For as long as I can remember, honey has always been magical to me …

Mint tea with sugar? No, thank you. Mint tea with honey? Yes, please! Warm biscuits drizzed with creamy salted butter and honey were better than cake. Plain Greek yogurt paired with honey was never simply plain. And while they sang “sugar” once, the Archie’s always sang “honey, honey” twice.

But best of all was my mom’s cure for a cold. A teaspoon of honey.

We will never know if my siblings and I actually had sore throats or if we simply craved our mom’s loving attention topped off with a sweet spoonful of natural honey — either way, her cure-all honey and a hug soothed our throats and our souls.

Fast forward 30 years …

One Mother’s Day, my own kids proposed either a chicken coop or a beehive as a special gift. Well, the choice was obvious. In my mind, if the chicken was crossing the road, it is because he is looking for pure, local honey to drizzle over goat cheese with toasted walnuts! We started off slowly and partnered with the University of Minnesota’s Hive to Bottle Program. One apiary (that is a queen bee and a hive) arrived — and a million Google searches and reference books later, I was hooked. It has been a torrid love affair with all things bees and honey ever since! By our third year, we had added a second apiary (yes, as you recall that is a bee house) and those amazing bees produced a surplus of 20 pounds of honey — which we proudly branded Madame Honey Bee and gifted the beautiful bounty to dear friends and family.

Madame honey bee has grown to 60,000 bold and beautiful bees and 80 pounds of surplus apiary honey!

My mind is spinning with all I have learned about the complex ecosystem of bees and pollination. It is not an understatement to say life as we know it literally depends upon the support of thriving apiary culture, and colony collapse is a real threat. I am grateful and honored to work with the U of MN Bee Squad as they grow the awareness of bee colonies, local farms and food culture. It is truly a labor of love.

Thank you for supporting madame honey bee and our local bee colonies.

Like my mom always said, honey is good for the soul.

xx, Angela