October 2020

Ewalu's First Honey Harvest

When we first began this project in January 2019, we had high hopes and low expectations as fresh beekeepers. We did as much research as we could, and yet there was still so much we knew we didn’t know. When fall came, and we were preparing to get our hives through winter, we were skeptical that our bees would still be there in the spring.

When we returned to them in the spring, we were delighted to see a few buzzing around as we approached. Both hives had survived! We continued to check-in on them throughout the spring, but naturally, the summer was a different story. They got very little attention during that time, as we turned our focus to the summer campers. Once again, we were a little surprised to see how well they were doing when we went out in the fall. It looked like we would be able to harvest!

We began researching what the best harvest method would be for our set up. We ordered the necessary supplies and waited in anticipation for them to arrive. Once the supplies arrived, it was just a matter of waiting for the warmest day.

As we headed out to Adventure Land, the excitement began to build. We suited up, grabbed our tools, and made the quick jaunt over to the table where the hives sit. After determining we would harvest only one super, ten frames from the top boxes, we set out to pick the very best frames. As it turned out, they all came from the stronger hive, so we brushed off a few bees and transported the frames back to our vehicle.

To begin the extraction of honey, we prepped our bucket with a honey gate and a filter. We cut out the comb into the filter, one frame at a time, and squeezed as much honey out of the wax as possible. We then saved the wax for another project and set in on the next frame. When all was said and done, we ended up with about 2.5 gallons of pure, raw honey. We had purchased a few classic bear-shaped honey bottles and quickly realized they would not be nearly enough to hold all we had harvested. Some of the fresh bottled honey will be available for purchase at the virtual quilt auction this year, so you may be able to share in our harvest!

Honey production was never our primary motivation in beekeeping, but it sure has been a fun benefit. Hopefully, this coming winter treats the hives nicely, and we can have another nice harvest next fall!

Fall Volunteer Work Day Recap

The first of our Fall Volunteer Work Days took place on September, 26th. Twenty-five volunteers came out for the beautiful fall day and got lots of work done. They built picnic tables, stained benches and tables, enhanced the garden fence, cleaned out the garden, hauled wood, and spread wood chips around the cooperative course.

A lot of work was done, and a lot of fun was had as well! Thank you to everyone who helped out! We have another work day later this fall on Saturday, October 24th.

• 0 COVID-19 infections were contracted by campers or staff in the six weeks that our doors were open to summer ministry. Praise God!
• 455 campers experienced Camp Ewalu and learned about Jesus's love for them, which continues throughout generations. This is about 43% of last year's attendance.
• 41 summer staff members provided leadership and served as examples for youth exploring their faith. Thanks to the generosity of many donors like you, we were able to retain all staff and continue our development of future faith-leaders.
• 58 "Camp in a Box" packages delivered Camp Ewalu's ministry across the nation to people unable to be with us physically this year.