Yesterday, a group of homeschooling moms were going on a field trip to a honey farm near here. One of them very, very generously asked if we wanted to go along. Absolutely!
The kids all did great staying calm around the few bees that were lost in the honey shed after straggling in with yesterday's honey boxes. All three of my kids thought it smelled bad in there, but I think it just smelled like bees and honey and old honey and pollen and all things honey related.
Along with learning all kinds of cool things about honey, the kids also got to do some hands-on things in the honey shed.
Evan got to take one of the box inserts out of the scraper/drainer machine (yes, I know, I use very technical terms) and put it in the spinner that gets the rest of the honey out. He was a sticky, yummy mess when he was done.
Each of the kids who wanted to were allowed to help fill bottles of honey. The first few, like Laura, got to fill glass jars and put the cork in the top.
The rest of the kids, like Evan and Kendra, got to fill small honey bears.
Along with the hands-on fun, there was also taste-testing fun. The owner gave each of the kids a honey stick for a treat at the end. But before that, we got to try bee pollen. It was sweet at first, but it seemed like the little bit that stuck to my teeth got bitter. I'm glad I got to try it, but I don't think it's something I'll crave to add to my diet.
At the very end, most of us bought some honey to take home. Laura's holding the jar of creamed honey that I wanted to try. And Evan's holding the honey bear that he filled.
When we got home from our field trip, we promptly had a very well-balanced lunch -- buns with Evan's still-warm honey on them.
Thanks, Ebert Honey, for a fun morning. And thank you, Angie, for inviting us to tag along!
