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| Welcome to and enjoy a taste of honey-infused cuisine inside The Beehive Farm and Kitchen at Brgy. Tambo, Lipa City, Batangas. (Image Source: TripAdvisor) |
For thousands of years, bees have always been considered an important part of nature's ecosystem. Without them serving as natural pollinators, plants will have trouble reproducing. They also produce food for animals and humans from the nectar they gather from plants which is commonly known for the ladder as honey. Humans consume honey as a natural sweetener and as an ingredient in many appetizing snacks and drinks. The Beehive Farm and Kitchen in Brgy. Tambo, Lipa City recognizes the potential of honey in elevating meals and make it a key ingredient in its menu.
In an interview with Manila Bulletin, the restaurant's general manager Christie Marie Quibal stated that all their dishes are honey-infused and the honey used for the dishes being offered come directly from its own bee farm. Some of its bestsellers include Yellow Jacket (fish fillet in honey lemon butter sauce), Bacon Bee (honey-cured homemade bacon), and vanilla honeycomb ice cream. “When you taste sweetness in our food, there’s honey in it and when you taste a sour flavor in our dishes, a honey cider is mixed in it,” Quibal said. And wouldn't you believe that the restaurant's roots come straight from within the founder's own home.
In 2008, Joel I. Katigbak knew that honey cider wasn't available in the market at the time and became curious about how it is made after tasting it. Eventually, the Lipa Beekeeper Marketing Cooperative would hold meetings in Katigbak's home where he prepared honey-infused meals for his colleagues. After a variety of suggestions from his fellow cooperative members, Katigbak decided to convert his home into a restaurant; thus, in September 2016, The Beehive Farm And Kitchen was born. As for Quibal, she studied the basics of beekeeping from Katigbak considering that she shared a similar interest on how bees produce honey. She eventually encourages aspiring beekeepers to drop by the restaurant to receive training on how to care for bees and maximize their honey-producing potential. According to her, receiving proper training is important for aspiring beekeepers since this can guide them towards maintaining their colonies and earn from the bees.
Presently, The Beehive Farm And Kitchen care for apis mallifera or the European honeybees known for their honey-producing abilities. The bees are given food, syrup and pollen supplements to sustain them during the rainy season, but they are left to produce honey from the nectar of local flowers during the honey flow which occurs from January to May in Batangas. Quibal said that they usually harvest 20-30 kilograms of pure honey from their colonies but their harvesting are constantly challenged by the use of harmful chemicals, pests and diseases and bee-eating animals. To overcome these challenges, Quibal and other workers on the bee farm had to practice and integrate a pest management prevention system in order to control the bee-eating animals in the area.
The Beehive Farm And Kitchen is more than just serving honey-infused dishes, but also contributing to the protection of the environment by caring for and preserving bees which are currently endangered due to loss of habitat, disease, pesticides and climate change. For more information on The Beehive Farm And Kitchen, visit its official Facebook page.
With Words By Patricia Blanca S. Taculao, Manila Bulletin Agriculture
