Chef Conference Day 1- Covered in Bees

At one point I thought how cool it would be to keep a beehive; little bees buzzing around, collecting nectar and pollenating my tomatoes while building a reserve of honey to enjoy at my leisure.  Ahh, the sweet life of the beekeeper.

Big Bowl chefs spent the first day of their conference experiencing the reality of bee keeping as we harvested honey from our own hives at Heritage Prairie Farm.  Standing in the hot sun covered head to toe in a bee suit with a smoking can of dry grass to calm thousands of angry bees was not the bucolic scene I had imagined.  This was hard work.  Each super (the name for the box holding the frames of honey comb) can weigh 50 pounds or more when it’s filled with honey. After collecting and transporting to the honey house, the supers are ready for extraction.  In order for honey to flow freely, the honey house was a sweaty 95 degrees.  First, we pried the combs from the super using our new hive tool (making us official beekeepers), and then we loaded them into the capping machine.  The capping machine has heated blades and scrapes the wax cap from the combs exposing the honey before it goes into a centrifuge for a quick spin.  After just a few combs, the floor has a sticky, sweet coating of honey.  After a few more combs, everyone and everything is coated with honey and the remaining bees still stuck to the hives are quite agitated. 

But that’s not the worst part of our beekeeping experience.  All those bee stings!  Poor Carlos swelled up with an allergic reaction and had to go to the hospital.  Javier got stung above the eye.  Angel got stung on his lip.  And I was stung three times; finger, lip, and leg.

It takes a special person to keep bees.  Watching Bronwyn caress her bees while they sipped water or gently lift an injured bee from the grass made us realize that beekeeping is not for everyone.  But we learned a great deal about beekeeping, the different honeys produced during the season, and the challenges facing bees by monocultures and pesticides. We also enjoyed an excellent meal in the fields of Heritage Prairie featuring honey and a fine wine made, of course, from honey. 

Bronwyn sent me this funny clip from her one of her favorite comedians, Eddy Izard.  After a day of beekeeping and stings, we needed a good laugh.  Thanks to Bron and her honeybees for a fine day of beekeeping.  To purchase her bee’s delicious raw honey, visit the market at Heritage Prairie Farm, or at the Saturday Green City Market in Lincoln Park.  Look for honey from our hives as part of tea service at all Big Bowls.