The Birds and the (Backyard) Bees BY HEATHER HAMILTON-POST
Gabrielle Marcantonio and Pedro Martinez stand on their patio, the table heaped with the produce they’ve spent the morning gathering from their garden, which spans about a third of an acre. As Gabby explains how they’ve discovered and redefined community through a desire to feed friends and family, Pedro moves in the background, visibly sucking in air. “Oh!” Gabby laughs. “He just took a bite of a spicy pepper we grew!” The pepper is one of around 1,000 different plants growing in the couple’s urban garden, which changes every year. This year, they explain, they planted a lot of medicinal things for pollinators, “At the end of which is something they’re the day, if we’re trying to be more conscious helping in our tiny of since welcoming the neighborhood, bees. “The pandemic showed it’s mission us that our food systems accomplished.” are very vulnerable; it’s been a stark reminder of just how fragile they are. But people have 34
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been doing this (beekeeping and growing food) for a long time,” Pedro says, gesturing toward the towering garden. Like many of us, Gabby and Pedro adopted a few pandemic pets. Unlike most of us though, their pets are largely self-sustainable, help the garden, and produce delicious honey. “The bees are amazing little creatures. I love them so much it makes me want to cry,” laughs Gabby. “And our garden is on steroids now,” Pedro adds. They’ve also seen cross pollination happening–plants that grow both pepperoncinis and jalapenos, for example. In many ways, the bees are a happy accident. A friend purchased a hive, but had reservations about his space, so early in the pandemic, he passed it on to Gabby and Pedro. “It just fell into our laps, and we had this huge garden anyway. I didn’t want to focus on the negative, so I just decided to put my hands in the dirt,” Pedro says. Soon after, the couple put their hands in more than dirt, filling their inherited hive with bees that had to be relocated from a hive in a tree in their yard. When word got out that they were in the business of relocating bees, they began getting calls from people who knew people who needed help. Apparently, it is relatively easy to find secondhand bee boxes, and with a little TLC and artwork
