Maybe you’ve noticed I’m not in my usual spot at the Old Strathcona Farmer’s Market. In November, I decided it was time for a change. I sold honey at up to four farmer’s market a week for ten years! That’s a lot of time spent standing at market stalls and a lot of time spent jarring honey in my honey house. I was ready for a change. Maybe you’ll see me selling honey again someday and I’ll post here if I do, but for the moment I’m pursuing my love of honey bees by conducting research at the University of Alberta. I’ll post more about my exciting new line of research soon!

But back at the farm here, I do have 30 heritage Chantecler hens laying eggs like nobody’s business right now. If you’re interested in purchasing some eggs ($4/dz), please shoot me an email. I also have goats and sheep now. I’ll be a first time lamb-mom soon and in the future I hope to start selling sheep meat and wool products. I’m planning a big garden this summer as well so I’ll probably have some vegetables available for purchase. My farming days aren’t done, they’re just shifting, and I hope some of you make the transition with me.

Thanks for looking!

Way, way back in July, I decided to start developing curriculum for some online courses. It sounded like such a simple idea. I created a new arm of Beanstalk Honey called Beanstalk Bees. I figured I’d have my first course out by December.

Eight months later, I’ve built a website, I’ve bought a camera, a mic, another camera, another mic, and better camera lenses. Finally, I’ve bought a new computer, one that is capable of video editing at a faster rate than glaciers move (which is how fast my Macbook Air could open and edit videos). I’ve tried about two dozen different applications in various combinations. I’m sure anyone who has tried to do something similar knows just what that process looks like. Let’s just say getting to this point has taken a bit of commitment!

And now, I’m happy to say some of my courses are ready for you. The “Selling Honey in Alberta” mini-course is the first offering. “Wintering Bees in Cold Climates” is finished now too. I’m still working on the “Getting Started in Bees” so we’ll see what happens there.

The website is obviously new, so let me know if anything is weird or confusing, please. There’s a lot going on on that website.

As always, please feel free to email me at, in this case, beanstalkbees at gmail.com with course suggestions, questions, or anything else.

Happy learning!

I’d like to thank everyone for taking the time to purchase honey from Beanstalk Honey over the last six months. I know it’s not as easy as it used to be.

I’m getting more and more emailed requests to pick up honey outside the market so I’ve built an online store! I’m hoping this will make the ordering and payment process a little more streamlined for all of us.

I currently have two pick-up locations: the usual house near the University of Alberta in Edmonton and the Old Strathcona Farmer’s Market.

I may add locations in Sherwood Park, Calgary, and Banff. If you would like to see honey available for pick up in any of these places, shoot me an email at northcookinglake@gmail.com.

Go Here to Make Your Purchases Today!

Hi Everyone,

I’ve had a few phone calls asking if the market is still open. Yes! At this time, the Old Strathcona Farmer’s Market is open. You can still come down and get your honey. However, if you don’t want to go to the farmer’s market, email me and we can work out a different way for you to pick-up honey.

And an update about the bees: they’re just waiting for that first alder, willow and aspen pollen of the year! I can practically see them getting excited about bursting out of the hives and collecting some fresh food. It looks like spring is just around the corner!

-Tracey

I’ve had a few people ask if I’ll be at the Downtown Market this summer. Sadly, I decided not to attend this year. Instead, you can find me the Old Strathcona Farmer’s Market every weekend year round.

It’s been a while since I refreshed this page but rest assured I’m still very actively beekeeping and selling honey at the Old Strathcona Farmer’s Market on Saturdays.

Similar to many farms in the area, the weather was a challenge for us here at Beanstalk Honey this year. April was very cold and then in May we went straight into a hot summer. Overall, it was an exceedingly hot and dry summer, with less than two inches of precipitation from May to September in my main beeyards and on our alfalfa fields. However, I’ve heard many areas received more moisture and in those areas the bees did quite well this season.

It is interesting having bees: they are a window into the effects of climate on plants. Hot, dry weather prompted the plants to all bloom earlier and intensively this year. Instead of groups of plant species blooming successively throughout the season, thereby providing bees with nectar and pollen all summer, many of the species bloomed together and earlier. This meant the build-up of the bee population coming out of winter was out of sync with the main nectar flow. This year, my bees reached peak population just at the end of the main nectar flow, which ended several weeks earlier than usual. This pattern has resulted in greatly reduced honey yields for the beekeeper (me, unfortunately).

The flip side of early, compressed nectar and pollen flows is we’ve experienced a nectar and pollen dearth for the bees in the last two Augusts, as have many other beekeepers right across Canada. We are learning to adapt our beekeeping management to address the shifting and compression of pollen and nectar flow dates; unfortunately a lot of the adaptation relies on supplementing the bee’s natural diet with human-made pollen and nectar replacements. I have a few ideas to try next year; I’ll let you know how they go!

Thanks for checking in!