Partners in Singapore for Uganda Honey……………………

After landing back in Singapore and after a week of break, my marketing drive began. The first stop was meeting up with Violet to finalize the way forward in promoting Uganda Honey into the market. The discussion went well and soon Singaporeans will be able to buy our honey at all Violet Oon’s outlet.

Uganda honey will be available at all Violet Oon's Kitchen Singapore outlet in mid 2010.

One small harvest before heading home…………………….

Fresh comb honey harvested the night before.

I am excited to make my trip back home tomorrow. I guess you can say it’s occupational hazard. I must visit at least a colony before I leave. Meanwhile, I harvested some comb honey to be brought back to Singapore for my family members and friends to see what is ‘REAL RAW HONEY”.

There are so many marketing hypes about raw honey and its health benefits in the market but actually, does one really knows what does that mean or are they simply buying the label? Well hopefully this time round my family and friends are able to gain more insight of what is real raw honey harvested fresh from the farm.

Yes, although I am keen to push my honey into the Asia market after having served the European market for the last 5 years, I would also like my consumer friends to fully understand the benefit of eating honey, and not turning it into some kind of miracle wonder medicine that can cure everything. If I were to do that, I am doing a disservice to my fellow Singaporeans.

Hopefully this small talk will enable more to appreciate the existence of the honey bees and how it contribute to mankind. At least you will know that the next spoonful of honey you take, no bees were sacrificed.

Honey combs prepared in chunks.

Two floral in production - Eucalyptus and Savannah Bush Honey.

“BEST” Program @ Timothy Centre…………………….

BEEKEEPING for ECOLOGICAL, SOCIAL and TECHNOLOGICAL program. This is what BEST stands for.

TOP GUNS - Training the trainers.

Finally, all the hives are in place at Timothy Centre and the apiary is now fully operational. Last week we saw the first team of farmers embarking on our “BEST” program. They will be the first batch of trainees to be appointed as trainers when the program goes full throttle.

These 6 bee masters had been working with us for the last 3 years in the North and they were selected for their performance and dedication to beekeeping.

With the grant given by US Embassy, we make sure that only genuine bee farmer who has the desire to embark on beekeeping as a source of income generating activity, will be given priority to benefit from it. In this way, the grant would then be utilized properly and productively. Years and years of research, trial and errors from Organizations had shown that if you were to ask any farmer who wants to go into beekeeping, every single farmer would raise their hands. All they wanted is just to ride on the free benefit, get whatever equipments they can get hold of, after which whether they make use of it or not, nobody cares. Worst case scenario, they would sell it just to make a little bit of money to go to town and buy themselves a beer.

Here at Timothy Centre, we are going to make that difference. There will be no free rides but only genuine, dedicated beekeepers who are willing to part take in our “Entrepreneurial Skills” program. These farmers have to fully understand the whole idea of being a self employed rather than a recipient. On performance based, interviews and on site visits to their existing operations will be conducted before enrollment. The farmers will be accessed based on our findings. This way, we will then be able to maintain the quality in all areas. Without neglecting the social base (social), our 26 modules allow some would-be farmers who are serious and wants to try out on honey farming, can still enroll in our basic beekeeping courses. In order not to let these farmers taking this opportunity for granted, and due to their low income capacity, they have to play their part by contributing back to the Centre in kinds, for example collecting of firewoods for the school, assist in maintaining the model apiary occasionally and others not in monetary form.

Participants were trained at my place to overcome the fear of African Honey Bees before proceeding to TC. (Do not try this at home)

“BEST” program emphasis not only on honey production alone. The three other aspects are equally important. Farmers will be trained on how to handle African bees effectively and gently, overcoming the fear of its natural aggressiveness. This is the first hurdle in becoming a good beekeeper. A beekeeper will not be considered a good beekeeper if the harvest consist of a bucket filled with dead bees. That is honey hunting.

The fundamental understanding is to accept the philosophy on how to work with nature rather than against it. (ecological)

Through generations and knowledge passed from one farmer to another, most of the harvesting were done in the night because of the fear, because of its aggressiveness. Very few beekeepers had seen the inside of a beehive in broad daylight. It will be a paradigm shift for them with this kind of practice.

During our last day before we round up the lessons, we had our evaluation. I came to realized that one of them who had attended my talk 3 years ago did not believe that we can harvest or perform any activities during the day. These short 6 days of training had totally changed his views on beekeeping methods.

The other interesting findings for them was that beekeeping is done in a very clean clear environment. All these while, they were taught that bee hives should be hidden amongst tall bushes, away from prying eyes. This has got to change. What they saw at the Centre was a total culture shock to them. Beehives were neatly arranged in order within a few meters apart from each other, not like theirs which some were placed a few hundred meters away.

Our “BEST” program encompasses different types of beehives, from traditional log hives to KTB to modern langstroth. Farmers will be able to identify the different method of beekeeping and can choose which form of beekeeping best suit them. With this direction, smooth transition from traditional beekeeping to modern methods of beekeeping (technological) will still be in place.

Apiary well trimmed.

The first lesson for them was apiary management. They did a fine job converting the whole apiary into a bees’ paradise.

