Winthrop Baum, a real estate investor from Fairfield, has created at his home a world that is abuzz with creatures big and small.
Baum is a Fairfield native and grew up in Norwalk.
“It was an ideal setting,” said Baum. “My grandfather had a gentleman”™s farm on our homestead. We grew up with horses and cows. My grandfather and my parents gave me and my brother a real appreciation of nature. We also learned an appreciation for plants. My grandfather had us planting trees and working with his garden.”
Baum went on to attend Quinnipiac University in New Haven.
“When I got out of school in the mid ”™70s I went to work in the family business of apparel,” said Baum. “By the early ”™80s, I was looking at other industries. We had started investing in real estate and that was something that really caught my interest. It was something a little bit different, that”™s extremely creative and that I found to be quite enjoyable.”
Baum founded his business, called 25 Van Zant Street, in Norwalk, and has been working in real-estate ever since.
He met his wife Stefanie through work.
“When I moved to Fairfield almost 30 years ago, I wanted to bring some of what my grandfather had taught me here,” said Baum. “When we came here and found this idyllic spot, we thought we”™d create something a little different.”
Baum began building his property by first digging a pond and then building a fruit orchard.
“The pond revealed such rich material,” said Baum. “We found it to be a great growing medium.”
As well as building a rich environment in his backyard, which lies in a valley, Baum has populated his property with recue animals.
“We have dogs and cats, but we also have rabbits, geese and ducks,” said Baum. “During the winter we keep the aerator running so there”™s always open water. This is our own wildlife preserve. What we”™ll do is take in injured and orphaned wildlife, nurse them as needed and if they”™re able to be released, we release them. If they need constant care, we let them live out their lives here.”
Baum said the rescues come from individuals as well as Oxford Animal Rescue.
“We really enjoy working with the animals and with nature,” said Baum. “The first spring that the orchard bloomed I didn”™t think there were enough bees to handle the cross pollination.”
Baum Stefanie went to the local health food store in order to find a locally made honey product that might lead them to an area bee keeper.
“We met this elderly gentleman in Wilton and he taught my wife and me, in one Saturday afternoon, the basic rudiments of beekeeping,” said Baum.
Baum started his beekeeping career with two hives in 1991.
“That grew into 60 hives that we had last year,” said Baum.
Baum and his wife produce honey and bees wax candles for sale under the name Bee Baum Honey.
“Last year we gathered over 3,000 pounds of honey, right from our back yard,” said Baum.
Baum said the creation of their products happened as soon as they had honey.
But Baum said that honey bees are under duress, even in Connecticut, from the recent affliction of Colony Collapse Disorder.
“I”™m finding that hives will succumb to overdoses of pesticides,” said Baum. “When people spray for ticks, mosquitoes, grubs they don”™t realize that the chemical manufacturers can”™t really create a product only for these purposes. They create a chemical that attacks all insect life and alter the method of delivery, hoping to focus the product. For example when they spray for mosquitoes they only spray at dusk and they spray a material that dissipates in sunlight. What they”™re failing to realize is that it then has a harmful effect on fireflies and bats. It all is related to that one element.”
Baum said that bees as communal creatures will depart from a hive when sick with pesticides so as not to infect the rest of the hive. He said it is not uncommon to find a pile of dead or dying bees outside of a hive when this happens.
“Bees keep the hive in a hygienic state,” said Baum. “It is hospital clean inside of a hive. That”™s their nature and that”™s really part of the function of what honey does. Honey is the original antibacterial. In third world countries today honey is used not as a food but as a medicine. They”™re even finding that honey has applications for burn victims here in the US. Honey is hydroscopic, it absorbs moisture, so wounds are kept moist, but because of the antibacterial agents, they”™ll also stay germ free. It”™s one of the beautiful gifts of nature.”
