Honey Gardens December 2009 newsletter

petit train va loin/the little train goes far

what I learned from the bees (#2) - the tortoise and the hare

Most of the honey bees in a hive are workers that go through a series of jobs that support the family with every chore necessary for the continuity of the family. On some days, they will be gathering nectar, propolis and pollen, and then spend some time working in the nursery to take care of the babies. At other times they are on guard duty to keep the aggressive cousins from coming and taking honey. The average life of these female worker bees in the summer months is six weeks when there is a lot of work to do, and the hive works as a family to bring in the crop and store it away. The other extreme in this range is in the winter when an average worker bee will live around six months, when the hive goes into dormancy and slows down. With the colder temperatures of the north, the cluster of bees gets tighter as the temperature drops, and the bees stay in a fairly close area, making warmth and eating enough to continue living. Their wings and bodies get more rest in the winter, and the bees live longer.

The bees essentially work themselves to death; when their wings wear out and they can no longer be useful to the family, the earth absorbs them and they become part of the great recycling of nature.

honey bee on New England Aster photo copyright Ann D. Watson, 2009

It is easy to get into this pattern in the life and seasons of a commercial beekeeper. One prepares for and then moves through the honey flowers with the bees. The honey flows can come with a powerful intensity that one wants to be ready for and efficiently utilize and not lose potential. In the years when we were working with 1,600 colonies of bees, the bees could make an average of 12 pounds of honey on a warm day when all the conditions were right, such as the soil being loaded with moisture and the fields of goldenrod not being mowed down. This translates into over 19,000 pounds of honey that they make in one day. The time to be prepared to work with nature can be intense.

I have always liked tortoises. It could be that there are not many turtles seen in Vermont, and the sightings a few times a year are special. When they are in the road, I stop and bring them to the side. They are special creatures, slowly moving along in their own shell of protection.

My path now is to learn more of the life of the tortoise. The French say that the "petit train va loin", or "the little train goes far". Our elderberry farmer Sylvain translates, "take your time and you will do more.....a little at a time adds up to a lot at the end".

The honey bees are magnificent; they help pollinate almost 40% of what we eat and help make the earth more productive and colorful; they bring healing to many with their gifts of raw honey, propolis, pollen, venom and beeswax. We can value their industriousness and hard work and respect the benefit in this, while understanding that they also come in later, like the hare, or do not finish the race, in their limited time of life on earth.

May your little train go far.

honey bee on goldenrod, fall 2009 photo copyright Ann D. Watson, 2009

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Recipes by Ann Kennedy

Honey Spiced Hot Cider
For each serving:
Combine in a saucepan, 1 cup unfiltered apple cider, 1/4 cup ginger ale, and 1/8cup orange juice.
Wrap 1 T whole cloves and 1 cinnamon stick in a small piece of cheesecloth and close tightly with kitchen twine.
Add to the cider mixture and bring slowly to a boil. Add 2 t of raw honey and stir until incorporated.
Reduce heat and simmer. Remove spices. Garnish with small strip of orange and lemon rind. Serve very hot with sliced, toasted French bread and blue cheese.

While this is delicious anytime, it also provides relief from sore throat discomfort.


Honey Fig Oatmeal Cookies

1 1/2 sticks butter, softened
1/2 cup raw honey
1/2 cup brown sugar, packed
2 eggs, beaten
1/2 cup chopped pecans
1/2 cup fig or apricot preserves
1 cup coconut
1 cup flour
1 t baking powder
1/2 t salt
1/4 t each cinnamon, ginger, nutmeg

Mix together the first 7 ingredients.
Sift dry ingredients and combine with the butter mixture.
Drop by rounded T on a parchment covered baking sheet, 2 inches apart.

Bake at 350 degrees for 12-14 minutes. This is a very moist and chewy cookie.

Honey Sweet Potato Souffle

Line a baking pan with foil, puncture and bake 4 large sweet potatoes in a 400 degree oven until done--about 1 hour.
Peel the potatoes and add 6 T butter, 1/2 t Chinese Five-Spice, 1/4 t nutmeg, and 1/4 t ginger.
Add 4 T raw honey, 1/2 cup brown sugar and puree all ingredients until light and fluffy.
Beat 2 eggs until creamy and pale yellow and beat thoroughly into sweet potato mixture.
Bake in a lightly greased casserole dish at 350 degrees for about 40 minutes.

Honey Glazed Cornish Game Hens with Brown Rice Apple Stuffing

4 Cornish game hens, rinsed and patted dry.
2 T olive oil
2 T raw honey
salt and pepper
Herbes de Provence
1-1/2 cups brown rice cooked in chicken stock
5 T butter
1/4 cup chopped celery
1/2 cup chopped apple
1/4 cup chopped pecans
2 T chopped onion
2 T golden raisins

Mix together the olive oil and honey and rub liberally over the game hens. Sprinkle with salt, pepper and herbs. Set aside.
Saute the celery, apple, pecans, onion and raisins in butter until onions are translucent.
Combine with the cooked brown rice.
Stuff each game hen.
Roast according to package directions, typically about 45-50 minutes until nicely brown and tender.

