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Featured Beekeeper of the Month

This month our featured beekeeper is Jim Tennant. He and his wife Jean live with their two sons, Chance and Chase, at West Point, Iowa. Jim has 12 hives and is aiming for 25. They sell several sizes of honey in jars and some comb honey. Jim says he likes being outdoors working the bees, watching the hives grow, extracting and eating honey. Best of all his sons help smoke the hives, hold frames, and extract so he can pass on the family tradition. Jim is planning to raise a few queens of his own sometime and keep his sons interested in bees.

Jim Tennant, his wife Jean and their two sons, Chance and Chase are a beekeeping family from SE Iowa.

Here is Jim’s story:

I started my first hive in 1998. I started keeping bees because I was raised around it and I wanted to try and keep something going that I had done with my grandparents. I remember being little and going to some of the bee yards with my grandpa, cleaning frames in their garage and always helping extracting and filling jars. At one time at his busiest my grandpa had 500 hives and still held a full time job. To me it was something I was bound to do.
At an auction of my wife’s relatives, I bought some bee equipment which included a couple of hives. I then called my grandpa who lived in Ohio and told him I had bought a couple of hives and asked him how to get started. He seemed a little bit irritated and asked me why it had taken me so long to get started because I was now 28 years old and hadn’t been around beekeeping since I moved with my family from Ohio in 1985 to SE Iowa. He then proceeded to give me some advice on getting started. I bought a package of bees for one hive but it ended up dying out. In the spring of 1999 my grandfather passed away and that kind of pushed me into it with both feet so I bought 6 packages and started more hives. I swore I would never buy store bought honey ever.

Now 10 years later and with 12 hives my whole family is involved. My wife Jean designed our labels and business cards and sells our honey at our local Hy-Vee in Ft. Madison, IA. She puts up with me doing it and has never tried to get me to stop. My sons, Chance and Chase help when they feel like it because I don’t want to force them to do it and end up pushing them away from it.

Sometimes when I’m working my bees I feel like my grandpa (Pap) and grandma (Gram) are watching me and I’m always hoping I made them proud by keeping something going that we had shared when I was little. So than-you Pap and Gram and thank-you Jean, Chance and Chase for being a part of the beekeeping family.

Submitted by Ron Wehr

HONEY GLAZED BABY CARROTS

Printed from COOKS.COM

2-3 cups small baby carrots (pre-peeled)
1/2 cup butter
1 tablespoon brown sugar
1 tablespoon honey
1/2 teaspoon cinnamon
1/4 teaspoon nutmeg
fresh minced parsley and/or chives

In a medium skillet, melt butter. Add brown sugar, honey, nutmeg and cinnamon; mix together. Add Carrots. Cover; cook on medium low to medium heat for about 15 minutes, stirring occasionally. When finished cooking, the carrots should be firm, not mushy.

Remove from skillet and sprinkle with fresh parsley and/or chives. Serve.