies and their special sugary sauce.

In her book and in her TV and radio interviews, Bishop informs readers of the essential role that the bee plays in the actual creation of many of our favorite fruits. Apples, pumpkins and oranges are just a few of Mother Nature’s candy that would not be ripe for our picking if bees did not bring pollen from the male flower and deposit it in the female flower. CBS reported that, "[o]ne-third of all the food we eat is derived from honeybee pollination.”

Bishop explained the great art that goes into beekeeping and honeymaking on the Splendid Table radio show. Much like great wine experts can taste a wine and tell where the grapes were cultivated; old-timer, beekeepers can taste honey and tell which flowers made it.

Other facts revealed in the book, which have also been reported here on AltMd, include the healing properties of bee venom as a natural remedy. Confucius, Alexander the Great and Hippocrates understood the power of a bee sting to work as an anti-inflammatory. And CBS Sunday Morning correspondent Martha Teichner reported that Dr. Andrew Kochan, President of the American Apitherapy Society, is one of approximately 20 American doctors who use bee venom in management for severe shoulder pain and treating the excruciating pain of shingles.

Robbing the Bees: A Biography of Honey, the Sweet Liquid Gold that Seduced the World by Holley Bishop is available in hardback for $24.00.