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RobyLane Kelley
Editorial Assistant
Pendleton Heights neighborhood hosted its annual Honey Harvest at its Community Orchard (Lexington and Montgall avenues) Saturday, Aug. 3 to celebrate community, growth and local businesses.
In conjunction with BeeKC, Pendleton Heights maintains four bee hives, which help pollinate the orchard and its surrounding area within Northeast Kansas City. Whitney Barnardo — a community garden and orchard steward for Pendleton Heights — said the inclusion of these bee hives has helped this orchard grow both as an ecosystem and a community.
“At first the orchard was just trees with grass. Then we started putting in pollinator plants and some native flowers that interested a subset of people on top of a subset of people that were interested in the fruit trees,” said Barnardo. “I think adding bees interests another group of people.”
These bees that live within the orchard are an Italian species of honeybee. While not native to Missouri, they help the orchard flourish and pollinate different plants than native honeybees.
“Honeybees create more greenery and create more opportunities for all the other pollinators as well. I think they can work in tandem, and I think that’s pretty essential right now,” said David Friesen, founder of BeeKC. “So what Whitney and the community’s done with this orchard is just amazing, and the bees are just a part of that. There are a few different species all over Europe. But the Italians are the most productive, but also the most gentle.”
While collecting the honey, Friesen said the beauty of beekeeping is encouraging the insects to continue their lives and work in a safe environment — “promoting excess.” These bees naturally produce honey and nectar as a part of their work to serve the hive. Beekeepers harvest the excess honey and — in communities like Pendleton Heights — sell it to give back to the garden. This creates its own cycle of life that benefits all community members big and small, human or insect.
The harvested honey was then cut and spun by community members — allowing an educational opportunity to learn about the production of honey. Attendees could purchase and decorate small or large jars for $5 or $20, respectively. Other tables set up included local food and drinks, artist Margarita Freidman hosted a craft tent for kids and Missouri Department of Conservation educated attendees about EpiPens. Roughly 100 neighbors came out to the orchard to celebrate this year’s work.
“The primary purpose is to celebrate. We’re doing a lot of hard work. We want to celebrate in the neighborhood. We’re frequently asking people to mow or pull weeds. So I think celebrating together is really nice in the neighborhood,” said Barnardo.
“People are working hard on their houses or they’re getting frustrated by maybe something that’s happening in the neighborhood. So getting people off of Facebook and social media and actually talking to each other in person helps further the overall neighborhood and community purpose.”
However, this education and community doesn’t start and stop with the honey harvest. Neighbors in Pendleton Heights are invited to come volunteer in the orchard and garden with Barnardo and other stewards. Scheduled work days in the orchard are on the third Saturday of every month from 10 a.m. to noon. Work days in the community garden — just south of PH Coffee on Brooklyn Ave. — include the first Saturday of the month from 10 a.m. to noon.
While Friesen said BeeKC is near capacity for hives they manage, additional neighborhoods in Historic Northeast wanting to form a community garden or orchard with bees have options. Friesen offers beekeeping workshops as a part of his non-profit work. While no classes are currently offered, Friesen said he posts workshops and hive check events to his instagram page at beekcmo. He suggests interested beekeepers talk to their community garden or orchard about setting up and managing hives.
Dorri Partain
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