Moving colonies.

Among the 6, 3 of them were their first time out of GULU. After the insurgency, they had never visited other parts of Uganda. I could see the excitement and joy in their eyes that they are going to bring back lots of stories for their children when they return.

We believe all work and no play makes Jack a dull boy. In recognition for their great effort in making it all the way from GULU, we decided to let them enjoy a piece of their homeland, Uganda.

Awaiting for their well deserved meal at a local world cup crazy restaurant.

The Equator - Icon of Uganda.

Timothy Centre in co-operation with Little Honey Man.

First good news of the year!…………………….

The year started with a very good news from US Embassy. Usually they have funds for farmers to embark on agriculture projects and they were looking for good partners to work with in order for the farmers to benefit from such funds. We were identified as a potential partner and they came to interview us. Few days back we received an email saying that they were pleased with the findings and had identified us as one of the partner they intend to work together. Below was part of the mail that was sent to us and we felt honored to be selected;

” It is my pleasure to inform you that you have been approved as recipients of this year’s Ambassador’s Special Self-Help Fund grant! We are looking forward to partnering with you in your various income-generating activities reaching under-served and under-privileged people throughout Uganda. It is our hope that together we truly will make a difference in these communities………

…………….Looking forward to a wonderful partnership with each of our grantees. We have chosen 7 projects with the hope of finalizing one or two more. Congratulations! This is very competitive (9 projects out of 100 applicants!) and you have stood out as doing exceptional work in your communities.

Please do not hesitate to contact me.

Yours in development,…………………..

Dawn P. Conklin

Small Grants Coordinator

US Embassy – Kampala, Uganda “

Bee farmers having a short animated interlude before heading to the farm.

Having gotten this motivating mail, it really made my day. Now the farmers are able to move an extra mile with the support.

I could see the trend of large Organization co-operating with private social enterprises. I should say this is the way to go because we as social entrepreneurs, we have mindset focused to succeed in order achieve our goals which we had set out to do. We developed the whole value chain from training to harvesting to refining to packing and export.

Rose amongst the thorns. We are seeing more women coming forward in becoming bee farmers.

I had seen many projects failed because their emphasis stop short at providing equipments to farmers. They did not realize the importance of a sound training program where farmers were taught how to handle the bees properly in order to attain quality honey. Sadly the rest of the process were not properly established thus putting many farmers in limbo. They produced poor quality honey which are not acceptable to the world market.

Farmers are trained to utilize whatever is available on the ground. Basic beekeeping is the way to go.

This created a bottleneck where abundant of low quality honey were produced but going nowhere. Disappointment and dissatisfaction grows and soon farmers dropped the idea completely and start to look for other avenues.

Most of our honey going EU comes from these traditional hives. The honey harvested still meets EU honey legislations.

All these things can be fine tuned if the Organization involved are prepared to pay more attention not only on fulfilling their equipment distribution objective but also on the environmental impact, where wrong methods of beekeeping were applied, causing millions of bees to perish in the process.

We would like to thank US Embassy for having confidence in us.

New Year, New Ideas…………………….

Happy New Year everyone! In this brand new year, let me start off with something that is close to everyone’s heart, or I should say stomach – FOOD! Occasionally I will be introducing honey related recipe for those who are keen in trying to use honey on their dish. For a start, here is one Asian dish, Cantonese Shredded Beef.

Cantonese Shredded Beef

Stir-fry over high heat cooks food quickly while sealing in all the flavour. In this recipe, the beef is cooked until crisp and sweet. Blossom honey counteract the spiciness of the pepper while harmonizing with the sweetness of the carrots. The dish is best served with plain boiled rice to absorb the honey juices.

This recipe is meant for a serving of 4.

2½ tbsp sesame oil

3 cloves garlic, chopped

12 baby carrots (about 375g), cut into 5cm strips

1½ tbsp soy sauce

6 tbsp blossom honey

¾ tsp chilli powder or cayenne pepper

500g beef fillet, cut into thin strips 5cm long

¼ tsp salt

In a wok or non-stick frying pan, heat the oil until hot. Add the garlic and cook until it is just turning golden.

Add the carrots with 2 teaspoons of soy sauce, 1 tablespoon of honey and ¼ teaspoon of chilli powder or cayenne pepper and stir fry for 2-3 minutes until the carrots are just starting to soften.

Add the beef with the remainder of the soy sauce, honey, chilli powder or cayenne pepper and the salt. Stir-fry for a further 5-7 minutes until the beef is a dark golden brown and slightly crispy and the carrots are caramelized. Serve immediately.

Contribution to World Food Chain…………………….

Julius and Martin.

Julius and Martin are my bee masters from Gulu. My work of sharing the importance of having to produce quality honey does not stop at the village. I will make effort to bring the leaders down occasionally to Kampala to show and explain why we need to pursue excellence in what we are doing.

Before I came, keeping bees in the the North is just to produce enough honey for their own consumption and many did not realized that it can be an income generating activity.

Bringing them to the city will somehow motivate them to realize the potential and many aspect of moving forward after being in insurgency for so many year, thinking that there is little or no hope for their future generations.

