the soul of a farmer
field notes from an 8,000+ mile, 4.6 week trip around our country

“Here we are smelling the nectar off of the ti-ti flower. We are fixing to raise queens, and are about two weeks late because of the weather, rain and cold. The bees are getting ready for tupelo which will be around the 15th or 18th of April.” –Steve Cantu, Wewahitchka, in the Florida Panhandle

March 20, 2014
Steve, his wife Leslie and family have moved their honey bees for years from Central Florida north into the Panhandle. The excessive use of chemicals in Central Florida was keeping their queen bees from successfully mating, and was killing the bees that were out for pollination and honey production. The Northwest of Florida, the Panhandle region, is heavily forested, and the bees gather nectar from the flowers here, including the famous tupelo tree that grows in the swamp areas. As it is not an agricultural area like Central Florida, it does not have an extensive use of chemicals.Steve is a long friend. For years we bought orange blossom honey from his family business. The Cantu family moves its bees between the pollination of vegetables and honey gathering of Florida and Michigan. He and Leslie are people of great faith and courage. Finding locations to put your bees and moving them throughout the season is a lot of work.The United States is a country addicted to drugs. The overuse of chemicals in pesticides, herbicides, fungicides, bactericides, miticides, and GMO’s is appalling. Not only is it killing the honey bees, but it is ruining the health of our people. The chemicals and GMO’s offer a short term gain but, as with any drug, the gain is fleeting, and there is always a price to pay. There is no cutting corners for food production without a cost. We are seeing this now in the deaths of bees, the rise of allergies and gluten intolerance many people now have, and the loss of soil.

The endless miles of GMO corn in Indiana and Illinois were staggering. Maybe it was because it was so many thousands of acres upon acres all at once. In Vermont, we are not perfect; we use chemicals and GMO corn, but there are many organic farms, and it is all on a smaller scale.

true friends

Jim Huggins on his farm
Jim Huggins, Cartwheel Landing, by the Pee Dee River, Marion Country, Mullins, South Carolina

In this day and age, it is rare for a commercial beekeeper to not move colonies of honey bees south for the winter and migrate to a warmer climate. As bees pollinate much of our food, they have to be moved around during the season. For four winters, we moved most of our colonies of honey bees to the Pee Dee River Valley of South Carolina. The bees rested for the winter and were increased in the spring on the land of Jim and Ann Huggins and their family and friends.

Last week I paid my respects to the Huggins family. As always, the visit was centered around family dropping by, meals with pork and cornbread, and a drive around the 1,000 acres of hogs, cattle and timber. For 50 years, the Huggins have been giving shelter and food to northern beekeepers. When you spend much of the winter and spring 900 miles from home, it is a blessing to belong to a community of such generous and kind people and know that you can always walk in for a hot meal, no matter how tired or dirty you are.

By mid-April, the beehives are loaded onto tractor trailers and brought north for their summer pasture. One spring, after the tractor trailer of bees was fully loaded and netted down for the trip north (the bees are loaded when it gets dark and then travel under the cool of the night), the 80,000 lb. load got stuck in the sand of the pine forest and would not budge and move to the road. I called the Huggins family and asked for help. In the middle of the night, they appeared 45 minutes later on their big old tractor, the one with dual rear wheels. They hitched onto the front of the tractor trailer and pulled it, the 200 horsepower diesel engine screaming for an hour, inch by inch to the road. They would not let me cover the cost of even their diesel fuel. The bees were on their way, north to the cooler states before the sun came up. These are true friends, the ones you are forever grateful for.

diesel & hot dogs

Driving north from the Huggins’ last week, I was reminded that I knew every crack in the highway home. Years ago, when I made the trips with the bees or bee equipment, I would often set out for the 900 mile trip either way with $8 cash and a Texaco credit card. That was all that I had, and thankfully it worked. I did not use the toll roads. Honey bees were not allowed on the New Jersey Turnpike. With the credit card, I could buy diesel and hot dogs, cashews and coffee along the way. JR’s on I-95 in North Carolina had a box of cigars marked “free”. They were all broken but they were good for the all night driving with the bees.
Returning home a few days ago from my 8,000+ mile journey across our country, I was very grateful that the trip was much easier. I was not carrying bees; with them aboard, you cannot stop or they will fly away. No stopping at JR’s, but at the homes of a string of friends along the way.
This is a big country, filled with really good people. I saw the growth of local food & spirits being supplied to markets across the land. We need this to take care of our families, our land and farms, and our health.

thank you for your interest in and support of those who work in agriculture and organic honey, grains, and elderberry,

Todd D. Hardie

Barr Hill Reserve Tom Cat

Barr Hill Reserve Tom Cat barrel aged gin – now in Vermont at Caledonia, Hardwick and the Burlington and Montpelier farmer’s markets (see dates on web site). Soon after March 15, Tom Cat comes to Vermont state stores and to Astor Wines & Spirits, NYC (courageous cat).

