Courtesy of Linvilla Orchards
Rosh Hashanah
his bar mitzvah project years ago,
care for the bees seasonally. This
year, the apiary is predicted to pro-
duce about 100-170 seven-ounce
jars of honey, most of which will be
sold to Rodeph Shalom and Jewish
community members.

Of course, Shump and LaBan aren’t
the only ones Holy Honey patrons
should be thanking for their High
Holiday fare. The apiary consists of
anywhere between two to 10 hives,
with about 60,000 bees per hive.

With each worker bee — having a
lifespan of just six weeks — pro-
ducing about 1/12 of a teaspoon of
honey in their lifetime, it would be an
understatement to say that teamwork
makes the dream work.

Rodeph Shalom’s bees pollinate
wildfl owers within about a two-mile
radius of the synagogue, mostly
along the Schuylkill River bank.

Scout bees will explore the area
and return to the hive and perform
a waggle dance to the rest of the
hive — a fi gure-eight motion with
Linvilla Orchards in Media produces 200-800 bushels of apples per its 25
acres, with each bushel containing more than 100 apples.

a straight line down in the middle.

The direction of the straight line is
the direction the bees should travel
to the pollen source in relation to
the sun. The length of the dance
correlates to the distance the bees
should travel.

“For every second that they dance,
that’s about a kilometer,” Shump
said. The static charge generated by
the bees’ fl ight results in pollen get-
ting stuck to the bee’s body, which is
pushed to their back legs by combs
on their front legs. They suck up
nectar through a proboscis, a straw-
shaped tongue.

When they return to their hives,
the worker bees dispense the nectar,
about 25-95% water, into the vertical
comb and beat their wings, drawing
out moisture until the resulting honey
is less than 18% water.

“At that point, honey gets hygro-
scopic, starved of water. And so any
bacteria that touches it, the honey
rips the water out of the bacteria
and kills it,” Shump said. “That’s why
honey stays good forever.”
While local food can be defi ned
as anything within a 100-mile radius,
Shump said, the hyperlocal honey is
not only a worthy product, a medium
amber color, but also an opportunity
for Shump to have greater respect
for his food.

For LaBan, who uses the honey
from the Holy Honey hives for his own
Rosh Hashanah celebrations, his con-
nection with his Judaism grows a little
sweeter too.

Your thing.

Is our thing.

At Rydal Park and Waters,
only one thing matters.

Keeping you connected
to the things that matter to you.

For more information,
call ( 215) 999- 3619
or visit RydalPark.org
Welcome to Life Plan Community Living.

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