仔牛近道

　季節はすっかり進み、家ではこたつに入って思い思いの手遊びをしている光景が増えてきました。そんな中、10歳の（う）がせっせと小さなラベルを切って貼っています。みつろうバームを詰めた小さな容器に、ロゴのシールを貼っているのでした。今や、このみつろうバームづくりに（う）は欠かせない存在で、ラベルの切り貼りはもちろん、最近はみつろうと植物油を混ぜて溶かして容器に詰める作業も覚えました。鍵屋まで駆け上がって納品にも行ってくれるし、いやぁ、助かる助かる！





　商品のブランド名はMakaWaka。あれ、肝心の5才児（ま）はどうしているかというと、ラベルの原画提供者とし揺るぎない地位を確保しているものですから、のんきなものです。でも、置いてもらっているお店に立ち寄れば、「これ、まーちゃんが描いた、まーちゃんの顔なんだよ！」と見知らぬお客さんに話しかけ、売り子（？）としても活躍します。最近では、冬が近づき赤くなってきた自分のほっぺたにみつろうバームを塗り込んでいる様子も見られます。

　使い道がないまま置いてあったハチの巣との出会いと、自分の必要性から試行錯誤が始まったみつろうバーム作り。今では、混ぜる植物油を3種類、さらに色付きのカラーバームなるものも作るに至っています。面白がって、また良さに共感して置いてくれているのは、奈良田の鍵屋さん、白根館さん、そして奈良田を飛び出しておばあちゃんたちの店さんにヘルシー美里さん。どこも、販売している面々とのこまめなやりとりが可能なので、お客さんからの感想や売り場での工夫など、貴重な情報やアイデアが次々に飛び交います。



　必要に応じて、のんびりと生活の中で商品を補充して作っているのが、無理のない我が家のリズム。ですが、時には馬力を聞かせて大量オーダーにも応えます。先日は、白根館さんが会員さんに季節の贈り物として贈るアイテムの一つとして、2種類・220個のみつろうバームの注文を受け、一気に用意しました。あるいは、東京は歌舞伎座で早川町ブースが設置されていた11月中、一緒に並べてもらっていたみつろうバームの流れがよく、補充のペースが上がった月でもありました。どちらも、（う）の頼りになること！本人も楽しそうだから何よりです。先日は、作業の後におこづかいをあげます！と小銭を握らせたら、嬉しそうに一人で鍵屋さんに駆け上がって、しっかりケーキセットを食べてのんびりしてきていました。



　実は、室内で私や（う）が作業できるまでに、このみつろうバーム作りには長い工程があります。それは、ハチの巣の「煮出し」作業。最近ではもっぱら、庭で薪を焚いての大鍋で、（ゆ）が担当してくれています。これが何とも適役で、大ざっぱな私がやるよりもはるかに効率的に、かつ無駄なくきれいなみつろうを煮出してくれるので大助かり。
　いただいてきたハチの巣（主にはちみつを絞った後のもの）にひたひたの水を加えて火にかけると、65度位でじわじわと巣の部分が溶け出してきます。茶色っぽく見える不純物はまだ溶けないので、それを網おたまとスプーンで絞っていきます。一度溶けた巣（みつろう）は少しでも冷めればまたすぐ固まってしまうので、一度にザルで濾すというわけにもいかないのです。しかもバケツ一杯の巣を煮出して最終的に出来上がるみつろうは、そのバケツの表面に、暑さ1cmの氷が張るくらいの、わずかなものです。だからなおのこと、（ゆ）のような丁寧な煮出しと濾し作業が欠かせません。バケツ一杯のハチの巣なら、大鍋で火にかけての半日作業。



その間中、はちみつの香りをかぎつけてミツバチはもちろん、スズメバチも集まってきます。このスズメバチの捕獲がまた面白くて、彼らの関心はすっかり鍋の中のハチの巣（から匂うはちみつの香り）なので、近くにいても人には全く向かってきません。しかも熱い鍋の周りを飛び回っているので、うちわで軽くパチンと叩いて、弱ったところを箸でつまんでホワイトリカーを入れた瓶に生きたまま、ポトン。これを繰り返せば、スズメバチの焼酎漬けの出来上がり。しばらくたてば、蜂に刺された時の応急処置薬として役に立つことでしょう。



こうして貴重な（ゆ）の在宅日も、私につかまればうちわ片手にみつろう煮出し、スズメバチ捕獲をさせられてしまいます。この屋外での作業には、8歳の（す）も興味があるらしく、木を持ってきたてみたり、うちわで火を仰いでみたり、火の回りで遊んで怒られてみたり、（ゆ）もいるし何やら楽しそうです。（す）がいれば（ま）も退屈しないのも素晴らしいところ。

自分が使いたくて作り出したみつろうバームですが、お店に並び、お客さんからの反応を聞かせてもらうと、とても楽しいし、興味深い。最近では、歌舞伎座のブースからのフィードバックで、精油など加えずに無香料ではちみつの香りそのままにしてあること、製作のいきさつや家族のストーリーも喜んでもらえたということ、また（ま）の顔ラベルが可愛がられていること、などなど、我が家でも大切に思っていることを受け入れてもらえたことが嬉しいことです。
木の巣箱を作り、設置、熊対策、ダニ対策、維持管理、春の分蜂見極め、秋のはちみつ採取と木箱継ぎ足し、冬の防寒対策・・・養蜂家のおじさんたちの尽きない情熱と実験・改良の様子をことあるごとについていっては見せてもらっていると、彼らの目はまるで少年のようです。この自然界との付き合いと探求が、たまらなく楽しい、と彼らは言います。生活の中でその様子を目の当たりにできる贅沢さに感謝しつつ、副産物であるみつろうバームという切り口から、私も蜂たちへの関心を深めつつ、家族ぐるみの手遊びを楽しんでいる日々です。

（わ）




Ready Beeswax Balm #2

The season has already changed, and it has become cold, and we are enjoying the Kotatsu doing whatever each one likes to do. As for 10-year-old Umeo, she is often engaged in cutting and sealing tiny labels on small containers of beeswax balm. Now, we cannot do without Umeo in the process of our beeswax balm making. Besides labeling, she has recently learned mixing beeswax with certain vegetable oil and pouring it into small containers. Furthermore, she is happy to run up to the café Kagiya to deliver goods. How helpful she is!

