Historically, sodas and other thirst quenching drinks were prepared at home and had nutritional value. The ingredients were wild crafted and the results produced a beverage that was refreshing and also gave a boost to the system. Root beer, Jamaican style ginger ale, switchel, beet kvass, and kombucha tea have tonic effects on the body system. These drinks were a way of bringing health into the home. Not magical elixirs, these beverages were more supplemental in their medicinal value. Today, chances are any soda or refreshing beverage on the market has been completely stripped of any of the health tonic qualities that originally inspired the flavors of the drink. We can help take our health back into our hands by preparing home made beverages from fresh ingredients.

When we make sodas and other beverages we are directly connected to the actual ingredients and the particular flavors they impart. We see that in order to access the medicinal properties of yellow dock root or dandelion root in our root beer, we must mask the astringent bitterness with sassafras root bark and honey. To offset the bite of freshly grated ginger for ginger ale it is necessary to add some citrus juice and honey. The flavors are powerful and there is nothing artificial about them. Nature provides the nutrition and through sodas we can access it.

When making sodas, the flavor intensity of the ingredients and honey sweetness can be tailored to the individual. Thirst-quenching beverages need not be overly sweet. Tart, sour or bitter flavors can be just as satisfying. In our country, few flavor choices exist for people outside of overly sweet or salty. Most of these foods are dead. Bring life to your family and friends! Put burdock root back into your root beer, use beets from your garden in your beet kvass and let yeast and bacteria work together to give kombucha tea that satisfying sour taste with a subtle sweetness.
Making healthy beverages in the form of soda pop and other drinks is easy and fun. It is possible to create fresh beverages full of health promoting microorganisms with tastes that hint of sweetness, but also of other tones like sour or tart or bitter tastes that are wonderful and that most people aren’t as familiar with.

For the last two weeks, we have made the rounds and visited each colony of bees. There is a lot of walking as the land is too wet to drive on to get closer to each yard this is part of the sacredness of the journey. The quietness of the fields is punctuated by the birds and gentle winds.

After four months of winter, packing cases and insulated wraps are taken off. Boxes of honey are transferred from the hives that have died, and do not need it, to those that are alive, and hungry for more food. It is a very symbolic act as one member of the family gives new life to another.

As beautiful as Spring is with all of the birthing on the land, this greeting of the bees is a very somber time for me as many of the bees have passed on. With the decline of the bees worldwide because of the deterioration of the water and the air, these loses are very evident each day in the Spring. Working organically with our bees, we do not use chemicals that could artificially keep them alive. The exciting news is that we are seeing the light and hope of the turnaround in the health and strength of our bee populations. Now we are in the second year of a long term program to raise queens bees from the survivors. In these last weeks, we saw that queens Sam raised last year overwintered the best and were among the strongest. This gives us great encouragement to continue. I understand that while moving the bees South two winters ago enabled us to build them up after their loses and make a huge crop last season, it does not make them stronger our work with queen bees is a vital part of the path to sustainability and better health for the bees and beekeepers.

For over 100 years, the bees have been challenged by American Foulbrood, a major disease of the young bees, the “brood”, that has a distinctive odor, called “foul”. It kills the bees, but does not harm the honey. We have learned to smell it when opening up a hive. Our bees do not have much of this as we work organically with them a hive will be burned when discovered and the disease and weaker bees taken out of circulation. Drugs will only mask the symptoms and not get rid of the bacterial spores. The drugs allow the disease to spread throughout an operation. Because of the extensive use of drugs for this disease, much of the Chinese honey on the market in recent years has been contaminated. Last night I burned a hive that Tim had found earlier in Charlotte. The burning is conducted with great respect for the bees to not do this would threaten and weaken each of their other families in this community.

The fire that burns away that which is not wanted is a metaphor for many of us personally this Spring. As we moved the honey house to Route 7 in Ferrisburgh, we made a huge fire and burned that which we needed to clean up and remove from our work. The moving was a team effort and was a time to reflect on some things that I feel are important over all the years in our most honorable honey house:

• The healing goodness of elderberry has been shared with many via our elderberry extract and the distribution of plants each season.
• We work with the Amish community, on their land and with their families. Dan Miller was encouraged to build bee equipment for us, and a family business was born and has grown to serve the beekeeping community in New York State and the region.
• There is another side of the story with an invasive plant like purple loosestrife, which is involved in enormous healing as well as providing tons of honey to pollinating insects.
• We have seen that people working together can make a difference in their health and in the market. Our work is a string of partnerships across the land, and for that I am most grateful.

