This week the Farm Report is abuzz with bees and honey. Joining host Erin Fairbanks is bee lover and owner of Catskill Provisions, Claire Marin, who imparts us with her encyclopedic knowledge of these creatures from mating habits, to how to start your own apiary, to why raw honey is best. Later on Adam Diehl, a maple syrup farmer who supplies Catskill Provisions, with his syrup tells us all about how to tap a maple, especially in this crazy February weather. Finally, tune in for a very special extended edition segment with Laura Ten Eyck of the American Farmland Trust who fills us in on the No Farms, No Food rally coming up in Albany and how you can do your part to fight for a more transparent food system. This episode is sponsored by White Oak Pastures

"Always buy raw honey that hasn't been heated above 93 degrees . . it retains all the good stuff that way, all the antibiotic properties and antioxidants."

"Bees are amazing . . . they can teach us about efficiency, democracy . .we can learn a lot from them."

--Claire Marin on The Farm Report

Sarah Edmonds and Anton Shannon completed The Seed Farm Apprenticeship program in 2010 and in 2011 launched Good Work Farm, a 60-member CSA on Lehigh County-owned land. Good Work Farm also hosts events, workshops, volunteer days, and group gleaning harvests out at the farm in Emmaus, PA, open to all members in the effort to help us reconnect to where their food comes from. Good Work Farm is dedicated to food justice, making sure that people of varying financial resources have access to quality food grown in their community. To this end we will donate a portion of our surplus to local food pantries. The CSA also offers a limited number of reduced-price shares in exchange for a work commitment during the season. If a work-share is not possible low-income families may qualify for a reduced price share. A percentage of our profits go into our Good Food Fund, which makes these programs possible. Sarah comes to Good Work Farm after working for several years on other organic CSAs, vegetable, animal and orchard farms in Berks and Lehigh Counties. She is also a past intern at The Seed Farm where she received training from this agriculture and business incubator program run though Lehigh County and Penn State Extension. In addition to being a partner at Good Work Farm, Sarah is an artist, and works as a clerk at Kutztown’s Louisa Gonser Community Library and bakes sweet things for Betty’s, also in Kutztown. Sarah holds some pretty big degrees, but she tries not to let her Bachelor and Master of Fine Arts degrees in Printmaking hold her back as she hoes the fields. Prior to this major farm venture, Ms. Edmonds was a professor in visual arts at Lehigh University, Reading Area Community College and at Kutztown University. This episode has been sponsored by Hearst Ranch.

"The Seed Farm opportunity was there, and it's such a good program and an interesting thing that's happening in this area that hasn't happened before." [26:40] -- Sarah Edmonds on Greenhorn Radio

Renae’s interest in food began while working summers in Alaska in the commercial fishing industry. Although very different from growing and tending to crops, she discovered the importance of where and how our food gets to our plate. After her college graduation, Renae decided to take a 10 month apprenticeship on ALM Farm in Sooke on Vancouver Island, BC. She took a season off to work back in Alaska before returning to agriculture at the Sunshine Farm (made famous by the documentary film Broken Limbs) in Chelan, Washington. She is now in her 3rd season as the field manager of 6.5 acres of vegetable production providing produce to an on site market, a CSA, the Chelan Farmer's Market and numerous restaurants and grocers. In the near future she sees herself bridging the gap between agriculture and education. This episode was sponsored by Hearst Ranch.

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