Honey is like a taste of heaven for Vermont priest who is beekeeper

Published: 2007-05-22

WEST RUTLAND, Vt. (CNS) -- When Father Adam Krempa sits down for a light meal, he enjoys a bowl of cottage cheese drizzled with honey, seeded rye bread lightly toasted with butter not margarine and a cup of coffee with a heaping teaspoon of honey. "It's like dying and having lunch with the Lord," said the pastor of St. Raphael Church in Poultney. It's not the toast or even the butter that makes the meal special; it's the honey. For 40 years Father Krempa has been keeping bees at his family homestead on Valley View Lane in West Rutland, and the honey they produce and he processes and sells is pure. He also likes honey drizzled on his cornflakes, oatmeal or Cream of Wheat cereal. "You know you're living" when you taste the honey, he told The Vermont Catholic Tribune, newspaper of the Burlington Diocese. Father Krempa has five hives on the south side of his two-car garage, protected from the strong winter winds that sweep across the hillside property. "This is where I find my relaxation," he said, noting that he often sits in the yard and watches the bees busily flying to and from the hives. "It's God's creation."

Copyright (c) 2007 Catholic News Service /U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops. The CNS news report may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or otherwise distributed, including but not limited to such means as framing or any other digital copying or distribution method, in whole or in part without the prior written authority of Catholic News Service .