July,2014

VOLUME 2-14 AUGUST SEPTEMBER, 2014 HTTP://WWW.CASADEMONTANA.COM/

Rare Isthmus Honey

is 2 years old. It was

inspired by my

tasting honeys given

to me by a local

beekeeper. Although

I knew little about

honey, I realized it was something

special.

This was the inspiration for an

experimental year with the beekeeper to

see if there was any interest more broadly

in the concept.

We now have three different licenses to

sell honey. We can retail creamed honey,

honeycomb as well as liquid honey. As far

as we know we are the only company in

Panama with licenses for cream and comb

honey.

The range of flavors, colors and textures

continued to fascinate us and we used the

2013 harvest to start experimenting.

Working with Chef Patricia Miranda in

Volcan to develop dishes for the honey.

Patricia has great passion for sustainable

food and healthy creative gastronomy.

The honeys show case her creativity and

passion for using unique local ingredients

and allows us to demonstrate the gourmet

potential of so many varied flavors.

Over the past 12

months, I started

to expand the

colonies out in the

field and with the

help and support of

some great friends

had an excellent

harvest last year. It takes a brave sort of

friend to let you keep Africanized bees on

their farms. Without them, I could not

have got the momentum we have now.

As the number of colonies expanded and

we started to train and bring on our

Indigenous workers into the bee business.

The Indigenous are outstanding out in the

field. They understand plants, see snakes

before I do and can carry some very heavy

equipment, and never complain about

being stung. In the plant, I also have the

help of a wonderful Indigenous lady who

is also completely un-phased by the hard

grueling work of spinning honey, getting

sticky from head to toe and stung on her

fingers as she picks up the frames.

We also received helpful support from

MIDA (the Ministry of Agriculture) in

David. Erick Delgado, who is head of

Apiculture in David, has enabled me to

register apiaries and is always available

and willing to help. Other beekeepers too

have come to the rescue on a more than

a few occasions. One of our landowners

got into the Indigenous bees on his farm

and donated the hives on the tour. The

daughter of the first beekeeper in

Panama kindly donated her father’s

smoker, which is a real historical

treasure, and sits in the honey house.

The support and help has been quite

overwhelming.

As I started to take on the field work of

working the bees out in the Apiaries, I

started to realize that not only is the

honey here varied, but it is also highly

medicinal. I was noticing that our bees

were much healthier than the bees I kept

in the USA. Out in the field it is striking

to see the choice of food that our bees

have. There is a culture of medicinal

honey in Central America that dates back

Let’s talk about the birds and the bees Excerpts from Emily Haworth’s website

Boquete, Panama

USA 952-931-9770

PA 507-730-9472

Email: http://www.casademontana.com/contact-us/

www.boquetebees.com

to the Mayan period. Many of the plants

here in the sub-tropics and tropics are

medicinal, we may not know what they all

are but the bees do! They have a real

choice of fodder here and the resulting

honey is highly bioactive.

Honey production in Panama is very

superior to most parts of the developed

world and more reminiscent of how bees

have been working for thousands of years.

In most of Europe and North America bees

are used to pollinate vast crops where

they have no choice in what they eat. The

resulting honey is far less healthy and the

bees too suffer. Here bees can select the

best nectars and feed from the medicinal

plants. They forage for optimal nutrition

which benefits them and benefits the

quality for the consumer as well.

We recently sent some of our honeys to a

laboratory that tests Bioactivity in the

UK. All came back with significant

bioactivity and several exceptional levels.

We continue to do this testing on honeys.

We aim to produce a very high quality and

healthy product.

And there was more. As we got

interested in the culture and history of

honey we learned that Central America

has a tradition of keeping the indigenous

stingless bees in fact it is one of the oldest

agricultural traditions in the world and it

is dying out. We started playing with the

indigenous bees and found that the

pollination impact on our coffee and

other fruit trees on the finca (farm) was

very profound.

As the rains started in Boquete, and our

harvest was all in, it was a good time for

reflection. I had had one of the most

interesting years of my life and

discovered many things about bees and

honey that I thought would be of great

interest to more people. I had learned

things that are important for our health

and for our environment and found

something I was truly passionate about

and in turn wanted to share.

