Okay ONE more field trip! This is the last one, I swear! I went with O to the Bee Farm, about an hour or so from Rota. (I think, I was on a bus with preschoolers, it was kind of a blur) They have an organic farm, bee hives, and I think process the honey there as well.

Mr. Ready-for-the-day.

Then this happened. Hello creepy bee person. Our poor guide was the only English speaker and a new hire so she didn’t exactly know the ins and outs of beekeeping 100%, a fact that she reminded us of a number of times. Creepy bee person also gave us samples of bee pollen.

Ignoring my hand-what the hell is wrong with my hand?- this is bee pollen. I guess people put it in smoothies? They collect it by installing little bee cleaners at the entrance to each hive that has the bees squeeze through a little opening and brushes all of the pollen off of them into a little catcher. It tastes like sweet dirt. Blech.

Here is my kind of sample! FRESH honey! It. was. delicious. The kids didn’t like it because it had bits of wax from the honeycomb in it and I think it freaked them out a bit.

Hmmm. I don’t know about this delicious, fresh, organic honey you are forcing me to sample…

The cool set up inside… There are some huge bee colonies living in here. Also there is some mesh down at the bottom so you can put your ear up to it and listen. It is LOUD!

Nature is awesome!

Some not so friendly plants!

Organic strawberry patch. Some strawberries may have been harmed in the touring of this field. Sorry Bee Farm! There were some overzealous gardeners who picked some green strawberries. (Also walking ON the strawberry mounds.  It wasn’t my kid, promise!)

LOTS of peacocks. And lots of peacocks screaming. I lived in Northern Idaho for a few years and a neighbor some miles away had peacocks. The screaming always sounded like a woman getting murdered.

Pretty little peahen.

My son in his absolutely adorable beekeeper outfit! Too bad I decided to focus on the wall behind him and only take this one shot! Yay me!

     

The art of beeswax candle making. First roll it all crooked while being silly (and looking like a zombie). Decide that is just not going to do, unroll the whole thing and reroll it perfectly! Hooray!

I am a terrible person. I took the photo of this GIANT beetle/cicada thing on another mom’s backpack before I told her it was there. It was just so pretty/hideous!

Back inside, these are some historic beehives. Turns out people have been doing this whole beekeeping thing for quite a while!

The goods. I had to restrain myself as I only had a couple minutes as the kids were loaded onto the bus.

Oh. My. How fabulous would this be over ice cream? (And look, Pollen on the left! You know I snatched some of that up!)

My mom would get us honeycomb every now and then as a kid. I thought it was super fun to eat but this stuff was a little pricey and I didn’t know if my kids would even touch it.

Instead I ended up with an adorable little honey pot (came filled!), a little dish and magnet that will get turned into a Christmas ornament. Just what I needed, MORE Spanish ceramics!

Wonderful day at the bee farm, they do small group tours as well. If you have older kids they will actually take you out to the working hives. Picnic tables, cafe, playground, parking.

Info!

Bee Farm

12 Euro per adult