Our first honey house was in the international village of Morses Line, Vermont & Quebec. On the right of the road is the old Richard Brothers Apiary that we moved into. The second building on the right is the Bucket-of-Blood bar, with the Vermont-Quebec border in the middle of the bar. In the Prohibition, the customers would move north to Canadian side for liquor the name of the bar and remnants of glass in the back yard attested to some of action in this building. The buildings on the left are all in Quebec. The forage for the bees was abundant, and they were independent of any boundary or business there.

If you draw a line from the United States north into Canada, the further north you go, the more honey the bees generally make each season. Our first honey house was as far north as one could go in the United States, in Morses Line, Vermont, north of the US Customs office and hugging the Quebec border. The flowers from the dairy farming community on both sides of the international line supported our bees as they gathered nectar, pollen, and propolis. The two Richard Brothers had kept bees here for years, and we continued that tradition, working with a peak of around 180 colonies of bees in Franklin Country, Vermont.

This is a bi-lingual community the language would gracefully move in out of French and English throughout the day. There is an innocence that is so pure here I remember going to a baseball game in Montreal with one of the neighbor children, and he remarked that the buildings were taller than his silos. The farms here are a sacred space, and are passed down from generation to generation in families that carry their traditions forward in time. We began here with a two seater outhouse, a mortgage of $130/month and a huge, sacred poplar tree in the front yard that gave propolis to the bees (seen as a smaller tree in this picture, on the right of the road.)

Our bees are all wrapped for the winter now. They are stronger than they were 12 months ago, with many more bees of the Russian, mite-resistant stock than we have ever seen. For years we have wrapped them, and when the last yard is completed, there is a peace that settles over the honey house. The hard working bees are insulated from the cold winds, snow and rain. With more than 30 bee yard locations, the wrapping takes weeks and is a rhythm of fall moving into winter that invariably ends with time outside in the snow in a polar environment. This year we started to bring four bee hives tight together, and wrap them in a cluster so that they may share their heat and move through the winter as stronger families. These changes convey and air of hope and promise to the bees.

We are continuing to work with our bees with organic policies. It is expected that at least 30% of the colonies may pass on this winter, and from the stronger survivors we will raise more queens, with the genetics of the Russian bees providing mite resistance. We will not use any chemical medicines to artificially allow the weaker colonies to live. Our organic procedures will protect our Apitherapy raw honey and our traditional plant medicines made with this honey. We feel that every action that we move through regarding the bees is transmitted into the integrity, medicinal and food value of our honey and plant medicines.

There is a new snow today covering the honey house and the fields around here. The snow is welcome as it will insulate the nectar plants, bring water and nitrogen to these plants, and remind us to get our cross country skiis and skates out of storage. As we wind down this season and anticipate the holidays, we reflect on the years of the rhythms of traditions of working with the bees. So much is old, and also so much is new as we learn more about how to have a relationship with the bees that are facing so many environmental challenges. .

About 40% of what you eat depends on pollination by insects, much of this by honey bees. With the decline in bees, gardeners and farmers have been noticing less crops honey bees are the “canaries in the coal mine”, and they have helped us be more aware of changes in our environment. We are grateful to be sharing the traditions of beekeeping and plant medicines with all of you and send you our best and the end of the agricultural season and beginning of new seasons.

I envision Honey Gardens as a string of partnerships across the land, with our most honorable market, those who work in stores, you who provide the demos at stores in the grassroots of education, the herbalists and scientists who we ask for help, the organic farmers we partner with and adore, our faithful business partners & suppliers ~ thank you. Our Honey House Propolis Salve is solely the creation of Tim, with some of his words below. Todd

