This
week during the Food Festival some exciting and innovative local foodie
adventures are coming to the fore….one of them involves a home schooled boy
from Leap who also happens to be a certified Bee Keeper.
Trevor
Danann, age 13 has been a bee keeper since 9 years of age, having studied his
first level in Gormanstown along with his father Max Danann. Together over
these past few years they have researched and built several bee-hives finally
settling on their own style of Top Bar Hive.
Trevor
is taking part in the Growing Awareness Workshops for Children and Adults in
the Old Fields Bakery, which is a special event during the Taste of West Cork
Food Festival with an emphasis on where food comes from.
For
this workshop, Trevor has put together a short presentation geared mainly to
school children but certainly informative and interesting for just about
everyone, on bees, honey and beekeeping – with an emphasis on several key
points;
Irish Honey Bees – Ireland has one
native species of honey producing bee, which are known to be gentle and easy to
handle as well as being very nearly black in colour.
Honey - is perhaps the only food we
humans eat that is produced from an insect and has been in our food chain for
many thousands of years. It is known for it’s medicinal properties and use as a
sweetener.
Pollination – it was Einstein who said
it best….without bees to pollinate our foods, we would have 4 years at best –
and then be left eating mainly bread and pork with very little vegetables or
fruit.
Bees versus wasps – bees often get the
blame for buzzing around our heads aggressively at this time of the year,
however when you look closely these may just be wasps. Bees are usually darker,
smaller and quite docile in comparison.
Overall,
it is well worth a visit to the Old Fields Bakery to take in this informative
and unique approach to food, honey and beekeeping as seen through the eyes of
this young beekeeper – and to take in the many other stalls throughout the hall
at the same time.
