The honey of Amielh's beehives, in Tresques

SWEET MEETING IN TRESQUES

Hello Catherine,

Welcome to the Terroir section of the blog,

Can you tell us about your career before you became a beekeeper?

I switched to beekeeping in 2009, the year I qualified as a farmer. I've been farming since 2010, and I owe my passion for bees to a neighbour who owned a couple of hives when I was a child.

Before devoting myself to beekeeping, I worked as a senior research and development technician at Cisbio (Marcoule). But my name... predestined me for a new career as miel means honey in French! After quitting my job, I took a training course at the CFAA in Rodilhan and with a passionate and... fascinating beekeeper, Michel Tardieu.

All in all, a year totally devoted to the world of bees and a farming diploma with a beekeeping option.

Little by little, I set up my own business, moving from hive to hive. A new professional project always requires a lot of personal commitment, so I threw myself into this adventure with energy and determination.

How many hives do you have?

Year in, year out, I have a good hundred hives. Sometimes I also work on a new swarm. I use the ‘re-brood’ technique, which is my favourite. A month later, the new queens are born, fertilised and start laying their eggs.

Do you use transhumance?

Yes, of course, I move my hives from one place to another depending on the season: Cévennes, garrigue, around Pont-Saint-Esprit too, for the lavender honey. My bees can also be found on the borders of the Drôme and Isère regions, as well as in the Haute-Loire and Meurthe et Moselle regions, in the meadows around Nancy. This adds to the variety of my honeys.

What honeys and products do you have?

At the moment, I have lavender, flower, acacia, garrigue, chestnut and arbutus honeys and, depending of the year, fir and heather honey. I also offer a number of specialities, such as saffron honey and almond honey, as well as gingerbread and nougat, which won a gold medal at the Militant du Goût 2021 competition, and 'caramiel' (toffee with honey, delicious!), which won the Gard Gourmand prize and a bronze medal. To do this, I took another delicious course in sugar processing!

Although I took a course to make soap in 2021, I preferred to work with a local artisan soap-maker to whom I give honey and propolis. A partnership with a thousand scents.

Many thanks to Catherine Amielh for her warm welcome and collaboration on this article.

The right address: 332 chemin de Bernon, 30330, Tresques. Contact: lesruchesamiel@gmail.com, Tel: 06 21 81 18 08.

Find Les ruches Amielh on Facebook, at the markets in Bagnols on Wednesdays and Laudun on Sunday mornings, and at the Provence Occitane Tourist Office, La Cazerne, 70 boulevard Gaston Doumergue, Pont-Saint-Esprit. In Connaux, at Le Bernon restaurant and Chez la Mère Michel grocery shop, and in Uzès, at Les Dandys Dodus delicatessen.