We want to teach people about the

importance of bees and the uniqueness in

terms of the enormous range and

medicinal value of this very special

Panamanian product. We also want be

able to employ more of our Indigenous

workers in the tourism industry working

with a natural product that intrinsically

they understand very well being more in

tune with nature and plants than most.

To date, our main customers and most

important buyers are well established

Panamanians, who value a uniquely

Panamanian quality product. We have

had mentions in La Prensa, food

magazines and Panama 980. We do sell in

the Tuesday market as well and serve the

local community through selling in Mort’s

bakery as well as a limited line in Sugar

and Spice. We sell to some other gourmet

stores and food box type businesses in

Bocas and the City and send out personal

orders frequently using courier services.

We now offer a tour of our finca (farm)

along with honey tasting. This tour needs

to be set up 24 hours in advance so talk to

Andres, Terry or Manzar at Casa de

Montaña to book your tour. Or you can

reach us at:

Are you interested in bird watching? The regions of Boquete and other regions of Panama have unique birds. These birds have spectacular colors for example, birds like Tucan and Quetzal. Michael Mullin lives in Boquete Panama and has developed a Birding App for both iPhone/iPad/etc and Android. You can download this app at the following link:

http://birdingfieldguides.com/panama.html

Emily Catherine Haworth

Email: emilychaworth@gmail.co

m

Twitter: @EmilyBoquete

Web: www.boquetebees.com

Phone: 67130043

25% off of your entire stay

Specials

Offer valid through October

UPCOMING EVENTS

August

Centennial of Panama Canal

August 15

International Book Fair – Panama City

13 to 23 of August

Place: Atlapa

September

National Festival of “La Mejorana”

23 to 29 of September

Upcoming events 2015:

Boquete coffee and flower fair

(Second week of January)

Boquete Jazz Festival

(First week of February)

November

November 3rd Independence of Panama from Colombia

November 4th Flag Day

Did you know…?

That we have memory foam mattresses

That we offer an International Breakfast

That we have onsite Massage Available

All this available at: http://www.casademontana.com

Our Team needs a break to be fresh for your stay starting in

October. We are taking a break the entire month of

September

I have studied in

Panama and in the

US and in my

personal experience

both are similar in

education. Panama

is continually

improving its education system,

and a person graduating from

Panama schools will have the

same knowledge as a person

graduating from another country.

Of course you and your child’s

efforts are a key piece in the

future of your child and his or her

development. I am writing this

article so that anyone interested

in moving to Boquete area with

their children has an idea about

what choices are available to

them for their child’s education.

The Panamanian education

system is divided in two levels

which are universal, free and

mandatory. The Panamanian

government funds the public

schools and continues to invest in

research related to improving

delivery of public education as

well as building and maintenance

of school buildings. There are

plenty

of public schools around

Panama, places where it is hard

to get access to, all the

indigenous

Regions, cities and more. For

example if you are traveling to

Panama and decide that you

want to visit the indigenous

regions, you will see a lot of

indigenous kids are really into

their classes wanting to have

good education. Schools in rural

areas are much more basic.

Depending upon the number of

children they may be just one

room where often the numbers of

children in each class can be

high. It is hard to get teachers to

work in remote areas as the

facilities are not the greatest.

There are many volunteer

opportunities for teachers in this

area. An increasing trend among

expats who are living outside the

main cities is to home school their

children. On the other hand,

better option for your kids if you

come from another country.

Private schools are all starting to

provide bilingual education

(Spanish & English) with a well

prepared curriculum. There are

four private schools in Boquete

and a few public schools. Part of

this brand new school in Boquete

is opened with over 400

registered students.

Panama Education System: Does it prepare you for College or University? A spotlight on Boquete

http://www.aib.edu.pa/web/

By Eliecer Andres Lay

Video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3rp-KNzqGcg

Watch this video

There are two levels of education in Panama:

Primary education includes:

Pre-school with two levels: pre-

kindergarten and kindergarten. This is

the only level where attendance is not

compulsory.

Primary or Elementary School: This

level lasts for six years.

Secondary School: Ends after three

years with a school-leaving

certificate.

High school: Lasts three years. At the

end of high school students receive a

diploma (Diploma de Bachiller) with a

specialty (sciences, literature,

business, technology, or agriculture

and livestock).

