While I was going through my hard drive I kept finding tons of old pictures that I would love to post from our years in Spain. We did a few different sherry tours while we lived there but this was … Continue reading
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. Â 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!
12 Euro per adult
On New Year’s Eve I had wanted to go out to dinner in Jerez de la Frontera, a bigger city about 15 minutes away. Â There is a restaurant there (near Ikea!) called Wok that does a kind of Mongolian buffet. We have a smaller version in Rota but I had heard good things about this one, bigger, nicer decor, better buffet selection.
Well we get out there at around 7:30pm which is early but we figured if we could kill time if we needed to wait until 8. Wok is closed. Dark, no one inside. Okay maaaaaybe we are a little early. So we hit up the grocery store Alcampo next door to look for sparkling apple/grape juice. Â No sparkling non-alcoholic beverages were found (although I did see Lambrusco for sale, I’ll have to go back and pick some up!) we did get some delicious donuts for dessert/breakfast/who knows they just looked yummy.
After killing time in the grocery store back to peek at Wok, nope still dark and not a soul in sight. Â Let’s just hop over to the mall that is right next door and find something in the food court. Park in the strangely half empty parking lot to walk up into the mall and see only people walking out. What the heck? Its almost 8pm on a Saturday night, usually the mall is packed with people! Mall doors locked. Oh no. This isn’t a good sign. Back over to the Ikea/Wok shopping center, McDonald’s maybe? Closed in the five minutes it took to run to the mall and back.
Now at this point we could have just given up and gone home except for the fact that I have been slacking on grocery shopping and there was nothing to eat at home (okay maybe pb & j but that was our last resort). So back to the base we go, we’ll hit up Pizza Villa even though we had pizza the night before. I figure a chicken, bacon, ranch sandwich will save the night. Pizza Villa closed. Â While I am ready to cry and give up because I am cranky, hungry and frustrated that we are all dressed up with literally no where to eat, my husband perseveres.
Out into Rota, where surprise, surprise: Wok Rota is open! And of course we were only the second table in there (after other Americans). I really think everyone in Spain was already making their way toward a plaza to party.
So food! We finally got to eat!
Ended up eating 4 shrimp, 2 hot wings, french fries and 1 bite of rice.
I'm not embarrassed to admit that all THREE of those plates are mine. I was starving when I filled them.
Not shown, his plate of squid and frog legs.
Sink Or Swim 