bees

These days it seems like everyone has the homesteading bug. Canning classes, chickens in the backyard. Regrettably I'm far too lazy for that. Owning a share in someone else's labor is a bit more my speed. A New Zealand company, Your Pure Honey sells off shares of beehives and receive a supply of Active Manuka honey collected from a single hive. Whereas normal honey is often blended from a bunch of hives, each hive has its own distinctive flavor. It's a bit like a wine made from a single vineyard or whisky pulled from a single cask.

The idea is in the same vein as the Catch A Piece of Maine lobster trap shares, Your Pure Honey provides videos and images that show the hive in its natural surroundings. The chemical-free beehives use organic materials and are moved to remote sites around New Zealand to gather the best nectar from isolated native forests. Each beehive provides the funds to sustain five acres of natural forest.. Buyer can pick up a one-year stake in a beehive – ranging from exclusive rights to a 10 per cent share – which will produce honey for them from September to May.

There are 100 beehives total and three levels of ownership: Premium Partnership provides sole rights to a hive and all the honey it produces (about 40 500g jars); Syndicate Partnership provides a quarter share (about 10 500g jars); and Community Partnership provides a one-tenth share (about four 500g jars). Prices start at $285 including delivery. The entire hive costs $2,500 and will produce 40 jars of honey for the season.

The Fairmont Royal York Hotel in Toronto, Canada has a hidden amenity that I've never heard another luxury hotel claim, its own apiary. The hotel set up three beehives on its roof last summer in partnership with Foodshare's Field to Table Centre and the Toronto Beekeeping Co-operative. The bee colony of over 10,000 bees created close to 300 pounds of honey. This year the hotel added three more hives hoping to increase production. Royal York's chefs use the fresh honey in salad dressings, baked goods and other items. The honey also makes its way into the milk and honey pedicures at the hotel spa.

The hotel already has a rooftop herb garden growing mint and other culinary herbs which contribute to the unique taste of the honey. The hotel's success with the bees has inspired the Fairmont Algonquin in St. Andrews, N. B., and the Fairmont Waterfront in Vancouver to set up their own apiaries. Guests at the Fairmont Royal York can request educational beehive tours over the summer. The potential disappearance of bees in recent years due to colony collapse disorder has also caused other brands, including Haagen-Dazs ice cream which donates money to beekeeping research, to be concerned for the future of the busy pollinators.

One of the biggest trends in food is not just to care about where your food comes from or what is in it but also to monitor what goes into your food before it goes into you. Wine makers are focusing on biodynamic practices, beef that is grass fed is all the rage and now, a similar concept comes to honey. Honey made from different pollens tastes differently and Life Mel honey is made by bees fed on a specially formulated diet which includes selected herbs such as Siberian Ginseng, Echinacea and Uncaria Tomentosa. Life Mel is not artificially treated and no ingredients are added after extraction from the hive. It recently went on sale at Harrods for £42 per pot and is said to be popular with celebrities such as Sienna Miller and Kylie Minogue for its health benefits.

[via Sky News]

We've seen all sorts of varietals in wine and chocolate and even olive oil, now the varietal idea comes to honey.  At Bee Raw they work with artisanal beekeepers to create honey that varies in shade and flavor. The honeys offer a wide variety of tastes from the floral and aromatic orange blossom to the smoky and smooth basswood. A set of the four fruit varietals, orange blossom, raspberry, blueberry and cranberry in single ounce glass vials set in a wooden display box sells for $45.

[via The Cool Hunter]