The “Armien’s Honey” Story
In December 2016 in preparation for the “Busy Bee Nursery Class” the following year, Sara wanted to conduct “Busy Bee Research” about bees and honey! To our delight we discovered that depending on the forage that the bees are exposed to, honey can taste quite different.
After our research Sara convinced me that as a “Busy Bee”, her teacher was the “Queen Bee” and that “mommy needed to be the one in the white suit” viz. “The Bee Keeper” who looks after the bees. There is very little room for negotiation with a 4yr old girl. I made a couple of calls and soon we were registered with the Department of Agriculture and the Western Cape Bee Industry Association. Sara started selling Fynbos Honey at the Grade N market day at school. We bottled our honey under my husband’s Conroy family coat of arms.
My family, have collaborated with Checkers in creating Constantia Emporium on the site where my grandparent’s house used to be, next to the Blue Gum trees on Ladies Mile Rd. As a sweet remembrance to my late dad, Armien Solomon, we now bottle “Armien’s Honey” Blue Gum (Eucalyptus) exclusively for Checkers. It took tons and tons of Honey to glue the pieces of my heart back together again.
Honey makes everything better!