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"Happiness always looks small when you hold it in your hands, but let it go, and at once you learn how big and precious it is."
Maxim Gorky

Sunday, May 30, 2010

The buzz...

Yesterday it was all about the honeybees.
It was officially Honeybee Awareness Day in B.C and we went off to the honey farm up the road.
Bob Liptrot and Dana LeComte own and operate the Tugwell Creek Honey Farm and Meadery.
'Purveyor of Fine Honeybee Products'.
 Bob has been in the honey business for 40+ years and yesterday had a special event on their farm for the public, to get their attention about the plight of the honeybee.
Maybe you don't realize how important these creatures are.
Think about it this way...
"1 of every 3 mouthfuls of food we eat , bees are responsible for".
This fact, from Bob, should make you stand up and take notice.
These extremely hard working creatures are in serious decline.
In the past 3 years over 50 billion honeybees have died and studies have yet to discover what exactly is the problem. 
Now the government wants to lift a quarantine which helped keep pests and diseases from other bees in check.
Meanwhile Tugwell Creek farm is doing their part to give the bees a fighting chance.
Yesterday they donated 100 per cent of their vintage Mead tasting sessions to research the problems facing honey farmers across the country.
First off was a tour down into the extraction room where Bob explained the process of getting the honey from hive to tank...
 Clearly, he loves his work!
...and the bees love Bob!
Then it was down the garden path to one of the areas where he keeps some of his colonies...
 Honeybees are docile...they are herbivores and  and are just trying to do their thing...
This one posing perfectly with the logo of the farm on one of the hives...
Did you know they have five eyes?
 Lots of wild bumblebees like Tugwell Creek too...
As well as the resident 3 stooges, Curly, Larry and Moe.

and a few big woolly sheep, hanging out in the meadow.

After our tour of the beehives it was off to try some mead...
Mead is an ancient drink, like wine, but made from honey...
We drank some of the vintage batch from handmade dark chocolate cups...YUM!
My friend Wysti, who works here, was helping with the tastings...
This one was my favorite and came home with us...
Look at that gorgeous honey...so sweet and tasty...
Wysti and I playing beekeeper!

Bees bees everywhere...

One of the volunteers showing us the insides of the hive...
How beautiful is that?!
So next time you take a bite of something that grew from a plant, thank the humble honeybee and do your part to keep them alive...plant flowers and trees, don't use pesticides,  keep bees(you can do it in your backyard) and support your local independent honey farmer...
bring home some honey...drink some mead with dinner.
Visit the farm when you come to Sooke.


2 comments:

myletterstoemily said...

i enjoyed every frame of your buzz
and would dearly love to taste the
mead.

thank you for speaking up for bees!

Cobalt Violet said...

Wonderful post! I loved this visit and journey you just took me on. love that bee/flower photo so much with the wonderful textures ... and the honey with the light coming through ... Oh! How was the mead? I have always wondered ... wasn't it mead they drank in a Midsummer Nights Dream?