Inspiration 

Natures gold and its army of stripes has made its way into my life in more ways than one. My freshman year of high school I wrote a story about beekeepers that landed the spread (a big deal for a freshman writer). It was my first big feature and one of my first stories in print. 

 

My parents dropped me off at a beekeepers home where I stayed all afternoon, eagerly suiting up to flip her hive’s frames and preparing for an “extraction party.” Yes, a honey extraction party. Since writing that feature on beekeepers, I’ve been to several extraction parties, actually, all of which have found me believe it or not.

 

Fast forward to my senior year at KU, I frequently commuted to and from Kansas City. I liked to take the scenic route back to Lawrence in my Volvo C-70, top down flying solo through the rolling hills of Kansas. One afternoon I came to a skirting stop down the road, when I realized I'd whizzed by a produce stand. I drove backwards back up the hill and found Ad Astra Farms. I took a picture of the stand, grabbed fresh produce from the cart and venmo'd the QR code listed. 

 

Later, I posted the picture I’d taken on Instagram, tagging the name I’d seen on the stand. Just a few hours later I was invited to their honey extraction party. I love this intimate social gatherings, everyone gets to spin the wheel and watch the honey fling from the frames into the metal container. I ended up spending the afternoon with the beekeepers—a couple in their sixties—and an assortment of their friends.

 

My way of finding honey and bees initiated the nickname “bee” from DaisyB with close friends and these pictures signify such a bright afternoon learning and playing with my camera.