Students participate in annual honey extraction
Rabun Gap-Nacoochee School held its annual honey extraction was this past Monday, August 27. Students from all three divisions were able to make the trip up to one of the campus barns to participate in extracting honey from local hives.
Rabun Gap-Nacoochee School held its annual honey extraction was this past Monday, August 27. Students from all three divisions were able to make the trip up to one of the campus barns to participate in extracting honey from local hives.
Looks of wonder and delight were on students’ faces as they saw how the honeycombs are opened and then spun, causing the honey to pool and pour out of the spout, where it was then filtered and collected in large buckets. While watching this, Mr. Woody Malot and Mr. Paul Vonk, a local beekeeper and parent of a RGNS alum, taught the students about honeybees and how they produce honey. Some students were even able to taste some of the honey from the honeycombs.
Mr. Malot, Mr. Vonk and the students harvested between 300 and 350 pounds of honey, 60 pounds of which were from RGNS hives. The rest of the honey extracted on Monday came from hives in Athens, GA. In total, 240 pounds from the RGNS hives have been harvested this summer between an extraction with Camp Master Chef and the annual honey extraction this week.
After visiting the barn, the students then met with Upper School biology teacher Ms. Amy Jenkins to learn about the environmental importance of bees and to taste the differences between clover, tupelo and orange blossom honey, as honey has a slightly different taste and color depending on the flowers that bees have visited. Ms. Jenkins had some live bees for students to study and microscopes available for viewing pollen and bees at their various life stages: larvae, pupae and adults.
The honey extraction is a fun, hands on learning experience that helps to make Rabun Gap such a unique school.
The honey will be available for purchase in about 2 weeks for $10 per one pound jar; both light and dark honey will be available this year. The proceeds of the honey sales will go to the Environmental Stewardship Program to help with the projects that they do around campus like the solar cell phone charging station, the orchard and thornless blackberries, water bottle filling stations, etc. Mr. Malot will notify the community via email with a link to the order form. Deliveries will be made to the Middle School and Lower School, while Upper School students will need to purchase directly from Mr. Malot.
Rabun Gap-Nacoochee School
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Rabun Gap-Nacoochee School is a private, coeducational day and boarding school for grades Pre-K through 12. Centrally located between Atlanta, GA, Greenville, SC, and Asheville, NC, we prepare young people for college, career, and a lifetime of leadership and service.
