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

August 18, 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.

: The signs at the entrance to Red Bee

: 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.

: The vegetable garden with the chicken coop beyond

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

: A handsome rooster

: These happy chickens lay approximately one dozen eggs daily.

: The hen house

: And her sweet dog, appropriately named, ‘Honey!’

: Her scooter

: Marina likes to experiment with different kinds of hives.

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

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

: One of her paintings

: And another

: The Red Bee storage room – Marina collects honey from all around the world.

: A lovely queen

: 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.

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

: Bars of honey infused soap

: Another soap

: Marina even makes a bug spray.

: The honey in this comb tasted of raspberry.

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

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

: Honey is transferred from vat to bottle.

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

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

: The top is capped with a natural cork.

: The cork is then sealed with shrink wrap.

: Next, the label is affixed.

: The top is then covered with a paper wrapper.

: And secured with a piece of twine

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

: Because the cottage is small, this outdoor ‘room’ is a great place during warm weather.

: 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.