A Month Just for Bees
6 questions with the National Honey Board’s CEO Margaret Lombard
It seems that a major event like National Honey Month would have been established a long, long time ago in a bee yard far, far away. But it wasn’t until 1989 that the annual September celebration came to bee. (See what we did there?)
That year, the National Honey Board initiated National Honey Month to mark a very important month for beekeepers and honey brands across the United States. The honey collection season typically concludes in September as bees begin to secure their hives and prepare for winter. National Honey Month is a way to promote American beekeeping, the beekeeping industry and honey as the best natural and most beneficial sweetener.
As we celebrate the month, we thought it might be fun to chat with Margaret Lombard, the CEO of the National Honey Board, which was created in the 1980s to help spread the word about the wonderful world of honey and to help fund projects designed to find new and improved uses for honey in foods and other products. The National Honey Board also has many other goals, which you can read all about HERE.
In the meantime, we asked Margaret …
Sioux Honey: What is your favorite EDIBLE way to use honey?
Margaret: I love to eat honey simply drizzled on soft cheese, like goat cheese spread on a cracker.
Sioux Honey: What is your favorite NON-EDIBLE way to use honey?
Margaret: This simple honey salt scrub is fabulous:
Homemade Salt Scrub
- 1/3 cup honey
- 1/2 cup olive oil
- 1 cup coarse salt
- 6 drops of an essential oil (like lavender)
Sioux Honey: What is your favorite food that honeybees pollinate?
Margaret: With one-third of our diet coming from foods that honeybees pollinate, it is hard to pick just one! But this time of year, I am loving all the fresh fruit, especially pears. And year-round almonds and avocados are a favorite.
Sioux Honey: Do you have a favorite recipe using honey that you can share?
Margaret: One of my family’s most requested desserts is for a honey, brown butter, apple fruit crisp. It is amazing. [You can find the full recipe on the National Honey Board website HERE.]
Sioux Honey: Have you ever kept honeybees and collected your own honey?
Margaret: I have had the pleasure of visiting with many amazing beekeepers throughout the United States and watching their extraction and packing processes. Someday, I hope to have enough land to keep my own bees.
Sioux Honey: Why should every single human being on earth care about the honeybee?
Margaret: Choosing honey supports beekeepers who support honeybees, and honeybees pollinate more than a third of the world’s food supply, including many of the fruits, vegetables, nuts and other crops that are so important to a healthy diet. What could be more important than that?
