Honey Harvest

Our annual Honey Harvest was a wonderful opportunity to bring our community together to celebrate the incredible work of our bees and the abundance of our hives. This year, we harvested a total of 60 medium frames, producing an estimated 180–240 pounds of honey.

Chris Kelly, our master beekeeper, shared his knowledge and led guests through the hands-on harvest process—from uncapping frames and spinning honey to bottling raw honey fresh from the extractor. Guests also enjoyed garden-inspired bites featuring honey from our hives and fresh produce harvested from our gardens. Our new observation hive offered a sneak peek into the inner workings of a colony, with the chance to spot the queen!

ECI was also the grateful recipient of a very generous donation of an electric honey extractor from Alex and Anna Perros. This new equipment allowed us to extract the remaining honey from our hives more efficiently, making the harvest process significantly quicker and easier.

You can find our honey at the Good Ground Farmers Market at Whale’s Tale on Sundays, or visit us at the Villa on Tuesday mornings while our volunteers tend the gardens (9-11:30).

A heartfelt thank you to our hive sponsors—Anne and Charles Curran, Dawn Ford and Fran Carbone, Diana Hendrickson, Donna Cattano and Israel Simoes, Kathy and Brian Dunn, Pat Iannone, Pat Sanders, and the Sisters of St. Joseph—for their continued support. We also extend our sincere appreciation to Chris for his guidance, expertise, and dedication to our apiary program.

Events like this help connect our community with the importance of pollinators, sustainable food systems, and the amazing world of honey bees. We are grateful to everyone who helped make this year's Honey Harvest a success and look forward to another season of learning, growing, and working together.