Honey Roasted Green Beans (A Christmas dish with a twist)

1 lb. fresh green beans
2 slices thick-sliced bacon, chopped
1/2 cup chopped onion
1/2 cup diced tomato
1/4 cup raw honey
1/2 cup sliced almonds
2 T Balsamic vinegar

Blanch green beans in boiling water for about 1 minute. Reduce heat and continue to cook until crisp but tender. Drain and spread beans on a rimmed baking sheet. Combine chopped bacon, onion, and almonds in a small skillet. Cook and stir on high heat until bacon is slightly crisp. Sprinkle this mixture on the green beans along with the diced tomatoes. Drizzle with vinegar. Drop small bits of raw honey by teaspoon over the green beans. Roast at 400 for about 15-20 minutes until mixture looks slightly darkened. Recipe can be doubled. This recipe works for other vegetables as well--Brussel sprouts, root vegetables, mixtures, etc. Finely chopped vegetables prepared this way also make a great topping for bacon and brie pizza--great with shrimp and mushrooms added.

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Thank you for your support of the honey bees, plant medicine, and those that work in agriculture.




Todd

working at the honey house...

The flowers of five months of the cool, northern summer have passed and only a few yellow goldenrod and purple aster plants color the countryside. The work of the beekeepers is now to gather and extract the crop. For many beekeepers, the bees made a crop at the very end of the season. In the honey house we are bottling the goldenrod/fall crop and blueberry honey. The elderberry crop has been picked, and this fruit, new goldenrod honey, and fresh pollen have been appearing in bowls of oatmeal many mornings around the honey house.

working at the honey house.........

Susan & Bees
Susan holding her first frame of honey at the honey house, September 2009

For the last few years working for Honey Gardens I have proudly boasted about the health benefits of "our" raw honey and plant medicine. I live in the New York City area and serve as a demo rep and communicator, proudly known as the "Northeastern Sister". My work includes educating staff in natural foods stores, introducing Honey Gardens' products to new stores and, of course, performing lots of honey tastings! I do my best to represent the bees, in appreciation of their tremendous hard work and organization of which I am truly in awe. I also share information about the healing properties of the medicinal herbs and contents of plant medicine.

One way I strive to obtain this knowledge for myself is by visiting Honey Gardens in Vermont and being close to the source. Here I can visit with the bees and get "hands-on" experience by helping with bottling, labeling and anything else they will let me do! The folks up there are so very patient with me, allowing me into the honey house to get in their way. I feel like a complete tourist!

I was able to be a part of the production team for one day and we made Apitherapy Organic Elderberry Syrup (that had been a dream of mine for a while). I actually picked elderberries that were growing right outside of the honey house. They are amazing shades of red and purple and you must hold them up towards the sun to check that they are ripe. They must be nearly black before they are ready to pick.

As I was de-stemming elderberries for the kettles, I thought about how so many people across the country, and perhaps beyond, will be able to use this formula for healing. It was a very rewarding feeling and with these intentions in mind, I went forth throughout what could have been a demanding and difficult day with a big grin on my face and lots of positive energy. Together we managed to produce and bottle well over 1000 bottles of plant medicine, being sure to finish each packed box with a personal hand-written symbol of health and well-being. Talk about spirit......

Honeybee on jewelweed (aka touch-me-not)
c. Ann D. Watson, September 2009

Vermont is a verdant, flourishing land and Honey Gardens' garden is no exception. There are elderberry bushes, sunflowers, healing medicinal plants and herbs and a thriving veggie patch!! Andrew, our herbalist, gave me a tour of elecampane, nettles, thistle and much more. I have been raving about these plants and their healing powers as ingredients in Honey Gardens' products and here they were!

I saved the best for last......

Todd took me out to see the bees, it is so very inspiring, almost breathtaking to be this close to the source. We visited several hives including some wild bees that had moved into some old equipment. They had survived the summer with seeming abundance. Lots of honey was there as we chiseled through the propolis seal to check on them. We provided the bees with a few more boxes with which to build for the remaining three weeks or so of the bees' goldenrod season. I realized this assists them and it helped me to understand the relationship between us and the bees and how we do support each other.

It is important for me to try to give back, and I really hope to have hives someday. I would like to provide some bees a clean and safe place to live. Until then, I appreciate all that I can experience and learn from Todd and the community here. I can truly say I feel like a real part of a team, something so much larger and greater than myself. Honey Gardens is truly like a beehive with everyone working and cooperating together. I know I will be buzzing for a while!

Susan Blacklocke


Pumpkin Raw Honey Spice Cookies by Ann Kennedy

1 15 oz. can pumpkin or fresh pureed pumpkin, if you have it
1 stick butter, softenedPumpkin cookies
1 cup raw honey
2 eggs
1 cup light brown sugar, packed
2 ¾ cups flour
1 t baking powder
½ t baking soda
½ t salt
1 t each ginger and nutmeg
1 ½ t cinnamon
½ cup chopped pecans, if desired
½ cup golden raisins, if desired

Mix together first 5 ingredients and beat until smooth and creamy.
Sift together dry ingredients.
Combine moist and dry ingredients and mix well.
Drop by rounded soup spoon onto parchment covered baking sheet, about 2 inches apart.
Sprinkle lightly with a mixture of cinnamon and sugar.
Bake at 350 degrees for 13-14 minutes.

