Written by Thomas Gassler Sunday, 16 May 2010 07:48

"A honeybee has to fly 40.000 times to produce one kilogramme of honey", explains Aurel Popovici. He is a beekeeper and his beehives are situated in the acacia woods near the lake of Balti. "Acacia honey is the healthiest, sweetest and tastiest honey ever", says Popovici, while serving us a soup plate full of honey with two big spoons. He is right. We are delighted! That is the best honey we have ever tasted!

Mister Popovici works as a doctor but he has a bee in his bonnet about bees. And he has always loved them. "This is a family business. My father started it when he was young. I grew up with bees, as other kids grew up playing football", says the honey expert while putting on his protection gear. He wants us to give a closer look to his beehives. We prefer to continue the interview in the house, where barrels of this delicious honey are stored. This seems to be the safest place. Unfortunately our attempt to stay in fails. Just one minute later we are out in the garden, at least well protected, and armed with our camera to take some snapshots of the busy bees.

A beekeeper at work

"Just remain behind the beehives and nothing will happen", assures the beekeeper. He really feels comfortable in this surrounding and continues talking about his hobby from all his heart. He opens the wooden hives and takes out a honeycomb. Scary! The bees are all around him. But he remains calm and continues, "we produce so much that we even sell our honey all around Balti. People are loving it!" And so do we! Aurel Popovici is the bee's knees and his honey is the best. Without any stitches but with two big jars of the sweet natural product, we leave Balti, the bees and their hives. And we are happy, looking forward to our breakfast the next day.

Follow us on our sweet journey by clicking here!