Bee Healthy or Bee Well?

There were about 600 visitors to the Health and Wellness edition of the CCE Farmers Market at Eisenhower Park this week.

And exactly three people peeked at my carefully planned Health and Wellness display.

Three.

Some things don’t go as planned.

I Was Sure This One Would Work

Health and Wellness Day included blood pressure and vision screenings from Catholic Health, along with mental health resources from the CEC Health Care in Glen Cove. As always, Cornell Cooperative Extension provided a recipe of the week—this time, Collard Greens with Spicy Sauce.

For me at Backyard Bees, the theme seemed like a no-brainer. Between honey, body care and education, everything we do has some connection to health and wellness.

As a former registered dietitian, I immediately thought about the queen bee. Her path to becoming a queen begins with nutrition and royal jelly. Her body is built for reproductive fitness, and worker bees continue to feed, groom and care for her throughout her life.

Even the queen’s diet changes with circumstances. When a colony prepares to swarm, workers reduce her food and encourage her to move, helping a heavy, egg-laying queen become light enough to fly to a new home.

To show how important the queen is to the colony, I brought a queen cage—the kind used when introducing a queen into a new hive—along with a few other pieces of beekeeping equipment. I also made five museum-style flip cards with questions about the queen’s health and fitness.

Does the queen bee ever go on a diet?

Yes.

How does the queen bee stay so pretty?

She is constantly fed, groomed and cared for by a crew of worker bees.

I hoped the questions would make people laugh, teach them something about bees and perhaps get them thinking about a few parallels in their own lives.

I set up the display and waited for the conversations to begin.

They didn’t.

The Market Had Other Ideas

Something else was happening at the Backyard Bees table.

We had brought the newest harvest from my own backyard: a thick, distinctive Fall Honey with notes of English ivy, goldenrod and asters. It was dramatically different from the lighter summer honey we had been sharing all season.

People noticed. In fact, we used every tasting spoon we had.

“Why is the honey different colors?”

We have answered that question all season, and we will happily answer it again and again.

“Because the bees visited different flowers.”

This time, though, I had my phone ready. I zoomed in on a photograph of a frame filled with thick, fudgy, almost-black honey that most likely came from the English ivy blooming around my backyard hive. Then I showed customers a golden, light-colored frame of honey from that very same hive.

“Ohhhhh!”

That was the moment.

Some people were eager to taste the honey. Others wanted to see the photographs first. Some declined the tasting altogether.

One man put his arm around the woman beside him and winked at me.

“I have my honey right here,” he said.

She laughed. So did I.

I love the markets.

When Honey and Health Get Complicated

But we can’t always laugh.

One man told me his endocrinologist had said raw honey would cure diabetes. I raised my voice a little, hoping anyone within earshot would hear me correct that misconception.

I wasn’t at the market as a dietitian, but I was grateful to have the background to point people toward accurate information. “Natural” does not mean carbohydrate-free. Raw honey is still a form of sugar, it affects blood glucose, and it is not a cure or treatment for diabetes.

Later, I spoke with a woman who had recently been diagnosed with type 1 diabetes. What I shared reinforced what she had already been told about sugar, carbohydrates, blood glucose and honey.

I watched that information settle in, and I felt relieved.

Sometimes health conversations are simple. Sometimes they are not.

Wellness Without the Word

Health was much easier to talk about than wellness.

Wellness is harder to define than a diagnosis. You can be doing everything “right” and still not feel well.

But because Health and Wellness was the theme of the day, I found myself paying attention not only to what people said, but to the choices they made.

The most common pairing this week was a jar of Fall Honey with the Bee Barefoot Foot Care Duo. Five or six customers made that exact choice: something new to taste and something practical for tired feet.

Claire, a new subscriber to the Backyard Bees Hive, returned with her free welcome coupon and chose a Tangerine Clove Lip Balm. She was also delighted to discover a paw balm for her rescue dog.

Maybe I would not have recognized those ordinary choices as part of wellness if Health and Wellness had not been the theme of the day.

I didn’t hear people talk about wellness.

I saw small, concrete acts of care.

Bee Well

I always sign my emails and newsletters with the phrase “Bee Well.” It has become something of a Backyard Bees signature.

But this Saturday, people weren’t at the farmers market to talk about wellness. They wanted to taste something new, find relief for tired feet, choose a balm for a beloved dog and continue with their Saturday.

Wellness was there.

It just didn’t need my carefully planned display.

Bee Well. I’ll see you next week.

Looking Ahead

Looking Ahead

Next week is one of three markets that coexist with the Eisenhower Park Field 8 Craft & Gift Fair.

Don’t worry—your favorite honey spot isn’t going anywhere.
We will be in our usual spot with plenty of raw local honey.
We are also bringing along our own special gift items to match the creative spirit of the craft fair.

If you are looking for anything special, just let me know.

Continue Exploring

A Real Farmers Market at Eisenhower Park what makes the farmers market at Eisenhower park so special to me; find links to all the market reports here

Coffee and Honey: The Market Speaks last week’s market report

The Mystery of the Honey That Wouldn’t Flow more about English Ivy honey