jimblesjumble on Nostr: Posted @withregram • @wainwrightsbeefarm ✨Happy birthday to our founder & ...
Posted @withregram • @wainwrightsbeefarm ✨Happy birthday to our founder & beekeeper, David Wainwright, 70 today!✨
David has been keeping bees since the early 70s. He decided he wanted to become a bee farmer as a teenager, knowing he wanted to work on the land, and bee farming being a way of doing so without owning or having inherited land. This was the time of the back to the land movement.
In the early 80s David was tasked by @vsointernational to take his beekeeping knowledge to rural Zambia, to teach the western way of beekeeping to the locals. However, David soon learned the Zambian beekeepers didn’t need any teaching in beekeeping, quite the opposite, they had perfected their expert bark hive skills over the generations. The gentle way of beekeeping was sustainable and in harmony with the forest, requiring no expensive inputs, and using materials only found in the forest. Western beekeeping, on the other hand, requires buying expensive equipment.
David was in awe of the skill, methods and knowledge of the Zambian village beekeepers. No protective gear was used because of the deep understanding and unique relationship with the wild bees. Zambian beekeepers barely ever get stung. The honey from the tropical Miombo forest is foraged from hundreds of different tree species and the taste was like nothing David had experienced before. This honey’s quality and quantity was amazing, David decided to focus on building a reliable market for it in the UK. By now, David’s young family were all living in rural Zambia, and with co-founder Sarah, Tropical Forest Products was born.
Our company has been importing honey from Zambia for over 35 years. We were part of setting the criteria for the first organic honey with @soilassociation and organic European partners, and this was the first certified organic honey. We are also Fair Trade founders, paying a fair price for honey, our trade supports Zambian beekeepers to stay in and protect the forest, instead of having to move to the cities to find reliable work. Ours is the only African honey on the UK market produced using bark hive beekeeping methods. This trade has sent millions of dollars back to the rural village eco
Published at
2024-07-18 10:23:18 UTCEvent JSON
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"content": "Posted @withregram • @wainwrightsbeefarm ✨Happy birthday to our founder \u0026 beekeeper, David Wainwright, 70 today!✨\n\nDavid has been keeping bees since the early 70s. He decided he wanted to become a bee farmer as a teenager, knowing he wanted to work on the land, and bee farming being a way of doing so without owning or having inherited land. This was the time of the back to the land movement. \n\nIn the early 80s David was tasked by @vsointernational to take his beekeeping knowledge to rural Zambia, to teach the western way of beekeeping to the locals. However, David soon learned the Zambian beekeepers didn’t need any teaching in beekeeping, quite the opposite, they had perfected their expert bark hive skills over the generations. The gentle way of beekeeping was sustainable and in harmony with the forest, requiring no expensive inputs, and using materials only found in the forest. Western beekeeping, on the other hand, requires buying expensive equipment. \n\nDavid was in awe of the skill, methods and knowledge of the Zambian village beekeepers. No protective gear was used because of the deep understanding and unique relationship with the wild bees. Zambian beekeepers barely ever get stung. The honey from the tropical Miombo forest is foraged from hundreds of different tree species and the taste was like nothing David had experienced before. This honey’s quality and quantity was amazing, David decided to focus on building a reliable market for it in the UK. By now, David’s young family were all living in rural Zambia, and with co-founder Sarah, Tropical Forest Products was born. \n\nOur company has been importing honey from Zambia for over 35 years. We were part of setting the criteria for the first organic honey with @soilassociation and organic European partners, and this was the first certified organic honey. We are also Fair Trade founders, paying a fair price for honey, our trade supports Zambian beekeepers to stay in and protect the forest, instead of having to move to the cities to find reliable work. Ours is the only African honey on the UK market produced using bark hive beekeeping methods. This trade has sent millions of dollars back to the rural village eco\n\nhttps://blossom.primal.net/5161522e562cf994204dd15512f406b5f3069493de13de3d0028bd180ca0ae79.jpg",
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