Secondary or university education

The academic year of public Panamanian

schools and universities begin during the last

days of February and finishes at the end of

December. Most private schools also follow this

calendar, however, it is possible to find international

schools that follow the Northern calendar

(September-June school year).

From an article in Panama Education and Schools

Education in Panama was elitist until the USA took

over the Panama Canal and began to influence

matters. The policy prior to this was to offer the best

education to those in the higher classes of society.

Education became progressive under the

US influence and numbers of children enrolling in

primary school by the mid-1930s doubled. Levels of

illiteracy among adults had been very high but

dropped to below 50% in less than 10 years, dropping

to less than 28% by the mid-1950s and levels are now

less than 8%.

In secondary schools children are taught science,

math, different languages and social studies for their

compulsory years. In recent years, technology

subjects have begun to be taught. Extra-curricular

subjects at most schools range from languages to

sports, with crafts and dance very popular too.

Government-run schools also follow a very similar

syllabus for all subjects, so that the standards of

education across the country can be monitored. A

number of bilingual schools are now in existence in

areas where the expat presence is high and there are

schools where children can be taught through the

mediums of French, English, Italian and Chinese, as

well as Spanish.

Panama has several ‘Special Education’ schools for

those children who have special needs. The cost of

private education varies, depending upon the school

and the location, but it can be around $6000 per year

or more.

There are both American and British International

Schools located in Panama City. The Balboa Academy

(in the Clayton district), the Oxford International

School (central Panama City) and the Crossroads

Christian Academy (the Curundu district) all follow a

standard US syllabus. The Oxford School, which can

be found in the Edison Park area offers a British

syllabus and an international examinations program.

This gives children of expats the chance to earn

qualifications which are widely accepted.

In their home country if they intend to go to

university there

Finca dos Jefes is located in the highlands of Boquete, Panama and is proudly owned by Richard and Dee Lipner, formerly of Berkeley, California.

Richard and Dee purchased the farm in April of 2003. It had been abandoned as a working farm because of the low coffee prices during the 1990s. At that time, small farmers could not continue to farm and distribute to the global market.

The farm, originally planted in 1986, needed a great deal of work to bring it back to production quality. Once soil analysis was completed, appropriate and approved certified organic inputs

were added to the soil. The fertilizer process started with guayanasa, chicken manure and various nutrients to strengthen and increase the growth of the coffee cherries.

Finca dos Jefes continues with the traditional, hand processing of the beans as they are peeled with mortar and pestle. Finally, the green beans are ready for the perfect roast.

Coffee Tour

www.boquetecoffeetour.com

Richard will personally pick you up from Casa de Montaña and has either a 9 AM or 2 PM tour that lasts 3.5 hours. Casa de Montaña can help you set up the tour.

Excerpt from Fincas Dos Jefes Website

Excerpt from Bid4Boquete Website:

Bid 4 Boquete is an all-volunteer fund raising organization which supports charitable and civic organizations in Boquete, Panama. Organizations supported by proceeds from Bid 4 Boquete events include those providing assistance to the handicapped, elderly, and infirm; those that feed the desperately hungry; and those that promote health, literacy, education, community security, and control of the animal population within Boquete and its environs.

The organization which supports a number of local charities and civic organizations needs your help. Bid4Boquete runs on a steady supply of donations. About 80 percent of the funds raised each year come from your donations which, in turn, are then resold or auctioned.

The success of this year’s drive depends on everyone contacting previous, as well as, new donors to ask for their support. It is vital that we build the base of donors if we are to continue to provide the necessary funds to groups and organizations who make daily living so much better for so many. What can you do? You can contact everyone you know who might be able to provide goods and services, or clothes and artwork etc. In the past, people have offered everything from resort stays to pet care, to so much more. Maybe you can teach cooking or horseback riding or party planning? The point is to get as many donations as possible so Bid4Boquete can continue its vital work in our community.

Local Businesses

by [Article Author]

Casa de Montaña donated a 2 night stay last year and this year we have donated Breakfast for 2 and a Romantic Dinner for 2.

http://www.bid4boquete.com/

25% O F F

I N C T O B E R