By the way, the brand name of our beeswax balm is MakaWaka. Then, what about 5-year-old Makasa who is supposed to be one of the main persons regarding this product? She is the one who provided the original drawing for the logo, and that’s enough. Ha! However, if we are at shop in which our products are displayed, she talks to customers with a friendly “I drew this, and it’s my face!” –She plays an important role as a sales assistant, sometimes. By the way, her cheeks turn red with the arrival of the cold season, as it is now, so she has started applying her own beeswax balm on her cheeks – a perfect brand ambassador!
Our beeswax balm production had started simply because I found honeycomb wastes after the honey was squeezed out, left unused in our neighbors’ garden, and because I needed the balm for moisture retention. But now, it’s indeed interesting to seek the possibilities of different variations – for example, we have now three different types of balm that are mixed with olive oil, jojoba oil, and rice bran oil. Besides that, colored balms are ready for the lips. There are also some shops and café that enjoy and appreciate our beeswax balm, like Kagiya, Shiranekan, Obāchan tachi no Mise, and Healthy Misato. Close communication with the staff of any of these facilities is possible, so it’s easy and fun to share feedbacks from customers and derive better ideas for displaying and product improvement.

We make beeswax balms ready as per order in a manner which is relaxed and not demanding, the typical rhythm of our home. However, sometimes when large orders come, we increase the speed of production to execute the order. For example, recently we have prepared 220 containers of beeswax balm as novelty goods of Shiranekan so that they can be sent to their regular customers. Then, the following project was to provide a series of beeswax products for the Hayakawa town booth at the Kabukiza, a famous and historical shopping area in Tokyo, for a month. For both the projects, once again Umeo played such an important role working so hard! The good thing is that she seems like enjoying it as well. One day, I gave her an allowance to thank her for her hard work. She smiled and went to the café Kagiya to enjoy her favorite chiffon cake and cappuccino.

Actually, prior to the work done indoors, there is a long process, that is to extract pure beeswax by boiling. These days, I came to know that Yuki is the perfect person to take care of this job! Building a fire and using a large pot beside our small vegetable garden, spending hours and hours, he takes out pure beeswax in such a productive and gentle way…!
The process of extracting pure beeswax is like this. – Boil honeycombs, that is mainly the waste leftover after squeezing the honey out, in a large pot together with plenty of water that covers the honeycombs. The beeswax in it starts melting when the water reaches a temperature of about 65 degrees Celsius. The impurities, brown in color, do not melt yet, so it’s time to filter out the impurities by squeezing them out with a ladle and spoon. Even after being melted, beeswax coagulates fast as soon as the temperature reduces, so using a large strainer for filtering the whole liquid at once doesn’t work well. And guess how much pure beeswax we can get out of a large pot? It’s only a little actually – as little as, let’s say, 1cm-thickness of frozen ice on the surface of water. Therefore, what Yuki is doing with great care is important. It takes almost half a day to boil and squeeze a bucket full of honeycombs – a lot of time taken!
While boiling, the smell of beeswax attracts not only honey bees, but also hornets. So, they come around the pot. This time, their attention is all for honey, not people, so it’s quite easy to hit them lightly, not to kill them, to thrash them down on the ground and pick them up with chop sticks. They are soaked in spirits for months to be used as a good first aid medicine for bee stings.
So, even if it’s a precious holiday for Yuki to be relaxed at home, he is often caught by me to get involved in beeswax balm production, and even catching hornets. 8-year-old Sukla often finds this interesting - when Yuki starts doing this outside, he brings his own Uchiwa-fan to help to build the fire. Together with Makasa, they start playing around the fire, but when their excitement gets too high, they eventually get scolded by Yuki, ha!

I started trying beeswax making only because I myself needed some for my hands and lips. However, now, they are at several shops, and I really enjoy the feedbacks from the staff in shops and customers. For example, at the temporary booth of Hayakawa town in Tokyo, the sales staff gave me feedbacks from customers, which are like they appreciated our beeswax as it is fragrance-free, has interesting stories behind the products, the label design, etc...I was happy to hear that because those are all what we also think is important.
Making wooden hive boxes for honey bees, installing them, preventive efforts for protecting them from wild bears that try to eat up the honey, and mites, that kill honey bees, maintenance, taking care of Bunpo (honey bees leave an old nest and build a new one), and so on…As I witness almost the whole process of what beekeepers do throughout the year together with Makasa, every time I am impressed by their unlimited enthusiasm and efforts of ‘trial and error’. Their eyes shine just like little boys! They say it’s just exciting and addictive to observe and engage in the world of nature. As for me, I deeply feel that it is such a precious experience, to live so closely to them and watch what they are doing. Beeswax balm making brought me a gift - to be interested in the ecosystem of honeybees and a chance to enjoy the product making process as a family.

Wakana