Adventures

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bees, apiculture, beehive, dominican republic, honey comb, honey, honey bee View More

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A few weeks back we went to go check out how the lovely people at The Honey Company get their delicious delicious honey. It all started when I met Carolina and Spencer at a bazaar selling their honey products. Yum! I got us a little tub of spreadable honey and it was just so delicious. I’ve been a little curious about beekeeping these days since our neighbour Charlie keeps bees at the Taino Farm, and local honey from “the campo” is available pretty much everywhere in the Dominican Republic for dirt cheap (about 100RD for a litre, that’s USD$2.50). In fact, honey is kind of a big deal here. Some farmers keep them to pollinate their crops and have a little extra income from honey sales, others just for the honey. In all as of 2011 there were 3,500 keepers and 100,000 hives. That year 500 metric tons of honey were exported to the US and Caribbean. At $2,500 per ton, that’s a million and a quarter dollar export. (world-wide demand is about 1.2 million metric tons per year) Turns out, as Carolina told us though “Before the varroa plague stroke, the DR exported almost 900 metric tons per year, so we have actually lost a dear share in the international market.” and that the reason you can find honey so cheap is that a lot of it is cut with syrups or made with less-than-quality hygiene. In fact she thinks the honey business here is in trouble. So we got in contact and they invited us up to Abreu so we could check out what all the buzz is about. Spencer’s mother, Lynn, lives up in Abreu in a beautiful home in the hills and it’s just the most perfect place for Carolina and Spencer to plant a few hives. The bees are really happy because Lynn’s landscaping is just stupendous and they have access to all the flowers their little hearts desire. Piñon, Mango, Basil, you name it, these little bees have everything delicious at their disposal. I know they don’t see anything like we do, but I hope they appreciate the view they get from up there. It’s a really peaceful and tranquil place and after a little mucking around putting on long sleeves and netting on a… Continue Reading