In my adult life I have owned acreage, grown my own food, made my meals from scratch and had a multitude of small animals. However, my dream is to do them all at the same time. I shared this vision with my oldest son. For Christmas in 2015 he gave me a membership to a local beekeeper’s club and signed me up for a beginning beekeeping class. Right away I was hooked. I decided that if I was going to do this right I didn’t want to learn by trial and error, so I enrolled in Oregon State University’s Master Beekeeper Program. Those events have literally changed my life.
Since then I’ve served on the board of my beekeeper’s club, co-lead the Washington County 4-H Junior Beekeeper Club, taught classes about honeybees at a local elementary school, and spread the word about pollinators and beekeeping at farmer’s markets. I also took a class at U.C. Davis on “Sensory Evaluation of Honey”. Who knew some honey tastes like cat pee? (Cultivated Buckwheat from the Northeastern U.S.)
What started out as a hobby with a couple of beehives, is now growing into something that could help me fulfill my dream. I am adding more hives to more apiaries and educating people in person and online about bees, pollinator health and honey tasting.
So, whether you are a foodie, desiring to be a beekeeper or want to support pollinators, please check out this website and then join me on Facebook. Let’s get a conversation started.
Thanks for being a part of this journey!
Sally
We at Soil and Hive are passionate about honeybees, beekeeping and honey. We are dedicated to protecting honeybees and increasing bee populations through education, supporting local beekeepers and teaching best practices in beekeeping and honey production.