We are really having some wonderful speakers at our garden club meetings to start off this new year! I certainly didn’t know there was so much to learn about that tiny little bee, as we learned from Tim Lacoste at Red Hill Honey Bee Farms.
Tim and his wife Angie started with a hobby that has grown into an incorporated self-sustaining business that is helping the local community to thrive.
When it comes to the art and science of beekeeping, Angie and Tim Lacoste of Red Hill Bee Farm in Independence are two local experts. Angie’s degree from Southeastern is in zoology, and Tim is a state-registered beekeeper with a degree in forestry from LSU.
The husband and wife duo manage more than 100 honeybee hives in Tangipahoa Parish.
Beekeeping was a hobby, but their bees produced such a sweet and clear honey that friends’ and family members’ requests for more jars induced Angie to kick production up a notch.
In 2018 after incorporating their business, they began selling on their Facebook page and Etsy. They also began renting booths at farmers markets and festivals.
Tim believes the location of their farm – the Tangipahoa River runs right behind their property – and the diversity of the flora give the honey a unique woodsy taste that’s sweet and mild. But if you want a little bit of heat in your honey, Angie has a bumper crop of jalapeños and created a hot honey recipe whose jars sold out at this meeting.
Aside from their degrees and fantastic intelligence about honey bees, we also learned some great things about those little bees. Did you know that without honey bees and their pollination of the flowers, there wouldn’t be any perfect vegetables and fruits. What would we do without vegetables?
There is the queen bee that can live for three or four years; she’s the one who lays all the eggs that the male drones fertilize. Then there are the worker bees, the females (Wouldn’t you know that! Quite a laugh on that info at the meeting.) The drones and workers only live three or four days. They have two stomachs, one for digestion and the other for honey.
Each season, over 600 gallons of honey are harvested. It can be damaged at temperatures of 120 to 140 degrees.
Something surprising to me is honey bees are not native to here but originally came from Europe.
There are other products of the honey bee that are used, such as beeswax, which is melted down to make soaps, lotions, lip balm and candles.
All these things from Red Hill, especially the honey, are locally sold at Piggly Wiggly, the Channell Group Pharmacy stores, festivals, farmers markets, some garden centers, 20 local vendors and at the bee farm in Independence.
If you want to connect with Angie and Tim, you can find them on Etsy, follow them on Facebook, call them at 985-247-5146 or visit them at their Red Hill Bee Farm in Independence by appointment.
After many questions from members, Garden Club President Pat Graves presented him with a gift card with much thanks from all. She asked Jennifer Allen if she would lead us in prayer before lunch and to stand for the Pledge of Allegiance. She then announced that the always marvelous buffet was ready, presented by Mary Monteleone and her crew. The aroma wafting through the doors was more than any appetite could endure, and the other menu items looked as delicious as the buffet offerings.
After lunch, Pat asked for a motion to skip reading the minutes since everyone had them in an email, then called on Treasurer Phyllis diBenedetto for her report and Dona Calcote for winner of Garden of the Month.
Dona said that Ronnie and Darlene St. Pierre of Avila Drive had won for September and their gardens were beautiful especially when the weather had been so hot and with such lack of rain.
Pat then called on Linda Broussard, Link Award committee chair. Linda said they gave the award to Murphy’s Seafood restaurant on Morrison Boulevard, who were thankful and planned to put the sign in a place of honor.
Pat gave a short synopsis of the Tour of Homes, which will be Dec. 14, with five or six homes. Tickets should be on sale soon.
Hostesses for the meeting were Barbara Coats, Pat Graves, Gail Guidry, Carrie Mathews and Terri Prince. The door prizes were five beautiful chrysanthemum plants covered in buds of all colors that will soon be beautiful shades of fall colors – golds and rusts and oranges – and maybe their sight in the garden will bring us some cooler weather.
If I may leave you with these simple words for the approaching season as fall unfurls around the South in a brilliant show of color, we welcome these anticipated harvest-inspired, pumpkin-bedecked porches with colorful gardens and brisk cool breezes. May we thank the good Lord and Mother Nature for the wonder of it all, being so grateful for the land in which we live! Until we meet again, God bless you and God bless America!
Linda Broussard lives in Hammond, America.
Comments are closed.