Barr Hill Reserve Tom Cat barrel aged gin is our newest craft spirit at Caledonia Spirits. Tom Cat is simply our Barr Hill gin that we age in new American oak barrels for a few months. The oak barrels impart a woody, whiskey like flavor, which dances with the botanical components of organic juniper and raw northern honey present in our Barr Hill gin. The resulting spirit is soft, eloquent, and pure.We chose to name this spirit Tom Cat because we view it as the modern day adaptation of 18th Century England’s most revered spirit, Old Tom. After it was outlawed by the Spirits Act of 1750, rebellious pub owners would hang a wooden plaque shaped like a black cat to inform the passersby of their defiance of the ban. Deposit a few pennies through the cat’s mouth, and a bartender would pour a ration of Old Tom to be sipped through a tube between the cat’s paws.

“Caledonia County Fare”: dairy meets distillery in Caledonia County, Vermont

from the story in the Burlington Free Press, with credit to Sally Pollack

What do you get when a beekeeper, dairy farmer, bartender, and distiller share a meal? “Caledonia County Fare” cocktail, of course!Johanna and John Laggis, farmers and our friends in Hardwick, make the delicious kefir that Todd Hardie brings to the Caledonia Spirits team. Kefir is a cultured milk drink with loads of probiotics and microorganisms that offer medicinal support to the digestive tract. In Todd’s words, “It’s pure medicine.” At the farm with about 500 milking cows, Johanna Laggis makes two gallons of kefir a day. She feeds some to her calves and some to friends.

The inspiration for the “Caledonia County Fare” cocktail came at a dinner where the Caledonia Spirits team shared an evening meal with their local friends in agriculture and business. Sip and enjoy; this cocktail is best savored after a meal because it offers digestive support.

Caledonia County Fare
2 oz Barr Hill gin
2 oz kefir (we use Butterworks Farm in Westfield, Vermont)
½ oz raw honey simple syrup*
splash of Caledonia Spirits elderberry cordial
seltzer water

Directions: Combine Barr Hill gin, kefir and honey simple syrup in a shaker with ice. Shake well. Pour over ice into a Collins glass. Top with seltzer and a splash of Caledonia Spirits elderberry cordial.

*To make honey simple syrup, combine one part raw honey with one part water. Heat gently until honey melts. Cool before adding.

Live from the Hive: Spring is on the way

As March begins, the cold continues unabated. Let’s feast our eyes on something other than more snow and ice. This photo shows a worker honey bee on a sumac flower. Sumac blooms in June and is a major food source for Vermont’s honey bees. This picture is a reminder of the coming of spring. The amber blob on the bee’s back leg is pollen.

The beekeeper checks on the hives in March and feeds the colony honey or some form of sugar if necessary — this is the month when colonies can starve. Believe it or not, if the temperatures warm up, we will begin to see the bees venturing out for the first pussy willow and alder pollen of later this month, at least in southern Vermont. The spring equinox arrives on March 20th, when the day and night are of equal length. Happy Spring!
honey bee on a sumac flower

field report from Todd:

I am on a four week journey West to share Caledonia Spirits, and am amazed by:

• the rest of our country does not have three feet of snow.
• the miles of GMO corn in Illinois and Indiana are staggering.
• the support across our country for the agriculture, spirits, wine, cheese, seeds, vegetables, soy, and maple products, from those who love Vermont and are now away; we are very grateful.

Caledonia Spirits will release its first whiskey in May. Early Riser corn whiskey is named for the corn that Jack Lazor of Butterworks Farm supplies to Caledonia. It has been aging in new American oak barrels and the first barrel is ready to bottle.
200 bottles of the first barrel will shared as part of a benefit in May to help Jack pay for his medical expenses.

thank you for your interest in and support of our work with organic honey, grains, and elderberry,

Todd D. Hardie