Museum bees produce Arkansas’ ‘Food of the Year’ in downtown Little Rock
LITTLE ROCK, Ark. – Every year, the Arkansas Food Hall of Fame picks a Food of the Year to celebrate, and this year, Olympians aren’t the only ones going for gold.
Honey is the focus, and it might be surprising to learn where, exactly, you can find it.
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If you buzz by downtown Little Rock’s Historic Arkansas Museum, you’ll find everything Arkansas-made. Their gift shop is full of crafts, home goods and handmade items from across the state, including one item made by Arkansas’ state insect and the newly crowned Food of the Year: honey.
“Every year we have a Food of the Year and of course, we want to have a food item that is native to Arkansas,” Marty Ryall, director of the Division of Arkansas Heritage, said. “Arkansas is a big producer of honey.”
But besides being a Natural State-created item, honey and the bees who make it fit right at home at the museum. Literally.
“The bees were in the walls of the stairwell going up to the rooftop,” Historic Arkansas Museum Executive Director Stephanie Wade said.
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The bees were found a few years ago and moved to their own hive on the roof of the building; relocated by Lauren Anderson with Calm + Confidence Beekeeping.
Anderson now steps in once a month to check on the bees, educating museum staff about the insects and helping to collect honey a few times a year, which is then jarred and sold in the museum’s gift shop and given out to the community.
She also helps to educate the community on the buzzing pollinators, using the unique platform of the museum to advocate for the hard workers.
“Because there’s so many pollinator plants in this area and the museum does a good job to support the local gardeners,” Anderson said, “this is a very happy hive that has been producing a lot of honey over the years.”
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The Historic Arkansas Museum has a lot more on their bees and the hive and have fully integrated the colony into their exhibits. To visit and pick up a jar of honey straight from the museum bees themselves, you can visit during museum hours.
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