Changes in eating (updated)

Yesterday I started experimenting with my third major change in eating. The first was shifting to making hot and iced tea at work instead of reaching for the company-provided soda. The second was popping corn in my $4 thrift-store air popper and bringing it for my afternoon snack instead of reaching for chips or sweets. And now I'm exploring using honey as my primary sweetener.

Yesterday the honey in my usual morning English Breakfast was kind of a shock. There was a combination of flavors I didn't expect, and I found myself coding that experience as negative. I think I've put a hold on that encoding. Honey in my chai this morning was pleasant. And although I didn't want honey in my oatmeal this morning (I used dried dates instead), I am open to doing it in the future.

I'm really pleased and comforted that I have the local honey sources I do. Our local manufacturers are Madhava and Clarks, but we also have a thriving community of beekeepers in the county. I discovered this on a snowy evening when I headed to the Boulder library for a movie called Sister Bee. The library theater was packed, and I was turned away, so instead I took home a copy of the documentary.

And that bit of insight into the world of bees was followed by the news that bees are in trouble ... which has made the news all the more poignant. The moderately good news is that colony collapse disorder seems to have affected the workers, but the queens are still laying eggs, so colonies will likely be back by-mid summer.

Meanwhile, Colorado still grows sugar beets, although the Great Wester Sugar Company was bought out by a Texas sugar manufacturer. I wonder if I can still get beet sugar locally?

Update: Great Western (now the Western Sugar Cooperative) claims it's grower owned and that most sugar beets are grown within 60 miles of their processing plant. I can't find any guarantees that the sugar that shows up around me is from the plant 30 miles away, but it's worth checking into.