Happy spring! The vernal equinox, daylight savings time, and the Jewish holiday of Purim may all be upon us, but brrrr! With umbrella-destroying winds, tornado watches along the coast, and socks-drenching rain, it's feeling much more like winter than balmy spring. Oh well--remember all those sunbathing days we got back in January?

Like most of us, bees prefer to stay inside where it's warm and dry on days like this, snuggling together in a big bee-ball to keep themselves, and especially their queen, nice and toasty. But for humans, the show must go on, and so CUESA's honey celebration at the San Francisco Ferry Plaza Farmers' Market on Saturday, March 19th went on even in the teeth of blowing rain. Once a month from February through November, CUESA will be hosting a celebration for a different fruit, vegetable, or product, featuring tastings, ask the farmer (or producer) sessions, and a variety of cooking demonstrations by local chefs and cookbook authors. Last month was citrus; this month, for the first time, was honey.

First up behind the counter was Margo True, food editor of Sunset magazine and the author (along with her staff) of Sunset's latest book, The One-Block Feast. The book, which comes out next week, came out of a series of homesteading projects undertaken by Sunset over the last couple of years. "We wanted to get back to the Lane brothers' original vision for Sunset, which was as a laboratory for Western living," said True. With a spacious garden, room for bees and chickens, the ability to get a "milk share" from a cow living at a nearby farm, and lots of kitchen room for testing, True and her team set out to see if they could make or source everything--even flour and sea salt--from as close to the magazine's Menlo Park campus as possible. The results were sometimes spectacular, sometimes frustrating, but all of it got incorporated into the book. True tried to be as honest as possible, promising that they "definitely wrote about what bombed," too.

However, on this gray morning, True was here to show off two recipes that promise big payback for not too much effort. A custard-based honey ice cream, made with honey from the magazine's own hives, had a suave, salted-caramel edge, thanks to a drizzle of honey on top and a sprinkle of sea salt. It's more lusciously creamy than sweet, but the honey flavor still comes through. Even though it was hardly ice cream weather, the crowd snapped up every sample and scraped the cups clean.

Next came strawberry jam, made of nothing more than ripe early-season berries, honey, and a dash of lemon juice. Rather than cook it on the stovetop, where the direct heat could scorch the mixture, True spread out her chunky berry puree in a thin layer on a baking sheet, then revealed her secret: a long, gentle bake in a slow oven, which would gently condense it down while preserving the berries' ripe flavor. Spread on slices of Acme bread, the finished jam did taste remarkably fresh, with a soft consistency somewhere between jam and compote, perfect for a yogurt parfait topped with granola and a handful of fresh berries.

When I was researching my own book about honey a decade ago, Helene Marshall and her husband, beekeeper Spencer Marshall of Marshall's Farm Honey, took me around their bee house, let me scoop a fingerful of eucalyptus honey straight out of the comb, and even let their bees model for photographs. Now, ten years later, Helene is still talking up the beauty of bees and the importance of local honey (and local pollinators), and finally, people are ready to hear what she has to say. Speaking about the recent resurgence of interest in backyard beekeeping, she said, "The biggest, best, and most important thing to come out of this is that people have respect for bees and beekeepers now, and a real appreciation of honey. People realize that we need those bees!"

Helene Marshall of Marshall's Farm Honey, offering samples of Fairmont Hotel

In front of the audience with J.W. Foster, executive chef of San Francisco's Fairmont Hotel, Helene talked about their latest project, putting hives on the Fairmont's roof. "I'm San Francisco born and raised, went to my junior and senior proms at the Fairmont, so it feels like our bees are going home. They can hitch a ride on a cable car...it's so San Francisco, I love it!" On warm days, the bees like to nip up to the penthouse level to sip from the fountains, getting a free look at that $15,000-a-night view.

So far, the Fairmont is hosting four hives, all very healthy. Last week's harvest yielded 60 pounds of honey, with a light, floral-herbal taste and an early-spring hint of eucalyptus. "This honey was harvested last week, extracted a couple of days ago and bottled this morning," said Helene.

Marshall's Farm Fairmont Hotel honey

With a lot of fresh honey at his disposal, Foster and his kitchen staff are experimenting to see what they can use it for. Their latest creation is an unctuous duck-egg aioli with olive oil, garlic, rosemary, and a touch of honey, used to dress chopped raw beef tartare with stovetop-smoked onions and cress salad on walnut crostini.

Ice cream, beef tartare...finally, the last chef, Brandon Jew of Bar Agricole, promised something hot, a hot toddy made with brandy, chartreuse, honey from Alan Hawkins' apiaries, bitters, and lemon peel. He made some mostarda, too, his spin on Bologna's favorite tart-sweet relish, a late-winter version made from brandied, spiced raisins mixed with a honey-based Seville orange marmalade, and served over a slice of pork pate. A few sips, and hey, was that a ray of sunshine coming down?

