The Food and Farm Lab students in this first trimester of school have some sweet ideas about farming and about entrepreneurship. In an earlier post, you were introduced to our volunteer bee keepers, Adriana Lozada and Arthur Rothfuss, as they taught the 9th grade English students about our Harley bee hives. They have also been involved with the Food and Farm Lab class, helping them determine how best to extract and do something with the approximately 50 to 75 pounds of honey in the two bee hives.  The window of time for action is imminent, as the honey needs to be harvested in a short two to three-week window this fall.

The students of the class wrote and submitted a proposal to Dr. Ghory, Head of School, and our CFO, Ken Motsenbocker (himself a gentleman farmer). They proposed a learning expedition which would involve acquiring a honey extractor, harvesting the honey, then packaging and selling the Harley Honey to recoup the expense of the extractor. According to the proposal: “Our mission associated with this learning expedition is to extract, jar and ultimately sell the first ever batch of Harley Honey. Throughout this process we will 1. learn about bee husbandry and honey production; 2. develop a brand and business plan to sell Harley Honey; 3. implement our marketing and sales strategy; and 4. set Harley up for many future years of honey and associated profits (financial and otherwise).”

Here is the newly-acquired honey extractor and the associated accoutrements for the process:

And here are the members of the Tri 1 Food and Farm Lab class, exploring logo options and cleaning up. Stay tuned for updates on the actual honey extraction and ultimate sale of the first batch of Harley Honey ever!