Name: Larry Mardis
Hometown: Ripley, Mississippi
What brought you to the area? Attended school in Tippah County.
How did you get started in agriculture? I grew up on a farm–cotton/corn, and raised animals–hogs, cows.
What is a typical work day like? Every day is different. There is always something to do when you are keeping bees. Some days, I make bee hives and put foundation in frames. Other days, I check the hives to determine their health and honey production. It takes several days to extract honey from the hives. Selling honey two mornings a week at the Oxford Mid-Town Farmers’ Market.
What do you do on a rainy day? Put bee hives together.
What’s the best thing about working on your apiary? I’m my own boss. I enjoy working bees. Having an insect produce a valuable product (honey) is fun. Not many people can say that.
What are you most proud of this year so far? Starting several new bee hives.
What are you most looking forward to this season? Finding out how much honey the bee hives produced and finding out if I have enough honey for the year.
Funniest / strangest thing that has happened on the farm (apiary) lately: I was working my bees on a Sunday afternoon, and a man on a motorcycle stopped to watch. I put him in an extra bee suit, and he helped work the bees.
What’s your favorite vegetable? Tomatoes. We have about 300 tomato plants.
What’s your favorite insect? Honey bees, of course.
What’s your favorite music to listen to while working? I like Bill Monroe, Elvis, and Johnny Cash.
Ever dug up (or found) anything strange / interesting / valuable? Some projectile points (arrow heads)
Tell us one thing about farming/beekeeping that most people probably don’t know: Honey bees are not native to North America.
Is there anything you’d like to see change about the way food is consumed in our community? We need to eat locally grown vegetables. Uses less fossil fuel and fewer pesticides. A person needs to know where their food comes from. Honey found in box stores comes from Asia and South America and has been filtered and processed more than needed. My honey comes from local plants.
Name one piece of equipment you could not live without: Bee suit. Bee stings hurt.
Tell us one thing you’ve learned that you didn’t know when you first started beekeeping: Bee keeping is a rewarding hobby. Without honey bees there would be less food to eat.
We hear you have solar panels and are completely off the grid. How has that affected your business / life in general? I don’t believe we should waste resources. My solar panels produce electricity that is free, except the cost of the solar panels. I’m not off the grid. I sell the electricity that the solar panels produce to Northeast Power. I buy the electricity I use from Northeast Power. My solar panels have produced more electricity than I have used for the last three months. Going into June, I have a $22.00 credit at Northeast Power. My solar panels should produce about 70% of my electricity cost per year.
I also believe we should give back to society based upon our talents. I am a member of the Oxford Lions Club. We buy eye glasses for people in need and sponsor the Oxford Christmas Parade. I’m the camp commander of the Sons of ConfederateVeterans, University Grey Camp 1803 in Oxford.
This article was published in The Local Voice #158 (June 14-28, 2012)…Click here to download the PDF of issue #158.
