Our northern woods, fields, and wetlands are rich in botanical treasures. Many of these plants are medicinal as well. In particular,Vermont transitional forests are home to one of our most valued medicinal trees, the wild cherry, or Prunus serotina. We value the wild cherry for its inner bark which is a main ingredient in our wild cherry cough syrup.

Unlike commercial cough medicines which are typically flavored, colored, and sweetened as if containing actual cherry fruits, our formula is made the way traditional wild cherry bark cough syrups have been made since the nineteenth century. It is the bark rather than the fruit that is more therapeutic and medicinal. Of specific influence and inspiration to our formula is Dr. D.C. Jarvis, a twentieth century Vermont folk medicine country doctor, whose use of both apple cider vinegar and raw honey in treating coughs is tried and true. Our Apitherapy wild cherry syrup contains a base of raw honey and organic apple cider vinegar to which we add organic and wild crafted herbs and propolis.

Contained within our vision is the intention of wildcrafting sustainably, never depleting natural populations of wild medicine plants. Todd’s brother-in-law is a forester and alerted him that some cherry trees had been cut down and bark would be available from sections of logs that were too small to be marketable. Tim and Carol of the honey house crew carefully removed first the outer bark which is not used, and then the prized inner bark for our syrup. This is a wonderful example of the choreography of sustainable practice: agriculture working in tandem with forestry.

There is a bit of irony surrounding the naming of our plant medicine, the wild cherry syrup. Although ingredients in our formula have been used traditionally to treat coughs at least since the early nineteenth century (and volumes of anecdotal evidence support their success rate), we cannot label our syrup a cough syrup because it does not contain one of the chemicals that the FDA deems necessary to include for such labeling.

Our wild cherry syrup is pure plant medicine. It acts as a respiratory relaxant, an anti-inflammatory and demulcent for inflamed respiratory tissues, and an antitussive for relieving irritating, relentless, and spasmodic coughs. The propolis and raw honey contribute antibiotic action, making this a very effective product.

to order Apitherapy honey wild cherry syrup, Apitherapy honey, and more, via credit card from our website click here

Apitherapy raw honey is important for maintaining health, too, because it is one of the eight or so foods that are very high in enzymes.

The bees have overwintered well and are starting to fly on warm days.

We have spent much of the winter making Apitherapy honey elderberry extract and Honey house propolis salve.

As I was walking away from a gathering recently, and someone asked me about the bees.

Wherever I go in northern Vermont, there is awareness and interest in honey bees. People are conscious of the bees and want to know how they are wintering, how the crop is going, or how they are surviving the attack of the parasitic mites.

As I started talking about the bees and how we are now combining honey with elderberry, a group of elder ladies gathered around around and started telling stories about what their parents did with elderberry when they were children. Jam was made, to be used through the winter when someone had a cold or flu, pie and wine were part of the yearly rhythm of the farm kitchen. The ladies were excited to remember a fruit that was important to the family in their youth and that they have not seen much of since then. The elderberry has skipped a generation.

Days after making elderberry, I am still find purple splotches on my clothing. It is a very tenacious berry. At the Vermont Food Venture Center in Fairfax, where we make the elderberry extract,we learned that elderberry is the only food product that stains the white coats we wear there that will not come clean in the wash. This reminded me of propolis that lingers in our bee suits after many washings.

It is now five months since these elderberries were harvested and 12 years since Lewis Hill told me about the elderberries and and encouraged me to get involved with them. The journey has been a long one I reflected on all of this last week at the end of one of Tim and my 11 hour days in the Venture Center making elderberry extract. Purple jars with different formulations were scattered all over the room and we were closing in on the fine tuning for the formula. We were on the edge of finding a way to keep our bees’ Apitherapy raw honey from crystallizing and the elderberry from jellying up in the bottle and still keep the honey totally raw. Samples were delivered by messenger (me) up to a $7,000 computer analyzing each test batch as we tweaked the recipe.

“Tim, we have made elderberry-honey extract !” I proclaimed, feeling almost drunk in the spirit as I realized how we were at the conclusion of many years of work.

“We are not making elderberry, “ he wisely responded, “we are delivering elderberry.”

Thank you for your support of our bees and their work.

The elderberry has long been used for healing in Native America and in the Vermont farm kitchen. Traditionally used for colds and the flu, it is rich in Vitamin C. Elderberry has been known to build up the immunity system and to fight some viruses that chemical medicines do not work on. At the honey house we mix organic elderberry with Apitherapy raw honey, propolis, and organic Echinacea. Propolis is a natural antibiotic gathered by the bees from the buds of poplar and pine trees.

Your food shall be your medicine and your medicine shall be your food. Hipprocrates (460 – 377 B.C.)

A Spotty Summer
This summer has given new meaning to the descriptive term “spotty”, used in beekeeping to describe the widely diverse yields of honey that may be found from yard to yard in some seasons.

A few weeks ago, we went to one yard to take honey off for the third time this season. Over half of the colonies yielded 200 or more pounds, most of which had come in during the previous 14 days. Some of these are colonies that had already had 200 pounds taken off in June and July, which meant that they have now made 400 pounds, with the goldenrod and aster honey still to be gathered.

I had never seen anything like this before. The power in nature is humbling, and I will always be in awe of what this yard made in 1998.

At the other end of the scale, there are yards nearby with colonies that have not made any honey this year, this is the ” spotty” nature of the season. Where the bees did make honey, it came late and with the volume of a tidal wave. It is often hard to tell why there are differences in yards and with seasons. Ten basswood trees that are maturing near a bee yard could make a difference. Also, in some years their blossoms may be knocked off by a rain storm. A 60 acre field of alfalfa cut earlier one year because of good drying conditions may change a crop. In areas where dairy farming is fading, goldenrod fields are part of the succession of plants. We do know that it was cool and wet for much of the early season. So much of these things remains a mystery, but we are always grateful for the honey that the bees do make.

We appreciate your interest and support of our bees and their work.