Oh Honey, You're Bee-Utiful!

Honeybee hives in Wisconsin in the late afternoon sun

As it gets colder out and the beautiful fall colors start to fade, or at least here in the mountains of dear ol' Colorado, I reminisce about the warmer days. Last month when summer was coming to an end, I was invited up to Wisconsin by my boyfriend's family to help them with their annual Honey Fest. They, along with two other close families, keep honeybee hives throughout the year and each year come together to collect the honey from the hives.

Beautiful honeycomb frame from the hive. Golden Delicious.

It was only within the past few years that I've come to appreciate the role bees play in the complicated web of ecosystems. They are a very important player in pollination and the circle of flora life. I read an article from the International Herald Tribune (or New York Times, you choose) that stated that bees are accountable for pollinating one third of crops in the United States. These crops include almonds, peaches, soybeans, apples, pears, cherries, raspberries, cranberries, watermelons, cantaloupes, cucumbers...ok you get the idea. So bees are important. They aren't only irritating insects making a buzzing noise around your head, they serve an important role in nature and they are indeed very good at it. But it's not all hunky dory. There has been a depressing trend of many bee colonies suddenly disappearing. A lot of bee colonies are slowly dying out. It's called the colony collapse disorder. Scientists believe this phenomenon is from issues like increasing globalization (bee pathogens can travel from bee colony to bee colony faster than ever) to lose of natural habitat. So even if bees are good at their job, there need to actually be bees around. There's a growing trend of urban beekeeping. Communities take care of bee hives in urban environments.

Some of the honey in jars after being filtered three times

Anyway, last month I loved being a part of the honey collecting tradition. It was a lot of hard work though by the time we finished we had processed and bottled approx. 30+ gallons. We used an electric centrifuge which spun out the honey from the frames and then filtered it multiple times before putting it in jars. What's remarkable is the honey will taste different each season because of the variety of plants the bees are exposed to. For instance, one year, a family had honey that tasted like lavender because the bees had access to lavender. By the end of the day I'm pretty sure I had honey in my hair, on my pants, on all my fingers and probably behind my ears too. That sticky sweet stuff gets everywhere. It's delicious to eat any time of day for any meal or even to bake with. I substitute it with sugar sometimes when making muffins or cakes or put it in my tea. It is also the only food that will never go bad. How about that!?

Using a heated carving knife, we cut off a layer of wax before putting it in the centrifuge to spin the honey out. You can then melt the wax and use it for something...candles anyone?