Mill Creek Apiaries and Liberty Farm

What a wonderful three hours of time we had yesterday (Sunday, August 11). Yesterday was the one year anniversary of my mother's passing away and I was mentally down. But all my woes and depression went away as soon as I set foot on the farm for the field-day celebration.

The field day was organized by David Kunz of Mill Creek Apiaries , an extremely-knowledgeable and honest bee-keeper. His farm is a family-owned, small-scale bee farm in NJ. They use essential oils and natural methods to take care of their hives. They have an adopt-a-hive program, and through it, we have adopted a bee-hive. No, they will not be located in our garden, though they do allow such opportunities. It is just a program for those who want to support local sustainability and are concerned about the pollinators.

The field-day takes place on various farms. So, yesterday it took place on Liberty farm, owned by Raj Sinha and his wife. The farm was an old, abandoned farm dating back from 1790 and beyond (the exact date of the beginning of the farm is not known, but municipal record shows that tax was paid for the farm house in 1790). It still has those old buildings and barns with beautiful round roofs. It is about 40 acres.

It was a beautiful farm. A small farm-stand sits on the left side as you enter the farm. It has fresh produce that were picked on the morning only. It's based on honor system; no one is there to monitor you; you take the vegetables/fruits and then put the money in a box. The farm has some chickens and ducks, and some of the bee-hives of David. Only small portion of the farm is cultivated for corn and vegetables. Most of the other portion is restored to natural habitat. The owners are working with USDA to create vernal pool, restore the creeks and water bodies of Little Flatbrook that border the farm; Little Flatbrook is considered one of the top native trout streams in NJ. All the invasive species are being cleared away, and in its place the native trees are planted.

Native flowers and wild flowers are everywhere in the farm. Many orchards, fruit and nut trees can be found in the farm. We saw so many butterflies of humongous size -- bright reddish-orange, yellow, black with blue marks and the common cabbage butterflies. Frogs, dragon-flies, bees and other flying-and-buzzing insects were everywhere. Native grasses ran wild there. Weeds and wild native plants were everywhere and there lied the beauty of that farm.

Raj Sinha and his wife does not use any sort of chemical to do commercial farming. They do not use any kind of GMO seeds. They harvest most of their vegetables, to be sold commercially in markets and farm-stands through-out NJ, by hand!!!!!!!!!!!!(I can't put enough exclamation as they have large tracts of lands to harvest). The farm actually didn't look like farm but rather a natural wild-life habitat with weeds running wild. I do small-scale farming for our own consumption in our backyard, and I always thought that weeds were bad for growing vegetables. That's why I would painstakingly try to rip out, by hand, one weed at a time. But after seeing the farm yesterday and tasting the vegetables, I don't think I will ever be so adamant about weeds taking up my vegetable bed. It was uplifting and joyous to see farming being done in such a natural and environmental-friendly way.

The farm grows a corn, called Mirai or something, that is simply out of this world. We never knew that corn can be so sweet. I am not exaggerating but the corns were tender and sweet-as honey. Every one in the group were astounded to taste it and we all brought pick-your-own-corn. We cannot seem to have enough of it -- we ate some in the farm; then we ate some while driving back to home; we also ate some in the breakfast. The corn is so tender that one has to pick it by hand, else it will get bruised; it cannot also be cooked for long; it's best eaten raw or just heated for a minute or so in the microwave. None of us knew that a whole corn can be eaten raw like that and taste sweeter than honey!! Peaches were also delicious -- soft and full of juice. Honestly, nothing beats the taste of freshly picked fruits and vegetables, no matter how much organic you buy from market. We also buy organic but organic tomatoes and freshly-picked tomatoes -- they are further apart than north and south pole are. The bears and deers also know that. They destroy huge portion of the farm produce.

Well, I have been constantly talking about the farm though the focus of the day was bee and bee-hives. Well, what more can I say other than that I was astounded by the knowledge of the bee-keeper and the calmness of bees. I always thought that bees were ferocious creatures. That's the idea I and most people around me were brought up with. That's why I always saw bees were being killed if any were found. Now that I do gardening, I have to do a lot of work among them but still I respect them and keep a respectable distance away from them. Yesterday, David was taking the hives away from the box, brushing the bees away and doing all sorts of things, and we -- children and old -- were standing around unprotected (I put on a half-bee protection suit that David gave; I always wanted to don those and didn't give away the opportunity when I got one yesterday :-D), and none of the bees did anything to us. They were such gentle!!

David demonstrated a lots of things to us -- how queen bees are captured, how they are put in a hive in a protective cage, at first, so that the worker-bee does not attack; he showed us the various bees in a colony -- drone, queen and the workers and the living quarters of each of them. The living quarters of drones look very different from those of queens. He showed us the hives where baby-bees were being produced. He made us taste fresh honey from the hive. He gave us live demonstrations, as much as possible, and told us about everything -- how queens would be put in a hive, how she will produce the babies, how worker bees will take care of the queen and the babies, how everything is sequenced so that the bees keep on working and producing honey and how cares have to be taken so that the bees do not form swarm and fly away -- just too much information. I should have taken a pen and a notebook to write everything down. Do you know that bee-pollen and bee-honey are too different things?

Bee pollen is just the pollen of the flowers and is full of protein. Bee honey is the nectar of the flower that the bee take, then regurgitates, fan out the excess moisture and produce that thick honey. Huh! I am trying to imagine all the bees moving their wings and fanning out the water from the nectar -- isn't this amazing? They also produce another thing which completely glues the hive-boxes together -- it's a sticky, brownish material, and David had to really pry open those boxes.

Though David has not yet suffered from Colony Collapse Disorder, but he was agreeing with the fact that too much misuse of chemicals is one of the reasons for CCD. My respect for bee-keepers and organic farmers gained more momentum yesterday. It was a sheer delight to see their work places and their work, listen to their philosophies and watch their practices. Thank You to both Mr. David Kunz and Mr. Raj Sinha for not only making a field-day wonderful but also for working hard to sustain all of us.