First of all, thank you to the myriad strands of life’s web for the gifts of medicine bestowed to us along with the responsibility to share and rejuvinate these connections. We are constantly amazed by the work of the bees and the apothecary of medicine they produce. Raw honey has been used for thousands of years as a food and topically as treatment for burns and wounds. Honey is hydroscopic, drawing moisture from the environment, effectively incapacitating infectious bacteria. It has an acidic pH which further dissuades microbial colonization and has been found to contain inhibine which is akin to hydrogen peroxide. Honey also coats exposed, irritated nerve endings inhibiting oxidation, thus relieving pain. The bees make propolis by combining resins (from poplars and conifers), beeswax, and pollen. Propolis (bee-glue) strengthens waterproofs and sterilizes the hive. Propolis is antibiotic, antiseptic, antifungal, antiviral, anti-inflammatory, and analgesic (numbing pain). At Honey Gardens, we were inspired to combine raw honey, propolis, and beeswax with olive oil infusions of comfrey root, calendula flowers, and plantain leaves. Comfrey root knits wounds together, promotes cell repair, and heals burns. Calendula flowers sooth inflamed tissues, burns, and stimulate healing of wounds. Plantain leaves are astringent drawing infections to the surface, promoting healing of injuries. Each herb also helps stop bleeding. The propolis acts as a resinous bandage, protecting the wound. Apply Honey House propolis salve to burns, wounds, bruises, swellings, stings and damaged/dry skin

I have found that when dealing with nature, if one is to adopt a faithful mentality, the wild forces drive what is needed to those places of wanting. For a year I had the desire to know my own bees and to have a colony to watch collect nectar. All of this came about in the early summer of this year. Todd and I were eating breakfast outside at the honey house before a day’s work. He had left to retrieve the oatmeal as my head seemed to clear with a buzz in the air. When I recognized the flying noise, I dismissed it for the usual noises of a honey farm. I began to notice a cloud of sweet insects scouting around before the larger wave of bees encapsulated me. I sat quietly, still, and somewhat cautious as I did not understand what was happening. I felt in the center of a living, breathing organism it was a fragile and potent creature that surrounded me. I was being sheltered by a mass of over 10,000 bees. Todd came out with the oatmeal, hands stretched out in amazement, exclaiming as he joined me in nature’s embrace, “Joe, this is a swarm! We’re in a swarm.” He showed me how gentle they were by walking though them. We found that they were making their new home in some old beeswax frames. They were a mass of pollinators looking for a dark place, furnished with the remnants of their past generations. “See how gentle they are”, Todd said, as he gave them frames of young bees from an established colony nearby in order to in sure that the swarm would stay in their new home. We watched them for while in silence, without any bee veils or a smoker.

“These bees have come to you, Joe”, Todd took on a prophetic tone, “we have talked about this, and I think it is time they have come to be with you.” He asked me if I wanted to accept the colony as my own. I looked at him, then back at the bees and gave the nod of a child in agreement.
The bees are now working at their own pace, on nature’s calendar in Monkton, Vermont. We brought them there to my high school, the Walden Project, in hopes of sharing these creatures with my peers.

Burdock is a rank weed to many people.

I know lots of gardeners and farmers and dog owners who curse the spread of their burrs. Yet in China and Japan burdock is revered in cooking, blending into the combination of food and medicine. Among herbalists the plant is known for its medicinal power of supporting the liver and cleansing the blood. At Honey Gardens we use organic burdock in our Rejuvenation Tonic. It seems that fighting this plant would be exhausting and trying to control the burrs would prove relentless. Several years ago on a beautiful afternoon in early September I was hanging out with this burdock plant up in Elmore. I took one of the brown burrs and opened it up and counted the seeds. I counted 70 seeds in one burr and 249 burrs on one plant for a total potential of 17,430 seeds on one plant ! I was in awe. I was in awe. That is quite a will to survive. Anything with a life force that profound I want to know it, to be around it, nourish myself with it, to learn from it, and to have it part of my daily life.

