GU students offer village a sweet treat

They went to Zambia last spring expecting to teach English, expecting culture shock and hoping to help.

What they found in the remote village of Zambezi was a sweet combination of all three.

Students in Gonzaga University’s Comprehensive Leadership Program spent four weeks in the small sub-Saharan village on the Zambezi River in May and June. Part of their mission was to help villagers of all ages with English literacy, but AJ Treleven says they were surprised by what some people wanted to talk about.

“A lot of them were practicing their English by talking about the problems they were having selling their honey,” he says.

Beekeeping is a traditional way of life for many in the Miombo forests of the northwestern province of Zambia. Bees gather pollen from the tree blossoms in the virgin forests in the Southern Africa country where farmers place traditional bark hives in treetops, hoping that a bee colony will make it their home. Most farmers know of 20 to 30 potential hive locations, which they visit once every year or two. The Lunda tribe of Zambia has been collecting honey this way for more than 500 years.

The Gonzaga students on the trip had already discovered the honey, Anna Casciari says. It was the only sweetener available where most of the food is grown or gathered locally, and they were using it on everything from breakfast to dessert.

“We loved it, so we thought we might be able to market it at home,” Casciari says.

So the students began talking with each other and their professor, Josh Armstrong, about what it would take to import the organic forest honey. They also met with local bee farmers, and members of the local government and Zambezi Parish to talk about ways to provide a sustainable market for fair-trade organic forest honey in the United States. They quickly realized that it was going to take a lot of time and money to get things started.

They initially thought it might take two years to find a supply chain for the African honey, get the local beekeepers trained and certified in organic standards and find a place to have it bottled and labeled.

When they returned from Africa, they agreed to keep working on the project. Later in the summer, Armstrong made a discovery that gave the group and their honey project a boost.

“I was on vacation on Bainbridge Island, and I just stumbled onto it,” Armstrong says.

Reading the label on a small honey jar, he found Zam-Bee-A Honey Inc., a company started by a couple who are former Peace Corps volunteers. The company was already importing and selling honey from the country, and the students found it was willing to let them use its supply chain, and bottle honey and label it for them.

Less than a year later, the Gonzaga students are selling jars of the intensely fragrant, dark amber-colored honey. The 12-ounce jars are $10 each, which is what most Zambians earn each month.

Of the $10 price tag, $4.50 will be returned to the Zambian village in the form of low-interest loans, health-care grants and school scholarships. The beekeepers are paid a fair-trade price for their honey.

The Zambia Gold raw honey is harvested by more than 5,000 organic farmers in the forests of Zambia, which cover some 11,000 square miles. Trained beekeepers – those who have been given free information on sustainable farming and forestry – can double their monthly income to $20.

Sophomores Casciari and Treleven will return to Zambezi this year as part of Gonzaga’s Comprehensive Leadership Program. They’ll be joined by Bobby Vancleve, also a sophomore, who is also helping with the honey project.

They’ll help set up a computer literacy center in the small community and work with local beekeepers to get them certified as organic so they can begin selling honey through Zam-Bee-A Honey. They’ll also have a chance to visit the forests where the nectar is gathered and talk to beekeepers.

Other students will be teaching English and working on a water project as well.

A grant from Gonzaga helped the students pay for some of the initial start-up costs of the honey business, Armstrong says. Another grant from the Murdoch Trust will allow them to send another student, who will make a documentary about the traditional way of life of the beekeepers.

Casciari, Treleven, Armstrong and Vancleve are looking forward to having something new to talk about with the Zambezi English students this summer.

“To have our students involved in something that is this meaningful is just wonderful,” Armstrong says.

Here’s a recipe from cards the students are handing out while they’re selling honey on campus:

Honey Gingerbread

1/4 pound (1/2 cup) butter, room temperature

1/2 cup sugar

2 eggs

3/4 cup honey

1 1/2 tablespoons minced fresh ginger

3/4 cup boiling water

2 1/4 cups flour

1/2 teaspoon salt

2 teaspoons baking soda

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Lightly butter and flour a 9-inch square pan.

Beat butter and sugar until fluffy. Add eggs and beat well. Add honey, ginger and the boiling water. Blend well.

Separately combine flour, salt and baking soda. Add to the honey mixture and stir well. Pour into prepared pan. Bake for 35 to 40 minutes.

Glaze (optional): Combine powdered sugar, a few drops of hot water and finely chopped candied ginger. Slowly add drops of hot water to powdered sugar until a thin glaze forms. Pour over cooled gingerbread and sprinkle with candied ginger. Serve warm or at room temperature.

Yield: 12 servings

Approximate nutrition per serving: 262 calories, 9 grams fat (5 grams saturated, 29 percent fat calories), 4 grams protein, 44 grams carbohydrate, 56 milligrams cholesterol, less than 1 gram dietary fiber, 397 milligrams sodium.