Emily Schmiedel - An Artist Portrait
August 18, 2021
After spending an afternoon earlier this summer with Emily Schmiedel from Jacobsen Salt Co., the company's resident bee keeper for their entire honey program, I can 100% contest that keeping bees is absolutely an art. We visited about 4 different hives on one of her weekly 'maintenance and oversight' runs, each in a different location in the Willamette Valley ranging vineyards to private homes to even a brewery, and her knowledge and experience was evident from the first moment. I, myself, had zero prior experience with bees and Emily instantly put me at ease and gave me complete confidence in what we were doing, in spite of the fact that in each location we opened up and intruded into these little pollinator's homes and workshops. We donned heavy canvas overskirts with a built in net hat, but no gloves, Emily noting that she only uses gloves if the bees seem really grumpy (which is often not the case) and moved in calmly. She taught me that each hive has one queen and even how to spot her within the honeycombs and that each hive box can make about 50 pounds of honey a year. My favorite photo subjects are always people who are passionate about what they do and Emily was exactly this.