I found my mecca

I met up with my friend Gina yesterday for coffee and she surprised me with the coolest gift ever! I had mentioned to my friends and family that I did not want gifts this Christmas, and that instead, I wanted them to make donations instead of buying me a gift.  She bought a donation of honeybees in my name as a gift to rural farmers in need via Oxfam International. The gift is honeybees plus training of beekeeping methods so the farmers can make money from raising bees, harvesting honey and selling it. I just love this gift, because the donation goes directly to help a family in need instead of some charity where you don't know where the money goes. The program teaches the families how to sustain themselves with a farming practice like beekeeping, rather than just give them money, show them how to make money. Here is more info about Oxfam donation gifts, where there are so many amazing things you can donate like gardening tools, a cow, a pig, a garden, and a goat.

On my way home, I saw for the first time a store called Tea and Honey near my neighborhood where they sold tea and honey from around the world. I absolutely loved their  honeycomb style shelves.

One of the coolest parts of this store is that you can taste all the honeys in the store before you buy it. I was so excited! All the honeys were different shades of golden yellow, to ambers, and dark browns. They all had their own unique taste as well.

I ended up buying a jar called Rata honey from New Zealand. I just loved the light taste of this honey. I told my friend Paul who is one of my beekeeping partners and is from New Zealand. He told me this Rata tree is known as New Zealand's Christmas tree, how appropriate that I picked this honey since Christmas is in 9 days! I just loved the bright red flower it has. I can't wait to try this in my tea! Yum.