Five generations and millions of bees
It’s not known when Anna Saluste, who was born in the mid 19th century, brought the first beehives to her farm. By now however, it’s been over a hundred years since this small apiary of Tamme farm in Vedra village of Lääne county has housed bees.
The soil here, formed on slabs of limestone, has never been very fertile, so the apiary has fed the family and others over five generations.
When I was a kid, beehives in our back garden were as natural as anything. It seemed as if the buzzing bees had always been there.
So in 2012 standing at a crossroads in life and next to my elderly grandmother, looking at an open beehive, I said yes to her question “Maybe you could take care of all of this?”.
I had just had my first try harvesting and spinning honey, as well as preparing for hibernation with three beehives. In the end it might have been those three hives that brought my own family to the Tamme farm.