Bees looked happy in Floresville, TX

Two weeks ago I took a field trip to Floresville, TX.   It was a spring day and the countryside looked like a Matisse painting.  We  had had two weeks of good rain after a brutal drought and the fields were covered with flowers.

While driving through small farm roads and stopping every 100 yards to take pictures, I thought of my friends Mark and Thien Gretchen. www.gretchenbeeranch.com .   I met the Gretchens two years ago while covering an assignment on beekeeping for SA Taste magazine.

Thien and Mark live in Seguin, TX  and are expert beekeepers.  Their honey is as pure as when it comes out of the hives.   As they simply put it:  “Nothing is added, nothing is taken away.”

Although beekeeping is their passion they are also committed to help replenish the bees that have disappeared from the area.  Mark gives presentations to children, fellow beekeepers, chefs and culinary experts.

Driving with the Gretchens  through their hives, I could not help but notice how good they are at spotting signs of blooming flowers everywhere.  They know bees’ favorites and what color pollen they will give.  In every road and every field, they are aware of colorful spots among the brown and green areas.   Always glad and relieved when they find nature is on their side.

That day in Floresville I thought about them and their bees.  I thought about the popular misconceptions among people about such an extraordinary insect.  And on that spring day in Floresville, I was glad those colorful fields, covered with flowers, belonged to them.

Floresville, TX

Floresville, TX