These are great served right out the oven with French vanilla ice cream and home made caramel sauce.

What I learned from the bees (# 1 in a series)

The new crops of northern honey are in ! We are now sharing Apitherapy raw honey from this region and blueberry honey from Maine. After almost three months of rain, the First Fruits of the new crops are in the honey house, and we are grateful to be able to send this delicious honey to you.

What I learned from the bees (# 1 in a series)

patience

Working with the honey bees helps to stretch and fortify one's patience. While we do all we can to help the bees make a crop, such as give them mite resistant queens that have been selected over the years, make sure they have enough room to raise brood and make honey, give them equipment that has light wax or foundation to help them keep their home clean, follow other organic support procedures that encourage them to be stronger in the midst of mites and other environmental challenges, wrapping them well for the northern winters, etc. , the ultimate control of a honey crop is not in our hands.

In Northern Vermont, we are blessed by five months of sunny summer weather, often cool and seldom hot. This is the weather that allows for the good crops, and encourages flowers to make nectar. Where the summer temperatures are hotter, this production of nectar may be shut down. This year it has been raining for much of the last six weeks. While this has been a challenge and hardship to a vegetable farmer, for those that are growing strawberries or tomatoes, or those who plant fields of corn, things are different in the world of honey bees. The rains have allowed the plants to grow larger and stronger, producing many flowers that will offer nectar. The soil is loaded with water. When we get sun now, and if it is in the time when there are flowers on the clovers, milkweed, knapweed, goldenrod, or other flowers, the bees could make a good crop.

In many years of working with the bees, I often found that the crops were made in the last week of the five month season. As a young commercial beekeeper, there were weeks of great anxiety and worry in the years when the bees did not make a crop for the first 95% of the season. Imagine a profession where there was not a weekly paycheck, but the whole year's income was primarily made on a few days at the very end of the season. This has happened over and over again, and has helped me grow in patience and faith in this work, and also in life itself. I feel grateful to have experienced a string of miracles where there is no surplus honey on the bees one day, and ten days later when you come back to inspect, three or four boxes of honey are found on the upper areas of the hive.

Over the years, I have become very sensitive to the moment in time, when, after all the waiting, watching, and prayers, I first saw that a crop was made. I call this the "turning point", always so thankful for the day. I will never forget the minute in a particularly dry year - I walked up to the bees in the "Glake bee yard" in the St. Lawrence River Valley of Northern New York. Upon opening the first three colonies, I saw that all had made an average of 60+ lb. of honey where there had been no honey two weeks earlier. Each hive in this yard was the same. Then I heard the "click clack" of the horses as they drove by, pulling a cart with an Amish family, the men all dressed in blue shirts and their straw summer hats. This was a very special moment I will never forget.

As beekeepers, we do all that we can to help the bees; we give them room, keep them in areas where we believe they will be able to gather nectar and pollen, be protected from the bears and the winter winds, and help them with their queens. Then, we have to let go, and let them do their work.

A life of beekeeping has given me a great peace about the things that I cannot control. Every season we are given daily opportunities to understand the prayer of serenity more fully:

"God, grant me the serenity to accept the things that I cannot change.
Courage to change the things I can,
And the wisdom to know the difference. "

Ancient and Present Super Foods

Ancient and Present Super Foods

Extraordinary times call for extraordinary measures. With this thought, many people are discovering super-foods. Super foods contain highly concentrated nutritional and healing compounds. Many feel these potent foods are our best immune and emotional shield, in a rapidly changing world, that finds us far from a natural balance. Around the world people are on the path of discovering the very best super foods our planet has to offer.

Raw honey and other bee products are showing up on several Top Ten Super Foods lists. According to David Wolfe in his new book "Superfoods" The Food and Medicine of the Future, the only other food that comes close to richness in history and legend is chocolate (cacao). From cave drawings in Spain,13,000 BCE to Google searches in 2009, bees have been associated with health, healing, legend, myth and magic.

Raw Food

Many people are discovering the benefits of a raw diet. Eating raw is an amazing lifestyle movement that includes such dishes as raw Red Beet Ravioli with cashew cheese filling and raw lime tart with macadamia crust. These foods are healthy, delicious and full of beneficial enzymes.

Our health increases when we rely on the foods we eat to provide enzymes. Raw foods have enzymes. Foods cooked at 113 degrees for 3 minutes, will kill all enzymes present in the food. The lack of enzymes in our foods will cause the liver, pancreas, and intestines to work harder to produce the enzymes required to catalyze functions that break down food and help to assimilate nutrients. Enzyme rich foods can slow the aging process, increase longevity, and aid healthy digestion.

milkweed in bloom Photo by Ann Watson 2009 copyright

Healthy Honey

Raw honey is filled with minerals, enzymes, antioxidants and probiotics. Research indicates that raw, unprocessed honey is the richest source of live healing enzymes found in nature, and can promote reflexes, and mental alertness.

