| Stallholders at the Market this Saturday: |
| 41 Degrees South |
| A Pinch of Tasmania |
| All Things Cherry |
| Artisa |
| Brady’s Lookout Cider |
| Coronea Grove |
| Delicious Little Things |
| Derwent Distillery |
| Elgaar Farm The Grain Family |
| Felds Farm |
| George Town Seafoods |
| Hazelbrae Hazelnuts |
| Hillwood Fresh Food Co |
| Honey Tas |
| Kabul Veggie Delights |
| Laos Fresh Farm |
| Meander Pastured Eggs |
| Meat Bread Cheese |
| Metcalf Distilleries |
| Metz’s Pet Munchies |
| Modo Mio Naked |
| Mr B & T Mushroom Garden |
| Mt Gnomon Farm |
| Oldway Farm |
| Plants Direct |
| Provenance Coffee |
| Real Beef |
| Red Cow Organics |
| Ritual Coffee |
| Sandy’s Sourdough |
| Seoul Food |
| Seven Sheds |
| Seven Springs Farm |
| Smallgrain |
| SOMA – Hawks Football Club & Vince Brophy |
| Southern Sky Cheese |
| Steve’s Vegies |
| Strelleyfield Farm |
| Tas Daffodils |
| Tas Juice Press |
| TASG Oldway Farm |
| Taste of Tam O’Shanter |
| The Tea Equation |
| Thirlstane Gardens |
| Three Peaks Organics |
| TNGT |
| Wanderer Mead |
| Wanderlust |
| West Bee Honey |
| West Tamar Fungi |
The Harvest Launceston Community Farmers’ Market is saying a big thank you to bees as without bees there would not be the amazing produce stallholders spread out on their trestle tables for us every week. The 20thMay 2021 is World Bee Day and is an important opportunity to take stock of the role bees play in our food chain and why they need our help.
Take a look around the market and you quickly realise that it is not just the delicious honey brought to the market by West-Bee Honey and Honey Tasmania that we have bees to thank for, but most stallholders are there because of hard working bees. From the apples in the cider, to the carrots, pumpkins and cauliflowers, cherries and apricots in summer, about one in every three mouthfuls of food we eat is pollinated by bees. Numerous studies have shown that the addition of bees to paddocks when crops are flowering significantly increases yields.
The European honey bee is the most widespread managed pollinator in the world. The vast majority of pollinator species however are wild, including more than 20,000 species of bee. Australia is a biodiversity hotspot and home to more than 10% of global native bee diversity.
But bee populations are under threat. Intensive farming practices such as logging are destroying habitats, the use of fertilizers, pesticides and fungicides are highly toxic to bees and entire bee colonies are being destroyed by pests and diseases.
Bees matter and you can help them. This World Bee Day visit Wheen Bee Foundation for some ideas on how to help our bees. Next week, wear something yellow and take a deeper look at bees with the Northern Beekeepers Association who will be in attendance at the market on 22nd May 2021.