Bee happy if you enjoy honey
IAN STALKER
Maria Pina Canol is producing some of the very same food that her forefathers did, who in turn produced some of the same food that their ancestors did.
Pina Canol lives in the community of Tekit, a small, very visibly Indigenous community in the Mexican state of Yucatan, and much of Pina Canol’s days are spent in food production, with tourists invited to visit her retreat and be familiarized with the practices she uses to help feed people.
And among food produced in her setup is honey, with Pina Canol having dozens of wooden boxes, each of them filled with industrious melipona bees, which produce honey visiting tourists can buy.
Pina Canol, who lives on site, says her area has long been producing the sweet treat.
“All this is Maya knowledge,” she states of the method she uses to produce honey while referring to the civilization which flourished in much of southern Mexico and Central America, reaching its zenith about 1,200 years ago.
Pina Canol is also happy to identify the many flowers that can be seen in her setup and also name the different birds that may be spotted there as well.
And she also adds that she is far from being the first or the only person in the area to produce honey.
“Yucatan is known for producing honey,” she states.
Those wanting more information about visiting Tekit can visit cooxmayab.com or email [email protected].
