Few weeks ago, a couple who frequents my Thursday evening yoga class gave me a gift unexpectedly. Honey! I was pleasantly surprised to find out that this is no ordinary honey off a store shelf as It wasn’t purchased. To my amazement, it came from their own beekeeping. Wow. In the middle of Silicon Valley, I did not know you can collect so much honey – I did not know you can harvest honey in Silicon Valley from local flowers. Such a city girl that I am -it’s a discovery that beehives can be kept privately and harvested on your own. I heard that chicken cooping for your eggs was popular among Silicon Valley types (almost said geeks) but now, may beekeeping also be something on the rise among them?
As yoga students, these two beekeeping yogis have been very dedicated with virtually never miss attendance record for my Thursday night yoga class. It’s so lovely to see a couple practice together, side by side. There’s just something very heart warming in watching these two lovely yogis’ backs as they head out after a class, together slinging a yoga mat. When they say goodbye or good night, there’s a look of peace, maybe some relief and a gentle smile. You see the Before and the After effects of a yoga practice first hand. Having a partner or a friend to share a yoga practice with always makes it more special – and when it becomes a routine part of the schedule, all the better. Watching them take off into the night, I am happy they yoga together to deepen what already must be a special relationship – after all, they are partners in bee keeping – and that’s pretty special.
Their hand-made label in the back of the bottle is full of fun honeybee facts: “Bees need to provide 70,000 loads of nectar, and travel 50,000 miles to produce a single pound of honey. Darker honey has higher mineral content and antioxidant potential.The queen bee can live to 3-5 years. Honey should not be fed to babies under the age of 1 year.”
Only few months ago, I had bought a jar of bee pollens from a local honey purveyor – In fact, these yellow mini fuzz balls of a pollen in smoothies fixed my allergies as I now breathe freely.
Did you know that honey, aside from being a great natural sweetener is wonderful to use as an ointment to heal cuts and burns?
Apitherapy is the term given to the medicinal use of honey, bee venom, as well as honey bee products. This is a very old form of medicine that can be traced back to ancient Greece and Egypt. In the ancient times, honey was treated as medicine.This golden nectar…is precious.
Thank you Margie and Steve. BTW, did I ever share the beehive meditation? It’s a way to turn inward into your own beehive=brain…It really clears your mind …You two would love it:) – probably already a master at it!
