Welcome to this special episode of Feel Slovenia the Podcast celebrating World Bee Day. May 20 is a day dedicated to celebrating the wonders of the bee, an absolutely critical animal to the planet’s ecosystem. Without bees, our flora could not exist—three-quarters of all food crops depend on pollination—and so the bees need to get the credit they deserve.
For this reason, the United Nations declared World Bee Day in December 2017 — and this was originally a Slovenian initiative. Slovenes have the most beekeepers per capita in the world, and we’ll hear from several of them in today’s episode. My guests include Lucie Grace, a British journalist who visited Slovenia to write a feature on its apiculture traditions. Mateja Reš runs the Garden of Tastes, a homestead garden near idyllic Lake Bled where she grows all manner of produce and leads workshops on cooking, gardening and more, all happily supported by bees. Dr Peter Kozmus is one of Slovenia’s leading beekeepers, and leads the breeding program for the Carniolan Gray Honey Bee as part of the Slovenian Beekeeper’s Association. He gives talks around the world and authored the books Beekeeping for Everyone and Bumble Bees in Slovenia. And Gorazd Trušnovec, who was the first urban beekeeper in Slovenia, and now oversees hives at 12 locations on the roofs of buildings in Ljubljana.
Let’s take a look at what all the buzz is about!
For more inspiration, check out the following bee-related contents:
Feel Slovenia the Podcast is brought to you by the Slovenian Tourist Board and hosted by Dr Noah Charney.
Sound Production: Urska Charney
For more inspirational content, check out www.slovenia.info and our social media channels, including Instagram, Facebook, YouTube, Twitter, Pinterest, LinkedIn and Tripadvisor.