We are all connected

Posted by Melissa Baumgart
I was heading to the minivan one day this weekend when something caught my eye.  Parked right behind my vehicle was a moving mural!  If you consider the wall of a truck to be a wall for a mural?  I say so.

The truck was some sort of farm delivery, from what context clues I could gather (outlines of veggies in the art and a box of veggies in the front seat).  Speaking of farms, where would our farms be without bees?  Dead.  That's where.  It was no shock to see the all important bee depicted on this moving mural.

Now, I don't claim to know that much on the subject of bees, but what I have heard is that they are dying at record numbers, a phenomenon referred to as "colony collapse."  I also know that we need them for pollinating our plants.  And I know that all of our food either is plants or lives of off plants.

This all adds up to a huge deal, in my humble opinion.

These are all reasons that I am so happy to have been a small part of my friend's business, Urban Bee Company.  Bob, (also Amy's husband) has hives all around the city of Seattle, and operates a CSA of his honey.  It is a brilliant concept.  What I had the pleasure of doing for this company, was joining with Amy and co-creating a salve using Urban Bee Company's beeswax.

We finally finished up the planning and preparation and really got to work this past weekend making salve!  It was so exciting to see all the beautiful tins of salve being poured and cooled, creating a gorgeous pattern of yellow and silver that turned the blank space into somewhat of a honeycomb shape, like the pages of those "Magic Eye" books that I could never pull off.

I suggest checking out all the current information available on Urban Bee Company's website.  Stay informed and help out the bees!  We are inextricably connected.

I should add that serendipitously, my name means "honeybee" in Greek, as well as the name of the beautiful plant, lemon balm.  Turns out lemon balm got it's name because it attracts bees.  I feel connected, indeed.  What an honor!