Hopewell couple creating a buzz with Berries and Bees
Holly Tonini
Ron Swope looks over the Hopewell Township farm where he and his wife, Kathy, settled a year and a half ago following retirement.
Holly Tonini
Kathy and Ron Swope inside the honey house at Swope’s Berries & Bees in Hopewell Township
Holly Tonini/Observer-Reporter
Dormant now, the black raspberries at Swope’s farm will be ripe for “pick your own” and for farmers markets around July.
Holly Tonini/Observer-Reporter
The blueberry patch at the farm of Swope’s Berries & Bees.
Holly Tonini
Ron Swope, co-owner of Swope’s Berries & Bees, holds a frame of honey he has stored in the honey house at the farm. Bees “cap” the honey with a thin layer of wax once the comb is full and the honey reaches a moisture content of 18%.
Holly Tonini/Observer-Reporter
Apiaries at the Hopewell Township farm of Swope’s Berries & Bees
Grandchildren led to a grand plan by Ron and Kathy Swope.
The couple had retired from Penn State University, following lengthy administrative careers at the Mont Alto commonwealth campus. They have two sons – Craig and Matthew – and Craig resides in Canonsburg with his wife, Erin, their daughter Haley, and sons Byron and Blake. After living and working in south-central Pennsylvania most of their lives, the senior Swopes decided to relocate to Washington County – to be near the kids two generations removed.
A year and a half ago, Ron and Kathy purchased a rolling, 16-acre tract spread across two rural townships, mostly Hopewell and partly Mt. Pleasant. It had once been a farm and they decided to be farmers – as they had been decades earlier. For 15 years, they tended to berries, fruit trees and bees in Waynesboro, near the Maryland line, where both grew up.
Now they are agriculturists again. Kathy and Ron are the owners and operators of Swope’s Berries & Bees, a honey of a business in which they grow black raspberries and blueberries, and harvest, extract and bottle honey. They sell these products – along with lip balm, body lotion, honey caramels and honey sticks – at stores, farmers markets and festivals in the region.
Their endeavor, at first blush, appears to be seasonal, but it is year-round. And that pleases them. Ron and Kathy are opposed to sitting around.
“We retired and wanted to downsize, buy a property and raise berries,” said Ron, who was director of finance and business at PSU Mont Alto. “After working in development, I couldn’t see myself having nothing to do.”
They now have a post-career job that engages them all 12 months. Summer – when berries and outdoor events reign – is their busiest time, Ron said. But they tend to fruit much of the year, and honey is a year-round occupation.
Unlike many avian contemporaries, honeybees do not fly south for the winter. And, incredibly, they do stay warm during the winter.
Honeybees have one wintertime job, according to the website wonderopolis.org. It is to care for the queen. Worker bees “gather in a central area of the hive” and cluster around the queen, fluttering their wings and shivering. This motion and energy use enable the bees to “keep the inside temperature of the hive warm.”
Ron said that temperature in 92 degrees.
Outdoor temps don’t approach that in January, but 50 colonies of bees currently reside in four apiaries atop a hill on the Swope property, which offers a fabulous view of the multiple farms. But honey is only one reason there is a beehive of activity on this one acre.
Berries, which are currently dormant, grow near the apiaries. Family members pick them for sale during the season, although the public is allowed to visit and pick for a price. Standing next to the driveway that leads to this area stands the “honey house,” where, according to Ron, “it all happens.”
That would be the harvesting, extracting and bottling of honey. The Swopes sell three varieties, including creamed honey –with or without cinnamon. “It’s all raw – unfiltered and unpasteurized,” said Kathy, who was veterans affairs coordinator and administrative assistant for student affairs at Penn State Mont Alto.
The pollen in honey is touted for its ability to fend off allergies.
Ron said the couple started farming in 1975, before they were married, near Waynesboro, a modest drive from Gettysburg. At that time, he said there was a wholesale market of farmers who “needed bees to pollinate crops. Honey was a byproduct.”
The Swopes, whose other son lives in Florida, have had to work diligently at cultivating a customer base. They are still fairly new to this part of the state. Ron said they initially “beat on doors,” seeking local residents who might buy their wares. They began looking into farmers markets and signing on with many.
“Our customers have been very supportive,” Kathy said. “They let us know about local farmers markets and other places where we could sell honey.”
She and her spouse say they have adapted well, though. Retail-wise, they may not be the bees’ knees yet, but they are creating a buzz.