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Greenbelt Alliance In the News
August 20, 2007
AmCan farm offers
glimpse of 'sweet life'
Sarah Rohrs
With houses popping up like spring flowers and cars zooming
back and forth on Highway 29, the only thing buzzing at Marshall's Farm are
tens of thousands of bees.
The Flying Bee Ranch on Lombard Road remains a sweet oasis in burgeoning American
Canyon. The new Wal-Mart is about to open across the highway, and thousands
of new houses and a sports complex are planned for the surrounding hills.
Greenbelt Alliance picked Marshall's Farm to stage an urban outing Sunday to
focus public awareness on rapidly dwindling areas of open space, and to show
people where their food comes from, said organization spokeswoman Elizabeth
Stampe. About 20 people attended.
Marshall's Farm produces about 80,000 pounds of honey each year from roughly
650 hives spread throughout 100 Bay Area locations. Natural, raw, unheated
and unfiltered, the honey is sold to restaurants, over the Internet and at
farmers markets.
Helene and Spencer Marshall bought the American Canyon site in 1999 after maintaining
man-made hives on the roof of their Marin County house.
Behind the scenes of the calm, natural setting are bees working furiously inside
their hives. They fly off occasionally to gather nectar from star thistle and
other flowers growing in the surrounding hills.
A highlight of Sunday's tour was watching honeymaker extraordinaire Spencer
Marshall examine the inner workings of one of many man-made honey hives around
the property.
As Spencer searched for the queen without any protective gear on his head or
hands, he patiently answered questions and never let on that the bees were
stinging him. "They just want to work. That's their thing," said
Marshall, who has been a beekeeper for more than 40 years.
Inside each hive are about eight man-made frame upon which the bees work. Each
frame contains a plastic "starter" wall to encourage the bees to
build orderly honeycombs, which they fill with honey, a combination of nectar,
enzymes and other properties.
As the honey gets gooey, the bees seal off each cell with wax.
To produce a rich assortment of honeys, the Marshalls take their hives to a
wide assortment of Bay Area spots, from foggy West Marin to downtown San Francisco.
Some honeys are light and pale, others are dark and heav
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