Focus on Coop Suppliers:
Bee Healthy with Honey Gardens Apitherapy

by Suzanne Fisher

One of the most unique companies that supply Honest Weight is Todd Hardie’s Honey Gardens Apiaries. Todd is a farmer who owns no land, most of his workers are insects, and his produce actually helps all the other farmers for miles around him.

Todd Hardie is a bee keeper. For forty years he has cared for hives in Vermont and New York. His company now cultivates honey in 1,150 hives scattered around the farms and fields of more than 35 land owners near Shelbourne, Vermont, a small town just south of Burlington. In Hinesburg is the honey house for extracting and packing honey from combs that he gathers from the hives in the surrounding countryside.

If you have ever gone berry picking on a farm in the summertime, you may recall how all around you insects hummed and buzzed on fruit blossoms and wild flowers in the warm sunshine. Forty percent of what we eat depends on pollination by insects, and honey bees are the primary source of this important agricultural task. Lately there has been media coverage about honey bees dying worldwide from infestations of mites in the hives. When I asked Todd about this, he explained that the real culprit is pollution of water and air, which weakens the bees, making them more susceptible to the mites. He specifically mentioned the proposed burning of tires in Fort Ticonderoga by International Paper, which will cause tiny particles of poison to drift through the air and coat fields and lakes for miles around across the border in Vermont.

Last year, Honey Gardens lost 65 percent of their bees, and Todd actually took bees south last winter in order to give them a chance to recover. To control the problem of mites, Todd now has four strategies. He and his six human workers have installed screens in hives through which mites and other debris can fall, and which help keep the hives cleaner. They also remove from the hives the old dark comb, which holds pathogens, and give the bees light, fresh comb. In addition, he uses a treatment for mites that is approved for organic farmers. And last but not least, he has been raising Russian queen bees to lay eggs for his hives because they are more resistant to the ravages of mites.

Most honey sold today in grocery stores comes from China, where much of the honey is contaminated by chemicals. Not only is Honey Gardens honey grown without the use of chemicals, it also is totally raw. In the honey business, the term “raw” is unregulated, so many farmers who label their honey as raw actually heat it up a bit to facilitate removing it from the comb, or to help it stay in a more liquid form. Some processors may heat honey up to 140 degrees or more, reasoning that a certain low amount of heat is not really cooking the honey. Unfortunately, temperatures above 118º deactivate the naturally occurring enzymes and vitamins that are present in the truly raw product. These enzymes are the very substances that enhance digestion and offer a wide range of other benefits, and are the reason that many raw food advocates today call honey a “super food.”

Honey is not all that Honey Gardens produces. They make a honey wild cherry syrup and an elderberry raw honey extract. They have created a goldenrod honey facial mask that includes green clay, kelp, bee pollen and essential oils, which is good for all types of skin; and a honey house propolis salve containing raw honey, propolis, and organic and wild crafted herbs for treating burns, inflammations, and damaged skin. They have an apitherapy rejuvenation tonic made with blueberries, raw apple cider vinegar, raw honey, pollen and herbs that is sure to be good for you. They harvest the beautiful (but invasive) Japanese purple loosestrife growing around them in order to make their propolis purple loosestrife Usnea spray, which can be used for sore throats and as a wound cleanser.

Honest Weight carries Honey Gardens organic elderberry raw honey extract, which contains organic elderberry, raw honey, propolis and organic echinacea. Kathleen, in the HaBA department, says it is fabulous. Also offered in HaBA is their healing salve. For the winter season, Kathleen plans to bring back the throat spray/ wound cleanser, which she says is very nice tasting. A demo of Honey Gardens products at Honest Weight is planned for January for all to sample. In the grocery department, Honey Gardens Apitherapy raw honey is available in one, two and five-pound jars. Through our Coop, we are fortunate to have access to unique, environmentally concerned companies like Honey Gardens, and to informed and experienced organic farmers like Todd Hardie. Todd says that his company is supported mainly by coops across the nation, and he is glad to have Honest Weight carry his offerings. He is also happy to talk with those who would like to visit his honey house in Vermont. (If you plan to stop by, give him a call first.) At the very least, trying some of the wonderful honey and other products at Honest Weight and checking out his educational website will certainly inspire you to be healthy (pun intended)!

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