Episode Details

Returning to join us in this episode is Tammy Horn Potter. (She originally visited us back in Season 2!) Not only is Tammy the State Apiary Inspector for Kentucky, but she is also an accomplished author. She has just finished her fourth book entitled, "Work I Knew I Must. Reminiscence of Forty-One Years of Factory Life."

Jane Cole worked for the A. I. Root Company for 41 years, starting when A.I. Root was making jewelry in his factory on the Town Square, in Medina, Ohio. She worked through the construction of the new factory built on the Country Fair Grounds on the edge of town to manufacture beekeeping equipment, and the many, many factory expansions they made after that. During those 41 years she did almost every job that could be done in a factory that sawed wood, made smokers, extractors, bottled honey, printed a magazine and books, and took orders and filled orders and delivered orders to customers, the railroad and the post office.

She wrote about building the new factory, child labor, factory dangers (and there were many), factory politics, noon prayers, the hundreds of people she worked with over the years, the company sponsored picnics, the men, women and children she was in charge of, and the people she worked with, and for.

When A. I. Root retired, he, too, wrote an autobiography, about running the factory that Jane Cole worked in.

What Tammy has done is take Jane Cole's work and stand it side by side with A. I. Root's work to give you a very unique look at factory life, from the perspective of an employee, and her employer. Many of the events Jane found worthy of writing about were also mentioned by Root in his work. Because neither was aware of the other's work, the telling of these events is about as straight forward from each as you can imagine.

The story Tammy as sewn together tells much about early beekeeping history and equipment, the evolution of factory equipment and science, about working as a single woman in what is mostly a man's world, and about life in a small town in northeast Ohio at the turn of the century.

Links and websites mentioned in this podcast:

• "Work I Knew I Must" - https://store.beeculture.com/books/
• Bee-ing Diverse - Bee Culture October Event: https://store.beeculture.com/beeing-diverse-inspiring-leaders-in-beekeeping-october-2021/

• Honey Bee Obscura Podcast - https://www.honeybeeobscura.com

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Calling all craft food and drink makers! Entry period for the 12th annual Good Food Awards is open now thru June 30th, and we're accepting entries from 18 different categories of food and drink, including honey. Entries are $78 a piece to help cover logistics, and entrants can add on the option to receive judge feedback from the Blind Tasting in August for $15. Head over to goodfoodfdn.org for all the details and use code BEEKEEPING at checkout for $10 off. We look forward to seeing your entries soon!

• Click here for Submission Information
• Click here for Rules & Regulations
• Click here for Honey Category details

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We welcome Bette