Honey is very soothing to our digestion and increases absorption of minerals. It elevates our blood sugar levels slowly. As our blood sugar elevates, a rise of insulin causes the amino acid tryptophan (found in raw honey) to create an increase in the serotonin levels in our brain, a hormone that promotes relaxation. It also increases our melatonin levels. Melatonin, secreted by the pineal gland in response to darkness, has long been used to cure sleeping disorders. Recently, the Australian Therapeutic Goods Administration, the equivalent of the U.S. Food and Drug Administration, approved raw honey as a" therapeutic medicinal food". Much research is being done on the anti-fungal, anti-microbial and anti-viral compounds found in raw honey. For researchers the list of benefits is long and growing.

We trust that science will continue to reveal the nutritional wonders that raw honey has to offer, proving empirically what our early ancestors intuitively responded to, honey is great tasting and good for us in ways we can hardly imagine.

Dana Matthews Honey Gardens Winery and Caledonia Spirits

Recipes by Dana Matthews

Honey Mustard Dressing Yields 1 1/8 cups of dressing ¼ c raw honey ¼ c Dijon mustard ¼ c raw apple cider vinegar ¼ c cold pressed olive oil 1 clove crushed garlic 1 tsp Celtic sea salt

Place honey, mustard, garlic, vinegar, & salt in blender or food processor, pulse for 10 seconds, Set to medium/high setting and gradually add oil so that it incorporates and thickens slightly (about 15 seconds). Store in refrigerator until served.

Enzyme Shake Serves 2 to 4 2 c diced pineapple 2 c diced papaya 1 ½ c coconut water 3 tbs raw honey 2 tsp vanilla extract squeeze of lime juice pinch of Celtic sea salt

Blend ingredients in blender until smooth.

raw honey in healing and the treatment of wounded marine mammals

An adult female sea lion that was admitted with a wound on her back. It is a contaminated wound and is quite deep involving several muscle groups along the spine. The honey seems to be very effective in lifting debris out of contaminated wounds. The animals tolerate bandage changes well and I am under the impression the bandage changes with raw honey are not very painful to them. The honey dressing doesn't adhere to the injured tissue. With wounds like this bacteria can be transmitted to other parts of the body via the blood stream or lymphatics and oral antibiotics should be used in addition to all topical treatments.

The use of honey as a remedy has been recorded in several historical references. As a wound treatment honey has received renewed attention in the medical community for several reasons; honey does not appear to induce bacterial resistance, many species of bacteria appear susceptible to honey, and wound healing is often more rapid than with standard treatments. Honey has several properties that accounts for its antibacterial properties including low pH, high osmolarity, and production of low levels of hydrogen peroxide that do not induce damage of healthy tissue. In addition, honey has been demonstrated to stimulate tissue repair by increasing the cellular response to a wound site. There are numerous testimonials as well as an increasing number of clinical trials that support the use of un-pasteurized honey as an effective wound treatment in both humans and animals.

When I started to use honey on the wounds I took a lot of jokes .... do you need any peanut butter with that bandage, doc? or " too bad you don't have two slices of bread to go with that..." but after everyone saw the results, the jokes have pretty much subsided. Now mostly people are just amazed at the results. I use raw honey almost exclusively now to treat surface wounds of this nature.

Thanks again,

Lauren Palmer DVM
The Marine Mammal Care Center Fort MacArthur
3601 S Gaffey St.San Pedro, CA 90731, (310) 548-5677
www.marinemammalcare.org



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BVT ( Bee Venom Therapy ) APITHERAPY AND ME

BOB HARDY, VERGENNES, VT 05491-9070
My connection to BVT apitherapy began about 15 years ago when I came down with an inflammation in my hip joints. We were at some cocktail party and I was complaining to someone whom I cannot recall about my condition which at that time was at my age of about 65 years young. The condition really bothered me as I love to walk and to ski! Anyway, the person said, “see that lady over there, that is my wife and she had bad hip arthritis and now look at this photo of her hiking in the high mountains carrying a 65 lb. back pack.. She got rid of her arthritis by bee sting therapy”. “WHAT!” I said I went on a bit about being allergic to bees I thought. He said, I doubt it, get hold of Charlie Mraz whom I had not the slightest idea of who and where he was. So next day, I found that Charlie Mraz lived in Middlebury, the next town and I called him and explained my situation. He said, “come on over we’ll test you. I have some people coming this afternoon anyway.” So began my life continuing symbiotic relationship with honey bees. Bottom line, by working with Charlie, he proved to me I was not allergic to honey bees, only wasps. He started me off on applying bee sting therapy to my hips and then taught me how to gather the bees in a jar so they would live to help me. Karin and I applied bee stings on and off about 3 times a week to each hip. After about six weeks of this, the hips one day became very itchy, red, and hot. The next morning all of that reaction was gone, and the hip inflammation along with it. Since that moment I have never felt any recurrence of the hip inflammation. Unfortunately Charlie has left us but he left behind his legacy “Bees don’t get arthritis” and the Apitherapy Society.
To this day, I consult with the Todd Hardie who applies bee sting venom therapy with care and precision, and making us appreciate the sacrifice the bees are making to make us healthy. Some other benefit of bee sting therapy I have found to be helpful and ameliorating cover the subjects of the following.
• SAD - Seasonal affected disorder. Bee venom therapy applied once or twice monthly when the days are short in Vermont uplifts the body to be more positive.
• Immunity – The long winters compromise one’s immune system in Vermont. The use of bee venom therapy can help maintain a strong immune system.
• Wound Recovery: I have had a recurrence of a melanoma which we treated entirely with holistic powerful herbs as the establishment medical procedure was not reliable as I learned to my dismay. In order to assist in the healing process of the herbal destruction of the cancer cells, we applied bee venom therapy near the cancer site which helped the healthy skin tissue to be rejuvenated more rapidly. (Charlie Mraz said that bee keepers do not get cancer!)
Cause and effect. It is our anecdotal belief that the application of bee venom therapy catalyzes the natural defense systems of one’s body to bring enhanced natural cortisone which everyone has, to the site of the bee sting for enhanced healing. The bee venom also marshal the body’s natural defense systems to get to work.

