1ST OVERALL
translates as Sister Honey. Alma is an IT specialist (she worked for Datec in POM and Lae for eight years) but moved to Buang for health reasons, beginning a holistic and herbal medicine journey that included curing her own painful ovarian cyst with natural remedies. Her village store is called Remichs (pronounced ‘Ree-mikes’ – a combination of her husband Michael’s name and the name he gave her at their 2011 wedding ‘Remah’. “Ramah means height in Hebrew, but then I registered Remah so it stayed that way! He
and I believed, and had faith, that we would do fine in the village and walk into another level both spiritually and physically. It was faith that led me to resign from my well-paid job believing I would go much higher being my own boss.” Michael is a former evangelist (church) worker but now helps his wife full-time with their store and bee farm, one of 22 in the district that supplies Highlands Honey at a set price per litre. Last year their production was drastically down to 20 litres after floods destroyed five of their 12 hives, but they are now back to
A lma started making cough drops sweetened with honey from her own bees after seeing a need for a cold and flu medicine where she lives in Lagis village, high up in the chilly remote mountains of Buang in Bulolo District. With so many people afflicted with coughs and sore throats, Alma searched the internet for remedies, learning a hard candy-making technique using sugar and honey to make cough drops. As a beekeeper, she already had a ready source of honey, and sourced the other ingredients of lemons, ginger, sugarcane, aloe vera and holy basil from her garden. Through trial and error last year she developed a cough drop that lasts for three to four weeks
temperature, and in August took her first batch to sell at the Lae Incubator Hub, packed in homemade beeswax wraps. They were a hit, and she sold all 47 pieces (her silicone mould only had 47 holes!). She has since expanded to 12 moulds plus three candy thermometers which have helped speed up production. The drops were initially only sold in Alma’s village trade store and were so popular she had to remind local children they were not normal lollies! Since the competition opened up selling opportunities, she now sells in POM via her elder brother who travels back and forth from Bulolo. Orders can be made through her new website (one of her prizes) or Facebook page. Her new business name of ‘Ari Ani’
in a tightly sealed plastic jar at room
VOLUME 38 2024
29
Made with FlippingBook Learn more on our blog