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

The work of harvesting honey is a meditation. Every season we look forward to the physical stresses of gathering honey day after day, and the pushing of physical limits allows the mind to open up. Today I am thinking again about my connection with the beekeepers of over 600 years ago as they celebrated the benevolence of our insect friends and the health of the soil we work with.

The rich, diverse history of beekeeping inspires our goals for the return of health to honey bees and people. Nothing is more healing than working with the natural progressions of the season. From watching the new hives grow in the spring to the harvest of a bountiful honey crop now, all the work of the year culminates in one vision we are assured of our focus on the natural path of the bees- securing their future and thus our own.

These days the bees are always working before I wake up, and the long days of summer witness foraging on a massive scale. The goldenrod plant, an important late season nectar producer, is ubiquitous in our part of Vermont.

Rounding the corner to a field of the yellow flowers makes my blood quicken in my veins. I never knew I would be so uplifted by looking at a field of flowers, and there you go, I must thank the bees again for augmenting my connection with this bit of sunshine on earth.

The American Apitherapy Society is devoted to research and the use of honey bee products to further good health and to contribute to the improvement of a variety of conditions and diseases. Bee venom therapy has been used successfully in many cases of multiple sclerosis, rheumatoid arthritis, Lyme’s Disease, Epstein-Barr virus, and back pain. The American Apitherapy Society supports the research and use of honey, pollen, propolis, royal jelly and beeswax. Some of our crew from the honey house attended classes at the national conference in Burlington last month, and it has been exciting to be more involved with sharing bee venom therapy with others. For more information on the American Apitherapy Society, see www.apitherapy.org

Over the years, we have enjoyed a long relationship with the Titus family in Charlotte. On the eastern side of Mt. Philo in the Champlain Valley of Vermont, the Titus farm has 54 acres of prime agricultural soil. Almost all of it is in hay crops, and rotational grazing is used for the herd of 100 dairy cows. We are grateful to several generations of this family for their commitment to farming and their willingness to preserve this farmland. The effort to protect this agricultural land forever has been community based with support from the Vermont Land Trust. Our bees have been productive here, and it is reassuring to know that this land will never be developed. Agriculture in this valley is under tremendous pressure with all of the construction of buildings and roads. This is our second bee yard to become part of the Vermont Land Trust, and we encourage you to support the preservation of agricultural land across the country.

We received this propolis spray testimonial from Susan, “Just wanted to share how I’ve used your wound wash/throat spray. After realizing that the cold sore on my lip was healing after a mere two sprays, I treated an open sore on Lambchop’s back, she’s my friend’s mini-poodle. The rawness is gone and the dog is less jittery when we touch her in that area after one treatment. I’ll hit the spot again today before I leave.”

Thank you for your interest in and support of the work of our bees and plant medicine.