New honey building for forest preserve's old farm
Processing regulations are making DuPage County Forest Preserve officials refine honey the newfangled way at its old-fashioned farm.
The forest preserve district is breaking ground Saturday on its new honey refining building at its living history Kline Creek Farm. The new building will allow visitors to watch volunteers turn natural honeycombs into sweet, sticky goodness for sale at the farm's visitors center.
Currently, volunteers refine the honey much like they did in the 1890s, the time period the farm focuses on. However, new state health regulations require a more pristine setting for honey refining, officials said.
"They didn't want people doing this in their garages," said Keith McClow, education site manager at the farm. "Honey refining hasn't changed much in the last 100 years, so the equipment we use is pretty much the same with maybe the exception of some stainless steel pieces."
McClow said honey has generally been unregulated because the enzymes bees put in honey keep it from spoiling.
"So it's a very safe product to process," he said.
The farm houses about a dozen beehives in man-made boxes in the orchard. The hives can generate between 500 and 1,200 pounds of honey a year, McClow said. The farm keeps the bees to pollinate fruits and vegetables.
"The honey is just incidental," McClow said.
Forest preserve commissioners have approved $25,000 to be used as seed money for the building project. And Darien-based Wight & Co. is donating its architectural expertise to the project, said Andrea Hoyt, the district's director of planning. The rest of the funding hasn't been determined yet. The district will either hold fundraisers to complete the project, use residual funds leftover from other projects that came in under budget or a combination of both.
"The design will basically compliment the Timber Ridge Visitor's Center, which is an award-winning structure," Hoyt said. "It's designed to look like an accessory farm structure."
Kline Creek Farm is located off County Farm Road just north of Geneva Road between West Chicago and Winfield. Visitors will be able to watch the refining process through the new building's large windows, Hoyt said.
However, the bees won't be anywhere near the refinery building, McClow said.
"We try to take the honey off when the public's not around," he said.
Volunteer beekeepers spray smoke at bees when they take the honeycomb from the boxes to keep the insects from attacking them or following them to the refinery.
Hoyt said the building is being constructed so that it may be used for other purposes in the future. If all goes as planned, the building will be done by autumn.