Oswald Rossi knows agriculture from different angles. After completing training as an agricultural technician, the farmer's son worked in the Supervision Authority for Agriculture of the Province of Bolzano. Today he works at the Research Centre Laimburg and deals with apple storage and post-harvest biology.
Besides his job, he’s starting out professionally as an organic beekeeper. And here is a simplified outline of what makes delicious and nutritious, organic honey:
- Food reserves for the bees: the beekeeper leaves more honey in the hive as emergency rations for a period of bad weather
- Organic feed: the bees are only given organic food in winter, or in an emergency, e.g. dissolved organic sugar or a paste made from organic sugar
- No synthetic medicines: in case of illness, the bees are not treated with synthetic medicines
- Free combs: the beekeeper leaves part of the combs completely free so that the bees can build unhindered
- Middle walls from the bees' own wax: the beekeeper builds middle walls for part of the combs from the bees' own organic wax
- Wood: the colonies live in hives made of natural wooden frames
- Organic paints: the wooden frames are painted only with organic paints
- Self-sufficiency: the aim is to keep the colonies with as few extra costs as possible
- Traces: laboratory tests confirm the honey does not exceed any of the very low trace levels (e.g. pesticides) permitted in organic cultivation
Except for the residues, Oswald cover everything himself. If the laboratory test complies with the organic rules, the honey jars from the Oswald Rossi apiary bear the organic seal, otherwise they do not.
Bees are active from just 10 degrees. To give them as much flight time as possible, Oswald moves the bees within South Tyrol and Trentino. His hundred colonies of bees pollinate the apple trees in the South Tyrolean lowlands in spring and then search for apple and dandelion blossoms at over 1,000 metres above sea level.
A little later, he takes them to the nearby Valsugana to the acacia forests. The bees continue in the South Tyrolean forests with spruce, fir, lime and chestnut trees. Sometimes Oswald still takes the bees to the alpine pastures and the alpine roses. But one thing did not change since Oswald’s grandfather was the beekeeper: forest honey is everyone’s favourite.
The Gala variety is ripening in his apple meadows and Oswald is currently looking for an apple orchard for another variety: "If I find the right meadow, I will plant Natyra.® The aromatic variety tastes good to me." The scab-resistant variety needs fewer pesticide treatments, the pesticides do not harm the bees and the variety lasts in storage. Ideal for beekeeper Oswald, and storage technician Oswald. However, it is a great challenge for organic farmer Oswald, because Natyra® is delightful on the palate but difficult to grow.