Because of your interest and support of the bees through the market, they will survive, get stronger and prosper. Thank you so much.

healing with bees

“Ouch, that one really, really hurt!”

“That one was the kidney point representing fear.” That was what my acupuncturist/bee venom therapist said to me after stinging me with a bee. Acupuncture is based on releasing stuck energy through meridian points in the body. With bee venom therapy, the process is greatly enhanced.

I was first introduced to bee venom therapy in October 2005 when I apprenticed at Honey Gardens Apiaries. During my week there extracting and bottling honey, wrapping hives, I was stung several times. My co-workers informed me that bees are divinely inspired to sting at points where your body needs attention. I was fascinated and I wanted to learn more. Todd shared how he stings people on purpose, the healing art of bee venom therapy (BVT).

I told him of my physical struggles and he consulted his acupuncturist/BVT teacher regarding a plan for stings. We began the process right away. I was stung on purpose in several meridian points. I was told I reacted well I was swollen, red and itchy for several days. But the pain from the arthritis in my knees subsided.

I learned that to be really effective, the stinging needs to be done regularly for an amount of time determined necessary. A few months later, I spent three weeks with Todd’s acupuncturist friend and experienced freedom in many ways. I never before realized how emotions such as fear and sorrow affect health.

I will continue to seek healing from the bees by ordering my own bees and stinging myself as needed.

I am thankful for the education I received while working at Honey Gardens. I am amazed at the many healing facets of the bee. Bee venom therapy is just one facet. It is now my privilege to share this wealth of information all over the country doing demos of Honey Garden’s products and marketing for this small Vermont bee farm.

for more information on bee venom therapy, see www.Apitherapy.org or contact Honey Gardens

saving the honey bee in Texas

It was my grandfather, who I called Ga, that first introduced me to the world of honey bees and beekeeping. Growing up in Texas, I would spend my summers with him and my grandmother at their home in Scotland. In the tight community where they lived, everyone knew Ga as “the beekeeper”.

Graham Dodds, honey bee savior

During those summers in Scotland, the neighbors would call for our help when swarms of bees would gather in their trees. Swarming is a natural process honey bees use for family improvement and survival. Half of the bees in a hive will leave to allow for a new, younger queen to be raised. Also, when they get too crowded in the hive, some swarm and leave for a new home where they will have more room. Ga and I would set out on a wild goose chase and follow behind the bees. He was too old to climb the trees, and so once the bees were settled, it was me who would be given the clippers and set up the tree to fetch them. My Ga never wore much protection as the stings were good for his rheumatoid arthritis, and as a result I never wore much protection either. Up a tree I would go, with just shorts, a T-shirt, and a veil to do my best to bring the bees gently down. I would then place them in a box on the ground and return after sundown to retrieve them and bring them home. There would be thousands of bees ! I would stand in awe and watch the bees calmly crawl into their new home.

In Junior High, I got my first beehive from a local pest control company that did not want to exterminate honey bees. I was soon getting dozens of calls a week. Recently I went out with Amy to save the biggest most grandiose colony I have ever seen in the wild. Using a very precarious ladder, we managed to saw the branch off that the bees were clinging to. As they fell into the hive below, the ladder fell over and bees exploded into the air, their colony in pieces on the ground. We were sad, feeling that the most beautiful colony I had ever seen had been destroyed. Knowing that they would have perished with pesticides if we had not finished the job, I gently placed the comb back into the box and left all there for the day. When I returned the next morning, all of the bees were inside of their new hive, calm and fixing up the comb that had broken. I can not save all of the bees in Texas, but it is important to do what we are able.

I feel it is critical in today’s age to save these wonderful insects and to educate people about how truly beneficial they are. I hope that everyone can learn to value their healing gifts for our health.

Honey used topically is being used in healing, including diabetic foot ulcers
http://www.diabetesincontrol.com/modules.php?name=News& file=article& sid=2880