They’ve got it waxed!
The lush Giba Gorge near Hillcrest in Kwazulu-Natal is home to two young bee farmers who, under the name Lulubee, are reviving the centuries-old tradition of using beeswax in skincare products and waxed-cotton food wraps.
Seven years ago, before Facebook surpassed wordof-mouth as an effective marketing tool, Lulu Edy-Roderick had to help inform the public about an introductory beekeeping workshop presented at Durban Botanic Gardens, where she works as an administrative assistant. No one knew if there would be any interest in this free information day on offer by bee farmer and artist Jenny Cullinan. But people from all over the province turned up in swarms – suited, veiled, gloved, ready.
These days, Lulu, who was first in line, refers to Apis mellifera scutellata as “role models” and “teachers”, and to herself as “forever an apprentice” who regards her Lulubee range of products as a way of paying tribute to “these lovely, fascinating, mindful creatures that work to die”.
When you listen to Lulu and her husband, Keith, a horticulturist, artist and drum-maker, talking on the back stoep of their house at the edge of Giba Gorge, you might at first be tempted to dismiss them as airy-fairy hippies. But then you’d also have to give the Aztecs and Egyptians the same treatment. After all, they are the ones who, centuries ago, recognised the health benefits of honey and beeswax, and experimented with a variety of infusions and balsams.
In 2014, Lulu was seriously trying to work out how she could combine her love of plants and bees. In time, she began to experiment with plant poultices, ointments and tinctures >
and, on daily walks with the dogs in the gorge, she would search for plants with various medicinal properties.
After reading more about these plants, she decided to try to extract the active ingredients by steeping the flowers, seeds and leaves in olive oil for anything between six weeks and three months.
Two years and countless experiments later, she had reduced the number of plants with enough active ingredients to six (see page 109) and had started to hand out testers of her first creams and ointments to friends, family and colleagues. Their feedback on everything from effectiveness to texture and fragrance combinations was used to improve her formulas and then she took the next big step: markets.
Over and above her skincare range, Lulu also makes reusable beeswax food wraps to use as a substitute for clingfilm. Over the past few years
Platteland has come across a number of these products at various markets, but the Lulubee version is in a class of its own. The wraps really do cling, and they seal tightly. Keith was so confident that he demonstrated this by wrapping one over a glass filled with water and turning it upside down – not a drop escaped.
As is the case with many small businesses, Lulu now finds herself in a sticky situation: she isn’t yet earning enough from Lulubee to leave her fulltime job at Durban Botanic Gardens, but because she spends almost every weekend at markets and has just launched her website and online store, too, at times she finds it difficult to replenish her supplies consistently.
Ultimately, she will resolve this by following the example of her “teachers”: “You must just be organised, work hard and remain calm. You should never work with bees if you are angry or upset or battling with an injury, and I also think women should stay away when they are menstruating. Working with bees is something you should do slowly, gently and mindfully. Just like life itself.”