I had been working with them for three years now and I do feel their sense of wanting to progress. What amazed me was the speed in which they picked up the skill from honey hunting to honey farming.

Proud to have their honey certified, packed and sold at the largest supermarket (Shoprite) in Kampala. At the same time, in support of an Orphanage (Kids of Africa) paying forward for the future generations.

Once that is achieved, they are able to pat themselves on their shoulders and showing the world that they can also be part of the world food chain by producing high quality honey for the world to embrace.

Their trip to the city this time included a short session on how to transfer bees from one location to another. According to them, this is the first time in Uganda beekeeping history that they are able to learn how to do that. They had done short distance transfer but never in their life ever thought that we can transfer bees 120km apart.

They first learn to observe the temperament of the bees before handling them.

They will be part of the team to transfer the colonies to Timothy Centre within the next 3 weeks. It seems that we are unable to fulfill my planned schedule of completing the task before Christmas. Anyhow, the show must go on.

Timothy Centre will be the FIRST-ONE-OF-ITS-KIND apiary in Uganda where bee farmers coming for training will be able to understand the different kinds and methods of beekeeping around the world. They will then be able to fully understand what sort of method best suits them. Rather than just having to listen to others, always thinking that the most expensive and modern hives is the way to go.

Sealing the hives before transportation.

For the time being hives that are going to be deployed at the Centre will be the Traditional Log Hives, Rattan Hives, Kenyan Top Bars and the Langstroths. Timothy Centre will also serves as an information Centre where NGOs who have beekeeping projects, wanting to introduce it as part of their curriculum, to have a better understanding on the way forward in initiating it to their farmers.

Packed and ready to go.

Modernization of beekeeping industry in the North takes time. The current situation requires a lot of effort, especially apiary management. Why the need for these farmers to learn how to relocate hives is that most of the hives were placed in an awkward position where it is so difficult to work on them safely and gently. Others had their beehives located too far apart between every hives, making it time consuming for farmers to work on them.

Taking a quick break to have a shot to show their fellow village folks back home of their adventure.

Our findings for the honey industry here is this – there is no such thing as whether modern bee hives produces better, higher quality honey compared to traditional log hives. All nectar collected from the bees and being converted to honey are good quality honey. It is the process of how the farmer approach the hive, handle the bees and extracting the combs. Most of our honey harvested are from the traditional log hives and yet they are able to meet EU honey legislations.

Bee hives arriving at Timothy Centre apiary.

The other misconception about beekeeping in Uganda is that farmers were being told that it is one of the simplest form of income generating activity. They simply place a modern beehive on a tree, just wait for the bees to come and deposit honey and collect them during harvesting season. So many quickly jump onto the band wagon but later realized that it was not true, Finally giving it up totally losing their hard earned money to those who sold them the idea.

Too many hypes on modernization but little emphasis on sustainability.

Julius and Martin with the team from Timothy Centre.

Two new neighbours for Timothy Centre apiary.

Julius, 68 and Martin, 45, and the other 300 farmers that I am working with do faced many obstacles but somehow we are determined to face them one at a time.

The only time we failed is the last time we tried. We have not try the last time yet.

Back to work…………………….

Three weeks with Jonathan passed by in a flash. Today we started to pick up where we had left off before he came. It rained quite a bit in the morning and our schedule was delayed a little. All the hives were soaking wet when we loaded them on the truck. Hopefully we are able to complete our work before Christmas and spend a relaxing festive season. Francis will be escorting the bee hives to Timothy Centre. Tomorrow he is getting married.

Packing beehives into truck to be deployed at Timothy Centre.

Off to Timothy Center, Masaka.

Up close and personal……………………

Really appreciate Jonathan for taking time to come from Singapore to capture moments of my work in still life. He had also shared a lot on the art of photography. Its all about inspiration and being able to capture the feeling and moment there and then. The final challenge is to capture the African bees closeup at 5pm. The timing for opening up beehives during the day is crucial. The weather must be cool in order for the bees to stay calm.

Come next week, when Jonathan leaves for Singapore, we will resume the transfer of bee from Kampala to Timothy Centre at Masaka.

Sending a little bit of smoke signal telling the bees we are coming in peace.

Waiting for the bees to calm down before signalling Jonathan to come forward for the shoot.

First time for Jonathan to come so close to a colony of African bees.

Another magical moment for Jonathan's profile. Up close and personal.

Honey and Photography, coming together in perfect harmony…………………….

Jonathan did a fabulous shot on the comb honey we brought to Dr. Anne's tea party. His photography skill brought out the distinct character of the comb of liquid gold.

The timing was perfect and the whole moment was captured to the finest detail.

The image was so sharp that even we are able to see the reflection of the comb on the tray.

Jonathan Wong, bringing out the beauty of my honey…………………….

Jonathan Wong, a professional photographer from Singapore came and did some product shoots for my advertising campaign. The results was astonishing! He had brought out the beauty of my work. Below are my two favorite shots!

Liquid Gold by Jonathan Wong

Simply Honey! - by Jonathan Wong