The gifts from plants and nature are sacred and require honor and celebration. Plants can teach us many lessons that life in our present day culture cannot. We can learn a lot from listening to their expressions and observing their marvelous beauty. In this journey with plants I learn how to open my heart and quietly listen. I learn when I am too attached to my version or expectations of an outcome. How to sit in quite beauty. How to ask myself what is really important in this life. Whether it is the generous gift of medicine in the root or the fruit, the stunning color of a flower, or the nectar and pollen that clings to the bees, plants teach us to celebrate the moment, the gift of life we hold in our hands.
The journey is together and the dynamic forces of life are always changing. I get a delicious feeling of vitality in early summer when the dandelions release their seeds on the wind and the sky seems to fill with a light snow. There goes next year’s medicine and glorious yellow flower. Where will they land?

Last week Tim and I drove north about 30 minutes to Fairfax VT, home of the Vermont Food Venture Center. The VFVC is a non-profit shared-use kitchen for local producers to create their products. There is an entrepreneurial spirit in this area which keeps the kitchens busy. We use the industrial-sized mixers, kettles and bottlers to produce our line of plant medicines. Our mission this time was to make our Wild Cherry Syrup, as the weather cools and demand picks up for relief from colds and flu. As we drive, we notice the leaves are starting to brown a bit. Besides predicting how cold the winter will be, figuring when and how much the leaves will turn is a favorite pastime of Vermonters, old and new. The hot and relatively dry weather up until a couple of weeks ago has turned some of the leaves brown before they could redden.

We unload hundreds of pounds of raw honey, and empty glass bottles, and set up the room to begin mixing. First the honey, then propolis extract is turned into the honey with large stainless steel paddles. It reminds me of the last kayaking trip of the summer. Propolis is a resin gathered by the bees from trees and used in the hive to create a hygienic environment. We use it for the same purpose in our bodies, to fight off bacteria and viruses. Next in is the organic apple cider vinegar. It is a general health tonic, and especially supportive of the respiratory system in fighting off colds and flu. Last into the kettle are the extracts of wild cherry bark, elecampane and ginger roots, rose hips, licorice and slippery elm bark. These herbs help to expel mucus from the lungs and sinuses, sooth our respiratory tracts, and boost immunity. We continue to paddle. Once the mixture is in bottles, we use droppers to add essential oils of lemon, peppermint and eucalyptus. We do this to each bottle individually right before capping so that the oils are not lost to volatilization. As we rhythmically drop the final medicine in to each bottle the conversation between Tim and me turns to healing, and how we can improve our own health by quieting our minds.

We clean up, pack up and head back to the honey house to unload. As we pass the drying wildflowers along the road, I think of what a beautiful summer it has been. “This summer was so hot, I bet the winter is going to be brutal”, I say. Tim agrees, “The earth gave us a great bounty so that we could make it through until the spring.” Indeed. I will think of those hot days during the long nights of winter.

My path as an aspiring herbalist has brought me to the Honey Garden’s family in time to join in the fall harvest. As the bees work to build up a secure winter cache, we work hard beside them, insuring their winter survival while also gathering honey. When I first arrived, I had been diagnosed with Lyme’s Disease, received from a deer tick while in the Pine Barrens of New Jersey. With my energy low and joints stiff, work on some days was quite painful. At Honey Gardens, I soon became aware of the historical treatment called Bee Venom Therapy, where bee stings on varying pressure points and meridians of the body can help to remedy ailments such as multiple sclerosis, rheumatoid, Lyme’s Disease, and cancer. After being stung for several weeks now, I feel a dramatic increase in life energy and decrease in stiffness in my joints.

Some believe that the bees have a divine way of stinging you where it is needed the most. This has been my experience. On a two-day trip last week to gather honey, I received a great deal of stings. One memorable sting was when a bee crawled inside my boot and stung my inner ankle, on an acupuncture point where I have been receiving bee venom therapy, known as spleen six.

I truly have been blessed by working with the bees, not only learning more about them and their sweet gifts, but also the strong healing qualities they share with us.

For more on bee venom therapy, see www.apitherapy.org