Honey Gardens on the Food Network

Meriwether Hardie speaking to a group at the Fable Farm & CSA, Barnard, Vermont, August 2008, in the filming of the TV special

A feature from the series “My Life in Food” that includes Honey Gardens will be on national TV on Saturday April 11 @ 6:30 pm on the Food Network.

Last summer Meriwether spent time with the bees, in the bee yards, as she taught about bees in Vermont and around her college in Colorado Springs, Colorado, and this was filmed for this TV special on raw honey and another farm that produces raw milk.

"In August, the bees are working on the clover family plants and goldenrod. We are starting to see the first of the aster flowers. The vegetables on the farm that need to be pollinated have already been visited by the bees. At this time, it is important to think about whether the bees will have enough food to get through the winter. It has been a cool, wet summer, and I suspect that the bees have not made as much food here as in previous seasons."

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Raw Honey Fruit Kabobs by Ann Kennedy

Puree one large banana with 3/4 cup raw honey in a processor or blender.

On wood skewers, alternate chunks of fresh fruit. Good combinations are watermelon, cantaloupe, honeydew, and bananas or pineapple, bananas, and strawberries.

Dip kabobs in honey mixture and roll in wheat germ. Put in freezer or refrigerator until firm. This is also good using only bananas, cut in 1" thick slices and threaded with a toothpick.

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We appreciate your interest in and support of the bees and their work.

Live foods, Enzymes and Raw Honey

It is not fresh news that the standard American diet (acronym is s.a.d.!) is not health supportive. For all least four decades, we have been listening to the medical community’s advice about the quality and quantity of fat and fiber in our diets, and the increased incidence of heart disease, diabetes (particularly Type II, adult onset), cancer, and obesity among our population. As a result, many people have shifted their dietary intakes toward a plant-based diet which is rich in vitamins, minerals, fiber, and antioxidants, just to name a few nutrients. We have improved our diets “in layers,” meaning that the initial shift for some people is toward a plant-based diet. Subsequent layers or shifts include incorporating more organic produce and free-range poultry and meats, and what we call “superfoods.” Superfoods are called such because they are foods that are naturally rich in vitamins, minerals, and trace minerals. Blue-green algaes (e.g., chlorella and spirulina), seaweeds (e.g., kelp and dulse), bee pollen, and raw honey are examples of superfoods because of their extraordinarily generous contents of beneficial nutrients.

The most recent layer of awareness that has resulted in a shift in dietary improvement is the knowledge that certain foods contain highly beneficial, therapeutic enzymes. Many of us are returning to a way of eating that incorporates The ways of traditional or native peoples. Not only are our choices minimally processed (considered “whole foods”) and grown or raised organically, but equally importantly, many are vital, rich in, and alive with enzymes. In short, they are “live foods.” Even though a traditional society/culture might not know what an enzyme is and how it works, these people benefit from eating foods that are rich in enzymes. Their low incidence of modern food diseases and their longevity are the result of eating health-supportive diets. Lower stress levels as compared to those of people living in the modern world are a factor we can’t ignore as well.

Before we go further, we need to talk about what enzymes are. Enzymes are necessary for our bodies to function optimally. They are substances (protein specifically) that are able to simplify complex elements into simple elements. There are three classes of enzymes: digestive, metabolic, and food enzymes (which are present in raw foods). Enzymes are catalysts for biochemical processes and reactions in the body. When we are talking about digestion, this means that enzymes are necessary for the digestion of or breakdown of foods (like fats, carbohydrates, and proteins) into their simplest form. Enzymes make it possible for proteins to be broken down into amino acids and for complex carbohydrates to be broken down into simple sugars, for example. In addition to supporting digestion and making it possible, enzymes are also metabolic. They are involved in hundreds of metabolic reactions within our bodies which enable our complex biochemistries to work in the miraculous ways that they do, converting foods that we eat into renewing building products and energy.

