- Author: Kathy Keatley Garvey
Just before Amina Harris retired June 30, 2023 as director of the UC Davis Honey and Pollination Center, part of the Robert Mondavi Institute, she headed to Mexico with Slow Food Yolo to teach about her favorite subject—honey--at the Univa University in LaPiedad, Michoacan.
“It was about how to cook with honey and how to keep good quality honey without destroying it,” she related. “Then I took my real retirement trip—an Alaskan cruise with my sister.”
Today Amina Harris is no longer the "queen bee” of the Honey and Pollination Center but she continues to be the “queen bee” of the family-owned, family-operated gourmet food...
- Author: Kathy Keatley Garvey
Today is the Fourth of July, and what better time to proclaim: "Hurray for the red, white and blue!"
And the yellow.
On a camping trip last week to Doran Regional Park, Bodega Bay, we admired our neighbors' display of American flags—bordered with a dozen honey bees.
These bees, however, didn't buzz. They spun.
The colorful yellow, black and white mobiles attacked the wind like fierce little windmills, livening up the campground.
“Are you beekeepers?” I asked the neighbor.
“No,” she replied. “We just like bees.”
So did George Washington (1732-1799), the founding father of our country.
Mount Vernon research historian Mary...
- Author: Kathy Keatley Garvey
It's World Bee Day!
How did that come about?
One word: Slovenia.
The Republic of Slovenia, rich in beekeeping history, asked the United Nations to proclaim an annual World Bee Day, and following a three-year international effort, the United Nations agreed to do so in December 2017.
So May 20 is the annual World Bee Day.
"Slovenia LOVES bees and beekeeping and it seems like California does, too!" says Wendy Mather, program manager of the UC Davis-based California Master Beekeeper Program (CAMBP). "There are 72 Apprentice Assistant and 93...
- Author: Kathy Keatley Garvey
One more look at the annual California Honey Festival, held Saturday, May 7 in downtown Woodland...
They came to taste the honey, learn about the importance of honey bees, check out the bee observation hives, and to engage with beekeepers and merchants.
And to photograph and "bee" photographed with the costumed "Queen Bee" Wendy Mather, program manager of the UC Davis-based California Master Beekeeper Program.
Amina Harris, director of the UC Davis Honey and Pollination Center and a co-founder of the California Honey Festival, explained what the honey flavor wheel...
- Author: Kathy Keatley Garvey
Hear that buzz? See those bees? Taste that honey?
When the California Honey Festival takes place Saturday, May 7 from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. in downtown Woodland, you'll hear the buzz, see the buzz, and sample honey.
The festival, launched in 2017--and by co-founder Amina Harris, director of the UC Davis Honey and Pollination Center at the Robert Mondavi Institute--aims to inspire "people of all ages to protect and celebrate bees and other pollinators." Admission is free.
"UC Davis will have a slimmed down version this year," said Harris. Some of the events on tap...