Farming
Karen Rapaport photos by Chris Hammett Story by
Hive of activity Terry’s Honey Farm produces unique honeys in the Grand Forks area
D
riving along the highway, you can’t help but notice the occasional clusters of what look like filing cabinets curiously punctuating the open areas. They’re actually standard, or Langstroth, beehives. These are the type of hives utilized by Liz and Terry Huxter of Terry’s Honey Farm in Grand Forks. First meeting at university in Scotland, Liz and Terry moved to our region 28 years ago after spending a few years in Calgary, learning their way around beekeeping through a paid mentorship. Terry carries forth his experience as a plant physiologist and university professor, while Liz’s background as a geologist weaves its way into a deep love for and understanding about the land and the impacts of our actions upon it. Both Liz and Terry are goodhumoured, soft-spoken and extremely erudite; they are tremendous resources and it was a pleasure to get to know them. Why the career move to beekeeping? Liz laughs, “We just ate a lot of honey! Seemed like the right thing to do. We decided we wanted our own little bee farm and saw an ad in Grand Forks — just fifty hives — it was tiny. We thought it was gorgeous here, but that it made no economic sense. After spending one night, the meadowlarks sucked us in." What draws most of us in to the mysterious world of bees is their fascinating social Page 22
Route 3 Spring 2009