Franklin Peace’s Sweet Big Sur Story
When Franklin Peace’s father caught a loose swarm of bees in Monterey in 1940, little did young Franklin suspect that this event would lead him to a lifetime of beekeeping and honey-gathering in Big Sur. Franklin was born in Monterey but his roots were in Big Sur: His great-grandmother married the 19th-century Big Sur pioneer William Brainard Post, and Billy Post, of Post Ranch fame, was his second cousin. After Franklin finished High School and his military service, he decided to head south to develop his growing interest in bees.
“A cousin had some bees in Palo Colorado,” Peace says, “and I read a lot of beekeeping magazines. Mostly I learned by finding things out from others.”
Peace soon realized, however, that he was not going to make a living on beekeeping alone. He went to live with brothers and Big Sur builders Frank and Walter Trotter, on the Chuck Fuller Ranch, and learned the plumbing trade. “People will always need plumbers,” he reasoned.
But he kept raising bees. One day a gentleman named Wilkie Hamlin asked Franklin if he would like to put some hives on his property. That was in 1950, the property was Glen Deven Ranch, and sixty years later Franklin’s hives are still there. In 2001, Dr. Seeley and Virginia Mudd bequeathed Glen Deven Ranch to The Big Sur Land Trust. Peace supports the mission of BSLT and is pleased to continue Glen Deven’s beekeeping traditions.
“Glen Deven is a good place for bees,” Peace, who is 83, now says. “The hillside above is all sagebrush, which makes for the best honey in California.”
At one time, Peace had a hundred hives going. He would sell honey to hotels and restaurants in Big Sur as well as to a supermarket in Santa Cruz. Today, he has twenty working hives, though at present he is out of honey. “The weather has been so dry,” he says, “the bees don’t have time to gather a surplus.” When he does have honey, sales are now more of “a back-door thing,” Peace says. He hopes the recent rains will lead to a better honey season this year.
One question non-beekeepers always want to ask: Has he ever been stung? “Asking a beekeeper if he’s been stung is like asking a plumber if he gets wet,” Peace says. He is not allergic to bee venom, and says he can take up to 30 stings at one time on his hands.
Peace understands the value of bees and beekeeping. “Bees are good for the soil, good for pollination,” he says. Beekeeping affords him a deep connection to both land and community. “I’ve met and gotten to know a lot of wonderful people thanks to selling honey.”
Peace lives with his wife Ruth, a retired schoolteacher, in Carmel Valley, but he will always be connected to the land and people of Big Sur. “It’s such a beautiful coast,” he says. “People travel all around the world to see such-and-such exotic places. But we have everything right here.”
