Debbie Griffith
This is a story about Kim’s last jar of honey — the very last jar, at least for now.
Kim Gunter wanted to be a beekeeper and was fascinated by honeybees and their work to collect pollen and nectar and produce golden honey.
Gunter and her family own Mountain River Family Campground in Ingalls, on the banks of the North Toe River, shaded by trees and made vibrant by generations of families who camp there every summer and fall.
Last May, Gunter took the plunge into beekeeping by purchasing two small hives of bees and an electric fence to protect them from bears. Dressed in her hot pink beekeeper suit, she babied those bees, fed them sugar syrup, and made sure they were healthy.
The bees thrived. Fearless and obsessed with bees, she joined the local bee club, Toe Cane Beekeepers, so she could learn more. The club assigned her a mentor, and they helped her harvest five gallons of honey in August, a notable feat for a first-year beekeeper.
Then came Hurricane Helene.
The campground buildings, including Gunter’s unsold jars of honey and her two hives, were washed away by Helene’s flooding. The big oaks, alders and willows along the riverbank uprooted and tumbled downstream.
Buildings floated off their foundations and crumbled into the muddy river. Cars, campers, storage buildings and a huge metal shipping container surged downstream, over the high-water bridge on the North Toe River, leaving their remains on the bridge and miles down the river.
To no avail, the family picked through the debris piles to see if the bees had miraculously survived. Gunter says she thinks they did survive because she feels a lingering connection and love for them.
Although the campground that was their home and livelihood was destroyed, Gunter’s husband Mike and her daughter and son-in-law, Suzanne and Jared Garland, are safe. Over the past two months they have worked to help others recover from the flood, and they are determined to rebuild the campground with lots of help from all over. Gunter hopes to keep bees again.
Some would say this is a very sad story, but it’s not entirely: Gunter’s last jar of honey survived because two days before the flood she entered it in the bee club’s Mayland Black Jar Honey Contest, which will be held today (Wednesday) at Homeplace Beer Company in Burnsville.
After the best tasting honey is chosen from among the entries, Gunter’s last jar of honey will be offered to bidders in the Silent Auction. Proceeds will be used to help other beekeepers recover and rebuild.
Many of Gunter’s fellow beekeepers also will have honey in the contest and extra jars in the auction. The public is invited to come and taste all the different flavors of honey produced in Mitchell, Avery and Yancey counties.
It’s free to taste, and for a $10 donation, folks can be an official judge and vote for the honey they believe tastes the best.
Will Gunter’s honey be the winner? Come to the contest on Dec. 11, and find out. Voting for a favorite sample will help beekeepers continue to help bees.