08/21/2026
I have been told that I should post more personal stories, so our customers see us as actual people who happen to keep bees, and not some giant honey corporation trying to force sweet bee vomit upon the masses.
Yesterday, however, I was reminded why I'm not very good at that.
Yesterday, I dropped off Boy #3 at college.
Technically, he's Boy #2 - the second-born of the identical triplets - but I had already delivered the other two to New York earlier this week. Today's mission was the evacuation of the final fledgling from the hive.
The funny part is that he's attending my alma mater. I graduated a few years ago, so it's been an interesting exercise trying to determine what has changed, what has stayed the same, and what my aging brain is simply remembering incorrectly.
One thing has definitely changed: the dining hall.
Back in my day, the food was... technically food. We learned quickly to order omelets because the scrambled eggs sometimes appeared to have been assembled from a chemistry set. Lobster was served on Parent's Weekend, but otherwise was considered a mythical creature that students never actually saw in the wild.
But now? Multiple food stations. Freshly prepared meals. Nutrition information everywhere. Gluten-free, nut-free, locally sourced options.
And then I saw it.
A towering hydroponic garden growing right inside the dining hall.
Naturally, I cornered an employee and started asking questions.
"Do you serve this directly to the students?"
"We grow most of it in the back," she said. "This display is mostly for show. We harvest from it when we run out."
Now, a normal parent would have nodded politely and continued helping their child move into the dorm.
Instead, my brain went wild:
"That's basil. And parsley. And I think that is mustard greens?"
"I wonder if they'll show me the grow operation if I ask nicely?"
"If they are this locally sourced, do they need a beekeeper?"
And that's where I failed.
Because if I had actually used my outside voice with either question, this would be a wonderful business post about bees, pollination, sustainability, local food production, and how The Bee Folks are always looking for opportunities.
Instead, I got distracted by plants and forgot to mention bees entirely.
So I suppose this is your personal story for the week:
I dropped off my son at college, realized my children are growing up, and discovered that even when I'm trying to be sentimental, I'm still just a beekeeper wandering around looking for flowers and wondering where the hives should go.
Some habits die hard.
UMBC Dining
