Your CartHappy Monday! Today we’re visiting a French Bee Farm in Lot en Garonne. The area is fairy tale wonderful, like the France you dream of, little medieval villages surrounded by sunflower fields, country roads and small farms in charming rolling countryside. It’s one of France’s best kept secrets, and home to the bee farmers that create our best-selling organic bonbon au miel candies. Let’s Visit A French Bee Farm!
The landscape of the north-eastern Lot-et-Garonne department is much like the Dordogne region, with a mix of wooded slopes, small farms and a few forests. Everywhere in the area you’ll see fields of sunflowers, small picturesque villages and market towns and orchards and farms.
I am always looking for small family businesses in France that produce exceptional products for our FrenchGardenHouse gift collections. Today, I’m sharing one of those, I love their whole philosophy, their careful way of treating their land and animals, the environment, and the products they sell. Not just beautiful in how they are made, the candies they make are delicious, I {and you!} LOVE them. Let’s Visit A French Bee Farm.
In Aquitaine, France, the Charle family loves their bees! They share a passion transferred from father to daughters, as well as a deep respect for nature and its inhabitants. Clara and Manon Charle’s parents placed 6 hives on the farm 30 years ago for the family’s own use. The girls loved helping with the hives and bee keeping. Manon eventually retired as a teacher to become a full time bee keeper. It’s exciting to see these young women take charge of their family business, together with their brother.
In 2014 the family installed fifty hives, today they’ve grown that number to 300 hives. Manon says she had to train on the job, since there are no schools nor diplomas. The variety of flowers, seeds and environment the bees eat and live in makes for an authentic, high quality honey. They raise and protect their bees in an environment selected for their well-being. Their bees offer the fruit of their harvest, delicious 100% organic honey.
The 300-hectare farm has switched to organic farming, replacing traditional crops with flowering fallows, honey mixtures and ancestral species naturally present in this Southwest area of France. The hives are sedentary, offering the bees an ideal environment so that they forage at will and flourish. Out of passion for their bees, they chose to rethink everything. The well-being and protection of the bees is the top priority, so the family of bee keepers offer their bees the best possible environment, and never move their hives around.
“We sow melliferous {a plant which produces substances that can be collected by insects and turned into honey} flowers every year on our property. There are also natural meadows, woods and ponds on the farm, offering the bees a rich and varied territory which is reflected in the quality of the honey they produce.”
In a desire to return to nature, the bee keeping family has reintroduced animals that work for the bio-diversity of the farm. The sheep and donkeys graze and fertilize the meadows. Little by little, nature is taking back the land and the reappearance of wild bees, butterflies and other pollinating insects are the proof.
Manon explains “ We keep two breeds of bees, Buckfasts, which like mild temperatures, and Caucasians, which are used to colder climates. The life time of a bee is varied. In winter, a bee will live for several months, because it works very little, it just works enough to warm the brood and keep the hive clean. In summer, its lifespan is much shorter, about 5 weeks. Between building the cells, fetching water, foraging for flowers, making honey, and protecting the hive, the bee is exhausted at work.”
This family of beekeepers respects the natural rhythm of their bees and never move them to another place, allowing the bees to feel at home in their environment and hives. They only take the excess honey so they never jeopardize the bee colonies. If I was a bee, I’d want to live here!
“As much as we love to visit our hives, the less we disturb them the better off they will be!” Manon says. “We really take care to raise our bees in an environment conducive to their well-being, near a body of water, with varied and abundant food. We respect their pace so as not to stress them, the queen’s laying will only be better.” she explains. To vary their food, Manon sows clover, alfalfa, coriander or sweet clover.
This beekeeping farm produces the BEST honey candy! I fell in love with these delicious gourmet petit bonbons. Each of the leaf shaped candies contains 15% organic honey, and is inspired by the fruits and desserts of France.This candy is a taste of France you will adore, it is made with honey that is 100% natural, 100% organic and 100% local. They taste of honey, much more so than any other French honey candy I tasted {it’s a tough job to select candies for our FrenchGardenHouse but someone has to do it!}
Made by the Charle family, packaged exclusively in this larger size for you, imported from France. 100% delicious. We have a limited supply available, these make perfect little gifts for a host, hostess, best friend, birthday small gift and any other kind of gift giving occasion. Be sure to keep some for YOU, they are addicting!
Just tap on each image to shop each item.
SHOP this small family bee keeper’s candy HERE>
PS. Since we are already talking about C A N D Y” our long awaited and much beloved PUMPKIN PIE MALT BALLS are here! Grab yours here, they never last long.
Read about our fantastic French beeswax candles HERE>
I hope you’ve enjoyed this post : Visit A French Bee Farm! It’s always good to visit new places, and learn new things, isn’t it? {Even if you are joining us virtually…it’s like you’ve been there!}
A BIENTOT
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Lidy, this is so interesting! I loved reading about this family’s bee farm. It is fascinating to read about God’s nature and how everything works with such precision to create the things we need. May God bless you this autumn season!
Cheryl, it is always a miracle to me, too, how everything works in nature! Thank you so much.
Loved seeing these beautiful pictures of flowers, bees and animals. We have 2 local bee Farmer’s here. Best honey instead of store bought.
Great information, Learned so much!
Thank you for sharing another great post Lidy.
In my armchair I get to travel to France with you Lidy. So precious. I am a fan of everything bees.
Im so happy you enjoy the virtual travel Alice! And bees. : )
As I sit here on my couch (recovering from ankle surgery), I am inspired by this post. The photos are beautiful, and I thank for sharing.
It is very important that we preserve bees. They are very much under threat. Here in the US, the herbacide “Round-Up” is a very popular product. It is a death sentence to the pollinating insects, and really, anything else in with in comes into contact. I don’t believe this product is sold in Europe as it most dangerous. If you’re in the US, please do not use Round-Up. My thanks! ek
Erica, I agree! Our bees are so important. Thanks so much for your visit, I wish you a speedy recovery from your surgery!
What a beautiful environment for the bees and such amazing photos! Thanks so much for sharing this lovely place (and family) with us.