Happy National Honey Bee Day from Big Delicious Planet!
Photo by Anna Zajac
Happy National Honey Bee Day! Honey bees are probably best known for producing delicious honey, but more importantly they are vital pollinators. In recent years, honeybee populations have been declining, which is threatening the sustainability of our food supply and overall ecosystem health. This day is about spreading awareness of their importance and also celebrating the art of beekeeping to help this vital species thrive.
At Big Delicious Planet, we’ve been keeping bees since 2012, not long after our owner, Heidi Coudal, started our Urban Farm next to our catering kitchen. Heidi enlisted Naaman Gambill, founder of The Hive Supply Company, to be our amazing beekeeper. We initially started out with two hives, but we now have three that produce hundreds of pounds of honey each year! We use the delicious honey to naturally sweeten the menus for the weddings and events we cater, and honey jar favors are also available for our clients to add-on if they are hosting a wedding or event in our Urban Farm.
BDP was recently recertified by the Green Restaurant Association as the “Greenest Caterer in America,” which is a title we have proudly held since 2013. Since BDP’s founding in 1994, we have always taken our sustainability seriously, so it is an easy decision to keep bees in our Urban Farm. We appreciate that they pollinate all of our delicious organically-grown vegetables, herbs, and edible flowers, and we are happy to have the ability and space where we can make a habitat for such an important species!
With Naaman’s guidance, Heidi recently started keeping bees at her house in Wisconsin, and is learning how to harvest the honey herself. Heidi recently showed the BDP team how to do it and we harvested 21 pounds on our first try. Naaman recently extracted over 60 pounds from the BDP hives with even more on the way. One delicious taste test later revealed that BDP’s honey tastes slightly minty and that Heidi’s Wisconsin honey tastes subtly floral, which is a beautiful example of how bees make honey with the nectar from their local environment.
Photo by Allison Williams
Finally, we want to mention that you don’t have to have an Urban Farm with three beehives like us to help the bees! Even if you have a small outdoor space, you can plant a few pots of bee-friendly flowers and avoid using pesticides and herbicides. Just like us, bees need to stay hydrated, so you can set out a bird bath that both the bees and the birds can use! If you have more space, you can plant trees, which provide nectar and a natural habitat for bees.
If you want to taste and take our BDP honey home, our honey jars are available as an add-on with tickets to our Urban Farm Dinner Series during the summer.