All humans have what is called “enzyme potential,” meaning that we are born with an enzyme-making potential to satisfy the metabolic and digestive needs of the body. Nutrients that we ingest in the form of mostly raw and uncooked foods are also used to manufacture enzymes because our bodies’ enzyme reserves can’t always meet the demands for enzymes. Our bodies have evolved the natural ability to conserve enzymes by manufacturing them only on demand. We can also arrange for digestive enzymes to come into the body by taking digestive enzymes in capsule form. The virtues of enzymes and their significance in today’s diets are exclaimed/appreciated by noted doctors such as the late Dr. Edward Howell. A number of books, most notably Nourishing Traditions: The Cookbook that Challenges Politically Correct Nutrition and the Diet Dictocrats (1999), by Sally Fallon with Mary Enig, Ph.D. and Patient Heal Thyself (2003), by Jordan Rubin, N.M.D, C.N.C., are also emphasizing the importance of enzymes in the diet.

What are some sources of these beneficial enzymes? Raw honey is a food noted for its exceptionally high enzyme content. Other enzyme-rich raw foods include bee (flower) pollen, vegetables and fruits (especially avocado, banana, papaya, and pineapple), extra virgin olive oil, raw dairy foods, lacto-fermented dairy products like yogurt and kefir and cultured or fermented foods such as miso and sauerkraut. (Grains, nuts, legumes, and seeds are rich in enzymes as well as other nutrients, but they also contain enzyme inhibitors like phytic acid. This is why traditional cultures soak and sprout these foods in order to deactivate the enzyme inhibitors.) It needs to be emphasized here that these foods must not be heated so that the enzymes are viable and available. Here at Honey Gardens Apiaries, our honey is strictly raw and unheated, thus retaining the maximum enzyme content.

As mentioned above, because our honey is raw and unheated, the maximum enzyme content and health benefits are present for the consumer. Honey contains more than 75 different compounds (Buhner, Herbal Antibiotics, pp. 47 – 48), among them: enzymes, minerals and trace minerals, vitamins, proteins, carbohydrates, organic acids, and hydrogen peroxide. The enzymes in raw honey help to initiate the process of digestion and reduce the body’s need to produce digestive enzymes. Because of its high enzyme content, raw honey spares the enzyme reserves of the pancreas and other digestive organs. They won’t be constantly stimulated to produce and secrete various digestive enzymes. Wonderful long-term benefits of this enzyme-sparing activity are good health, increased longevity and energy, fewer illnesses, and a healthy immune system. In this way, one can see the importance of including raw, unheated honey in the diet.

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The bees are starting to fly again. They are being checked to be sure they have enough food, and boxes of honey are being transferred from colonies that passed on and do not need this, to ones that survived the winter, and are light on their supply of honey and need more food. Signs of Spring are everywhere. The bears have come out of hibernation and are visiting the bee hives, too.

We appreciate your interest in and support of the bees and their work.

Meriwether Hardie speaking to a group at the Fable Farm & CSA, Barnard, Vermont, August 2008, in the filming of the TV special

A feature from the series “ My Life in Food” that includes Honey Gardens will be on national TV on Saturday April 11 @ 6:30 pm on the Food Network.

"In August, the bees are working on the clover family plants and goldenrod. We are starting to see the first of the aster flowers. The vegetables on the farm that need to be pollinated have already been visited by the bees. At this time, it is important to think about whether the bees will have enough food to get through the winter. It has been a cool, wet summer, and I suspect that the bees have not made as much food here as in previous seasons."

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Thank you, Ann Kennedy for sharing your recipes with raw honey. Her daughter understands that truly raw honey is “pure gold”.

Gorgonzola Raw Honey Appetizers--perfect with a strong cup of coffee, or good wine
Split open large, pitted fresh dates. Spread with raw honey, top with a small piece of gorgonzola (or other sharp flavored cheese) and a raw almond.

Carrot Honey Spread
Finely grate 4 - 5 peeled carrots and stir in about 1/4 cup (or more to taste) raw honey. Stir in 1/4 cup natural chunky style peanut butter, and 1/8 teaspoon curry powder. Season with salt as needed.

Honey Breakfast Bruschetta Spread with French Toast
Coarsely chop 1 cup pecans and 1/2 cup almonds. Combine. Melt 2 T butter and stir into nuts. Sprinkle lightly with cinnamon and nutmeg. Stir in raw honey until there is a good spreading consistency. Set aside. Slice a baguette on the diagonal, dip each piece in a beaten egg (about 2 pieces per egg), and cook in butter as you would French toast. Top with honey spread and drizzle with a tiny bit of cream if desired.

Experiencing Beekeeping Across The World

Beth Kerschner and Yves Zehnder wearing bee suits after checking on a hive at Sacred Sueños Farm in Vilcabamba, Ecuador

I have always known honeybees to be gentle creatures. Working at Honey Gardens during high school I was around them often and never had a bad experience. Even when a bee stung me, I knew that she was sacrificing her life to give me her healing medicine. Last semester, Fall 2008, I studied in Ecuador for three months with Round River Conservation Studies. I had the opportunity to learn a little about how beekeeping is done in Ecuador during my time there.

