“I dreamt — marvellous error! — that I had a beehive here inside my heart. And the golden bees were making white combs and sweet honey from my old failures.” 

― Antonio Machado

Spring is upon us here at the Farm. A new day, a new golden opportunity to thrive as agrarian catalyzers within our piece of nature. We look to the blooms, to the early budding vegetables and fruits—plentiful organisms waiting to mature neath the Northwest rays. Curiosity strikes, questions arise as to how, why and when these magnificent wonders of the dinner table come to be year after year. Of course we remember the countless hours of tilling, weeding, transplanting and composting. How could we humans forget the laborious tasks that thicken the callus of our hands? However we ponder, there is work being done unseen by us, that which we cannot quantify, insofar as our trust in the ecosystem remains strong.

Keeler and the Pollination Station!

Could it bee, that the key to our bounties lies within the deep rooted evolution of our friend, our companion, the honeybee? As such, as the agrarian co-dwellers, we must give credit where credit is due. The lessons we learn from this marvelous species are unprecedented relative to the work done by human hand and tool. Moreover, the benefits we reap from their countless hours of mastery are deemed nonexistent without the supplementation of their colony to our Farm. A single species, commodified into the most transported thing in North America as per entity. We bring them to the Farm with the hope of fostering a relationship between us, them, and our ecocentric biosphere. In no way can we as humans parallel the efficiency of pollinating techniques so eloquently mastered over thousands of years of insect evolution. Our co-dwellers of the Farm are resemblant to us, of a symbiotic system of drones, workers, and the queen;  all of whom work in tandem for the greater good of their colony, their Farm.

Combs from past colonies!

So what can we as urban farmers hope to see this year from our honeybee friends? Not only are they responsible for the pollination of several fruit trees, late season blackberries and countless vegetable crops; they are accredited with the production of copious amounts of honey and beeswax that are utilized by our fellow agrarian participants. This year, the Farm aims to educate students about the stages of honey harvesting and its holistic properties through a hands-on workshop with a deliciously sweet ending. Additionally, as to encourage sustainable yielding of all produced materials, the Farm will target beeswax usability and intentionality as pertaining to human and agrarian use through salves, rubs, and polishes. It is apparent to us in the Urban Farm community that we have a responsibility to each other and all organisms that exist within our bionetwork; to educate the next generation in order to maintain a healthy relationship between man and his environment. Utilizing a thriving nexus such as this bee colony, we aim to pass along this knowledge, and encourage our academic community to remain as close and connected as possible to the natural world, while fostering sustainable success in their futures.