August 18th, 2010

My Nephew, Charlie, and his Summer Job at Red Bee Honey

This summer, my nephew, Charlie, took a job working with a local beekeeper near his home in Connecticut.  Marina Marchese is the founder and owner of Red Bee Honey in Weston, which sells honey and natural products to gourmet food shops and fine restaurants all over the United States.  About ten years ago, Marina was introduced to honeybees and became bee crazy.  After building her own hives and acquiring her bees, she earned a certificate in apitherapy, studied wine tasting in order to transfer those skills to honey tasting, and built up her business of artisanal honey and honey-related products.  Charlie tells me that working at Red Bee has really opened his eyes and taste buds to the fascinating world of bees and honey.

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1 The signs at the entrance to Red Bee

2 This is Marina Marchese standing next to a top bar hive occupied by some of her Italian honeybees.

3 Marina runs her industry out of this charming cottage.

4 Some of Marina's hives sit upon a hillside behind her house.

5 The interior of a top bar hive. The wooden bars are suspended across the top and the bees make natural comb without any foundation or frames.

6 Her bees are obviously healthy and happy.

7 Marina likes to experiment with different kinds of hives.

8 When a colony needs a queen, they are delivered in these little queen cages.

9 The honey bees are really drawn to the giant sunflowers blooming in the garden.

10 The vegetable garden with the chicken coop beyond

11 These happy chickens lay approximately one dozen eggs daily.

12 A handsome rooster

13 The hen house

14 When not in use, a carved out tree trunk holds a set of bocce balls.

15 Because the cottage is small, this outdoor 'room' is a great place during warm weather.

16 The Red Bee storage room - Marina collects honey from all around the world.

17 Bee Pollen is one of the richest and purest natural foods and the incredible nutritional and medicinal value of pollen has been known for centuries. It is said to regulate blood pressure and lower cholesterol.

18 Red Bee body oil contains oils of olive and grapeseed, honey and lavender essential oils.

19 Bars of honey infused soap

20 Another soap

21 Marina even makes a bug spray.

22 Marina enjoys conducting tastings of her many flavors of honey. Tasting honey is much like tasting wine.

23 Light-colored honeys typically have a mild flavor, while dark-colored honeys are usually stronger in flavor.

24 The honey in this comb tasted of raspberry.

25 My nephew, Charlie, was busy bottling honey that day.

26 Honey is transferred from vat to bottle.

27 The top is capped with a natural cork.

28 The cork is then sealed with shrink wrap.

29 Next, the label is affixed.

30 The top is then covered with a paper wrapper.

31 And secured with a piece of twine

32 Red Bee supplies fine restaurants, bakeries, and gourmet shops with honey. This gallon of honey was ordered by a woman who makes excellent granola.

33 A collection of empty comb

34 Marina is an award-winning illustrator and designer and has taken up a painting technique called encaustic, or hot wax painting. These are the pigments.

35 Using this hot-plate, she melts the pigments with beeswax to form the paint.

36 One of her paintings

37 And another

38 A lovely queen

39 Encaustic with gold leaf

40 Keeping with the Red Bee theme, even this sofa is upholstered with bee fabric.

41 Marina is the author of 'Honeybee' - an informative and charming account of becoming a beekeeper and honey entrepreneur.

42 Her car

43 Her scooter

44 Her driveway gates

45 And her sweet dog, appropriately named, 'Honey!'

Posted on August 18th, 2010 in Food & Recipes, Photo Gallery | Permalink |

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