Part of the time, our group stayed in a house just outside the city of Cuenca. Our neighbor, Anna Lucia, had a hive of honeybees in the backyard. We were fortunate enough to be able to eat the honey from her bees, straight from the hive! It tasted distinctly different from raw honey here. I can’t explain how it tasted, but I would attribute the difference to the fact that the bees simply are feeding on different plants in Ecuador from the ones our bees here feed on. When I needed time alone or wanted an excuse to take a breather outside I would go sit near the hive and watch the bees, breathing their vibrant energy in and out. I wanted to ask Anna Lucia more about her small-scale operation, but she hardly spoke any English and my Spanish skills are less than perfect. Without words, we connected on the simple acknowledgement of our mutual love for bees.

Anna Lucia's bee hive in Cuenca, Ecuador

After I finished the Round River program, I spent a week volunteering on a small organic farm called Sacred Sueños. One night over a dinner of veggie stew and fresh fruit salad, Yves Zehnder, the founder of the farm (and native English speaker), mentioned that he kept bees. I immediately began telling him about my history with bees and how much I loved them. We talked about our experiences and I asked question after question about beekeeping in the rural Ecuadorian Andes. He told me that the bees he was keeping were African bees, rather than the European species we have here in the US. He explained how African bees are much more aggressive than European bees and people have to be much more cautious around them.

I learned that African bees will take over other beehives by learning the “secret dance” of the other hive and sending one of their own into the new hive with a queen-to-be larva and killing the resident queen. The worker from the African beehive puts the larva in with the other larva of the new hive and before long the population has an African queen and becomes infiltrated with African bees and is ultimately taken over. African bees produce less honey than European bees and are generally more difficult to keep because of their aggressive nature. While at Sacred Sueños, Yves and I put on the bee suits and checked one of the hives. I was the designated smoker. One bee got into Yves’ mask and stung him on the lip, but none got through my suit! Yves has bees for two main reasons: to produce wax for candles and honey for human consumption on the farm and to help pollinate the many fruits and veggies he grows.

If not for my love for bees that begun at Honey Gardens, I would not have had these experiences that deepened my overall experience studying in Ecuador. Spending time with bees was a fun and educational aspect of my experience that I’ll never forget.

Beth Kershner http://www.sacredsuenos.com/who.html

The benefits of Nature for children with ADD / ADHD

File this one under the "let's spend grant money to research the obvious" category: it seems that walking for about 20 minutes in a park, surrounded by trees and Nature, is as effective as Ritalin for managing some of the symptoms commonly classified under the "attention deficit" umbrella.

Researchers recruited 15 boys and 2 girls and walked them for 20 minutes in one of three settings, on different days: an urban park, a residential neighborhood, and a downtown area. Those who walked in the park showed significant, powerful improvements in their ability to concentrate and perform after their walk. The others did not. While these results may seem obvious to us, we can at least gain some measure of comfort in knowing that the mainstream medical community feels like "doses of nature might serve as a safe, inexpensive, widely accessible new tool in the tool kit for managing ADHD symptoms" as Dr. Andrea Taylor, head researcher for the study, wisely commented.
Now, I might feel that a walk in the Vermont woods, as they turn from green to fiery red, might give an even better experience to nurture biophilia, provide renewal and inspiration, and calm a scattered mind. But even a manicured park can do the trick! So finding time to spend outside, away from television, houses, and buildings, is a good idea for our kids. And "nature deficit disorder" might soon be recognized as a legitimate concern. Imagine that...

from the blog of Guido Masé RH(AHG), clinical herbalist, herbal educator, and garden steward specializing in holistic Western herbalism From his organic farm in Montpelier, Vermont, herbal extracts, massage oils and healing salves are offered www.grianherbs.com

Thank you for your support of the bees, plant medicine, and those that work in agriculture.

Propolis' antimicrobial activity: what’s new? "Propolis is a hive product that bees manufacture from balsamic resins actively secreted by plants on leaf buds and barks. It is widely acknowledged to exert antimicrobial activity against a wide range of microorganisms (bacteria, fungi and viruses), but also exerts anti-inflammatory, anaesthetic, healing, vasoprotective, antioxidant, antitumoral, antiulcer, and hepatoprotective activities. This paper (in Italian) reviews the antimicrobial properties of propolis, focusing on respiratory pathogens. These characteristics make propolis a valid option for therapy of upper respiratory tract infections." by De Vecchi E, Drago L, Laboratorio Microbiologia, Universita di Milano, Italy

The TV special on raw honey with Meriwether Hardie, Honey Gardens has been re-scheduled to Saturday April 11 @ 6:30 PM, on the Food Network cable & satellite. Please check your local listing to confirm exact time and date.

beverage makin’ joy ~ recipes for honey based natural sodas & honey wine/mead

More than a truce

Ellwire bee yard, St. Lawrence County, northern New York State - May 11, 2001

The snakes are everywhere today.

Big fat snakes with little ones by their sides. Pairs of smaller snakes under most of the bee hives. I am finally getting used to them.

