Powhatan bees & the farm that never left me
I grew up in Powhatan. That sentence still does most of the work when someone asks where I am from.
Before I became the caretaker of Edgewood or had a farm store in Bremo Bluff, before the Richmond walk-in at Stony Point, before my west coast life, there was a young girl learning what a place smells like in June, running around a hot dairy farm in summer or playing hide and seek with cousins in the pitch dark waiting for July 4th fireworks. Powhatan has its own weather of dead purple nettle, tree blooms, red dirt roads and cows after a storm. You do not forget that, ever.
Grandma (& Poppy’s) dairy farm
Some of our hives sit on my grandma’s retired dairy farm in Powhatan County. The cows are gone. The land is still covered with acres of corn and soybeans and it certainly knows how to feed bees. The uncles say Poppy was not a fan of honeybees; however, I only recall him not liking idleness & laziness. I know he’d be tickled pink to see me farming. Grandma is always amazed at what the bees are doing and she swears she is not biased at all when she says the best honey she’s ever eaten comes “from those hives back there!!”
When I walk that yard, I am not a brand. I am somebody’s granddaughter, niece, cousin checking boxes, listening for the pitch of a calm colony, watching the entrance because it will tell me the truth before I even open the door.
That is the farm that never left me. Not a slogan. A fact I carry in my boots, my muscles and my soul. My red dirt road. P.S. Grandma just turned 93 this week. I pray for a life as well lived & loved as hers. Happy birthday, Grandma Peggy!
New boxes at Quarterfield Market
Earlier this summer we split hives at grandma’s and moved the new gals over to Quarterfield Market, also in Powhatan, VA. Different energy than the old dairy. More people, more trucks, more questions. The bees care about forage, water, and whether we left them alone long enough to do the work.
If you stop by the market and see bees working, know they are part of the same Powhatan thread. Hometown nectar is not a tasting-room phrase for me. It is the difference between honey that remembers a county and honey that could have come from anywhere.
What this series is (and is not)
Over the next few Fridays I am writing from the yards: Powhatan, a September walk through (what we check before fall), sourwood country and my buddy Mike, a trek south to Halifax, then home base in Bremo Bluff and our Fluvanna outyards. Why? Because I love the land, the bees and the people that work it. I'm amazed by it actually, and I think it provides a unique perspective as to who Edgewood is and for what we're vying.
Bremo Bluff remains where we farm and keep the honey house. Richmond is the production studio and shop. Powhatan is where I came from, and where some of our bees still make their living.
If you want the jars that come off Virginia frames, start with our honey collection. If you want to say hello in person, the farm store is in Bremo Bluff and the Richmond walk-in is at Stony Point. Bring your questions!
Journey with the Bees.