Darcy Stoddard
Recently, I have become aware that Vegans seem to be concerned over using honey or a product containing honey, I find this concern unusual. Back in the early 70’s many of us became vegetarians, long before ‘organic’ was hardly available, No natural food coops, and no farmers markets – most of whatever came out of a farm’s industrial Greenhouses went straight to stores. We were surrounded by agriculture but nothing organic. I quit shopping at Safeway and started my own garden. Cut out sugars, processed foods, meat, and raised my children with good organics and on raw honey, always supporting the local organic farmer and bee keeper. A handful of us were buying wholesale through a catalog, like Alta Dena. once a month a truck would deliver our goods to a neighbors garage were we would all weight it and split all the things up. Our numbers were growing, people everywhere began wanting organic foods. So in 1976 we decided to open a community natural food coop, I was in charge of membership, I took us from 23 members to over 500 
🙂
Sespe coop was one of the first of it’s kind in the central California coast, we supported all the organic farmers, bakers, and beekeepers of the area. And after a few years began our own farmers market, which is still going on today. Now living in Northern California in these present days, organic is a common practice. Our area is very much organic agricultural, We even voted to ban all GMO’s from us and the surrounding counties 🙂 and there’s at least 2 farmers markets going on somewhere here every day of the week. Also fresh raw honey is available all over, we have a neighbor with hives. The hives are hidden in the forest and when he goes to collect the honey, he doesn’t even fog them, he just places himself in Zen mode and the bees are gentle. They pollinate my crops 🙂. Then the animal vet down the street has a glass wall in his lobby with a hive, for a learning tool, I get fresh raw honey from him too. Then there’s the farmers collective which also has hives, all of which are from local happy bees that come pollinate all their crops. In all this time I have not seen or heard of this concern for using honey before, except recently, what I’ve heard is that bees are being treated cruelly. My biggest concern to tell the truth is that the chemical sprays and GMO’s are killing them off. I guess when you don’t buy national brands you don’t understand how a cruel treatment could happen. I would imagine that most companies would be concerned about keeping their cash crops. The bee hive collapse concern, is another scare, Cause without bees to pollinate the crops, everyone could be annihilated! So I don’t understand how any farmer or bee keeper could hurt bees and destroy their own livelihood. It’s unfathomable to me, as they’re responsible for so many things. It just makes me upset to think that people could go out of their way to hurt bees. We need to find a way to put a stop to this, and if that means starting my own fundraiser with GoFundMe, (https://www.gofundme.com/c/blog/how-to-save-bees) to help save the bees, then that is what I, and all of us should do. But if people stopped putting them in danger, then this wouldn’t have to happen. Maybe some corporations like monsanto are involved in this but in the end they’d loose too. Whatever is happening out there, Thank goodness it’s not apparent in this area. The abundance of organic bounty surrounds us.
During my lavender harvest I am surrounded by many pollinators, Black bumbles, yellow stripped bumbles, honey bees, a skinnier type of bees and little furry black flies. Sometimes I have accidentally touched them while picking, but they have never cared to sting me. However, if you are someone who had been planning for beekeeping as a hobby, now you may have more reasons to do so. Bees are considered to be great friends for humanity and what could be a better way of thanking them other than beekeeping. If you are up for it, getting some more knowledge about how to start beekeeping by reading online resources could be helpful. Reading topics such as, what kind of bee feeders should you get, or how to make syrup for bee feeders can come in help. Coming back, I have never worried about consuming honey and don’t understand the fear, maybe a rumor is being spread to make it trendy. Besides Honey is a natural antiseptic! Can’t beat that 🙂 It’s an added bonus to include natural bees wax in my products.
For those of you still concerned, not every Hemp-EaZe product contains bees wax, pet aid, lotion, massage oil, dog eyedrops, but certainly for the creams and balms that needs a thickener, and I refused to use a pre-made base or any petroleum base!!