Ellwire is consistently one of our best bee yards, and I love to come to this sacred place. Many of the colonies have already made 30 pounds of honey. This is a classic upstate bee yard where the plants have grown through successive generations and molded around the hives for over 50 years. The bees overwinter well here. The snakes come with the land.

On many of the days that I work here, I see over 40 snakes. We are used to each other now. They lie in the sun, and I work around them. They stick their tongues out at me and bob their heads. When I picked up the wood they are lying on and nudge them along, they hiss at me and slither away.

I used to jump and scream every time I saw a snake here; I was scared of them. Then four years ago, we made an agreement. I would not hurt them, and they do not bite me. It is a universal contract that extends beyond this land. This understanding also covers times when I am with other people and someone wants to kill a snake. I protect my friends.

Mice destroy a lot of bee equipment each year; they make their homes in boxes that are in storage in the bee yards, eating the comb and the wood. I used to get mad at the mice, they were the last creatures I ever harmed. Now I leave them alone, moving them along into grass when I find them. Snakes will take care of all of this as they eat the mice. Without the snakes, the damage would be unimaginable.

The bees are letting me know that it is time to stop working with them. They are barometers of the weather, coming home before it rains and indicating that they do not want their homes taken apart any more. They stick their abdomens in the air and fan alarm pheromones my way. At 6:12 PM the first rain drops start to fall, and with the soft rain continuing for the next day, the drought is over. We will now get a honey crop at Ellwire.

The snakes at Ellwire are protected from the rain, coiled under most every bee hive. We have come to a peace on this land. It is truly more than a truce.

Hawthorn for a failing heart

Hawthorn (various Crategus species) received an endorsement in another Ernst-and-friends metareview. The review included 14 trials, and focused on hawthorn's ability to improve the maximum workload of the heart, and improve various cardiovascular markers during exercise-induced strain. The bottom line: hawthorn leaf and flower extract helps. A lot. Even if added to existing medication regimens.

Just to be clear, no new clinical research is coming out of this review. Rather, it attempts to collate existing studies and compare them using a common denominator. Further details on the data are below, but for now my opinion continues to be that hawthorn, either as a berry, a tasty jam, or as a leaf-and-flower extract (or tea), should always be considered as part of the protocol for cardiovascular weakness or imbalance. In fact, I might go further to say that most colorful berries would accomplish similar effects and that, in fact, a nice cocktail of all sorts of berry fruits is probably the best way to go for managing blood pressure, improving capillary integrity, and increasing the efficiency of the heart muscle. Eat well!

from the Blog of Guido Masé Clinical herbalist, herbal educator, garden steward, Montpelier, Vermont

Guido co-founded the Vermont Center for Intensive Herbalism, Montpelier, Vermont, which sponsors a Clinical Herbalist training program and the Family Herbalist training year.

Thank you for all of your support of the bees, plant medicine, and those that work in agriculture.

"In August, the bees are working on the clover family plants and goldenrod. We are starting to see the first of the aster flowers. The vegetables on the farm that need to be pollinated have already been visited by the bees. At this time, it is important to think about whether the bees will have enough food to get through the winter. It has been a cool, wet summer, and I suspect that the bees have not made as much food here as in previous seasons."

Honey Gardens & raw honey on a national TV special - We are very excited to announce that the Food Network channel on cable and satellite is doing a documentary series entitled “My Life In Food”. One segment of the series is called Milk & Honey, and will be featuring Meriwether Hardie and Honey Gardens. The show is scheduled to be aired, Saturday, February 14 at 6:30 p.m. Please check your local listings for exact time and date.

Bee Learning Behavior Affected by Eating Toxin from GE Corn from the Organic Consumers Association
Jan. 7, 2009.

“One of the speculated contributors to this decline is transgenic crops and specifically those containing Bt proteins since these are insect-active toxins to which bees are exposed through various routes. In particular, bee larvae are exposed since they consume large quantities of pollen which they sometimes source from maize plants (Sabugosa-Madeira et al. 2007).” Pub. by the Foundation for Biotechnology Awareness and Education, Dec. 2008.

Honey Laundering: A sticky trail of intrigue and crime, from the Seattle (WA) Post-Intelligence
Dec. 30, 2008.

This story exposes how adulterated honey comes into the US, often from China, Vietnam, and other countries. Because of all of the antibiotics in Chinese honey, the importation of it has been restricted into the US. This article details how foreign honey from a restricted country will be brought to another country that is approved for importing to the US, have the paperwork altered, and then brought to the US.

You are joyfully invited to attend the 9th International Herb Symposium, Celebrating the Healing Power of Plants, June 19 -21, 2009 @ beautiful Wheaton College, Norton, Mass., with an extraordinary selection of Speakers from twelve countries, over 90 Workshops for all levels of interest and experience, and Herbal Intensives for in depth study, panel discussions & case studies. I will be sharing Jan Cannon’s film “Health & the Hive” and facilitating a workshop on marketing of plant medicine. We thank Rosemary Gladstar for organizing this special gathering. www.internationalherbsymposium.com

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