Karen Peteros Explains Bee Crime at Farm. Photo by Booka Alon

What do you do when someone willfully destroys hundreds of thousands of hard-working, plant-pollinating, food-making creatures? Creatures that you'd raised and nurtured yourself in your backyard, then brought over to live in a community growing space, where they would be a living educational installation, a buzzing, honey-making science lesson for anyone curious about the very useful life cycle of the domestic honeybee?

At San Francisco's Hayes Valley Farm, where earlier this week an unknown person purposefully sprayed pesticide into the entrance holes of the farm's two beehives, the deliberate destruction of so many healthy, thriving bees was a particular blow to the hives' manager, Karen Peteros.

Peteros, a former president of the San Francisco Beekeepers' Association, recently co-founded SF Bee-Cause, a non-profit organization geared towards charitable, educational work with bees. (Her partner in the venture is Cameo Wood, founder of Her Majesty's Secret Beekeeper), the Mission's only apiary-supply store.)

The hives at Hayes Valley Farm hives were intended to be the cornerstone of a hands-on, seasonally-focused series of classes for everyone: established urban beekeepers, curious novices, science-minded kids, anyone, who, as Peteros put it, "wants to get their face into a hive (while protected by a bee suit, of course)!"

"There's really no place to do hands-on bee education in the city," said Peteros last Thursday afternoon, as she and a helper scraped and scooped handfuls of the dead bees into buckets. "Nowhere that you can have the experience of going through a whole year in the life of the hive." A hands-on honey extraction class was planned for next month, after which the hives' honey would be sold as a fund-raiser for SF Bee-Cause. "We wanted to send a message that there's a place for bees in the urban environment, that pollinators are a good thing, not something to be afraid of."

Indeed, there's a big difference between mild-mannered honeybees, their equally placid native-bee brethren, and aggressive hornets and wasps. Skinny and shiny, with narrow, neon-yellow-and-black stripes, wasps and hornets are the stingers that ruin your picnic, horning in on your baloney and fruit punch. They eat meat, love sweets, and will sting repeatedly.

Hayes Valley Farm - 7/21/10 Photo by Zoey Kroll

Honeybees, on the other hand, have rounded bodies that are fuzzy and golden-striped. They eat nothing but pollen and nectar; even the most icing-piled cupcake is of no interest. Stinging anything but another bee means certain death, so they sting only as a last resort. In general, only a small number of protective guard bees directly in front of the hive have any motivation to sting. And even more importantly, they are a crucial part of our ecosystem. One third of all food plants that we eat depend on insect pollination. Even the smallest backyard garden is more fruitful when it's planted with pollinator-friendly flowers.

Before bringing in the hives, says farm co-founder Jay Rosenberg, the farm's founders attended many community and neighborhood association meetings, hoping to educate the surrounding neighbors. Rosenberg and Peteros both note that there was one person in the neighborhood who seemed to have an irrational fear and hostility to the idea of bees on the property. But with no hard evidence, they can't point a finger, although a police investigation is ongoing.

Right now, they're focusing on moving forward. A memorial is planned as part of this Sunday's usual volunteer workday at the farm. There will be something like a wake for the dead bees, and an open forum for friends of the farm to express their feelings and make suggestions. "People here have developed an affection for the bees. This will give people a chance to vent," any anger or frustration they may have, although Peteros hopes to keep the mood geared towards kindness and the need for education. She'll be bringing a gallon of honey to share, made by the "mother hive" that spawned the farm's bees.

"We're going to give the empty hive boxes to our Art Guild to decorate, to make public art for future hives," Peteros says, before picking up a frame that's glowing amber in the late-afternoon sun. "Look at all that beautiful pollen," she says, pointing out the rows of golden-tan cells ringed with milky, wax-capped honey. In one corner, somehow, a brand-new bee is being born, her curled torso struggling out of a tiny wax-walled cell.

Will bees come back to the farm? Peteros isn't sure. While the farm is fenced, it's still open space. Bees need free access to the outdoors, so enclosing them in a locked shed isn't really an option. Still, Peteros has hope.

"We're trying to turn this into something positive, make it an opportunity to do some educating en masse," says Peteros. "Everyone that learns something about bees as a result of this can become a bee ambassador."

Bee Power Granola
Adapted from Honey: from Flower to Table by Stephanie Rosenbaum
Makes approximately 6 cups

Ingredients
2 cups old-fashioned rolled oats
3/4 cup slivered almonds
1/4 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon cinnamon, or to taste
¼ teaspoon nutmeg, freshly grated if possible
¼ cup flax seeds
1/2 cup hulled sunflower or pumpkin seeds
1/2 cup canola oil
1/2 cup honey
1 1/4 cups raisins, dried blueberries, dried cherries, or chopped dried apricots
2 tablespoons bee pollen, optional

Preparation
1. Preheat oven to 325ºF. Stir oats, almonds, salt, spices, flax seeds, and sunflower or pumpkin seeds together. Add oil and honey, stirring until mixture is thoroughly coated.

2. Spread mixture in a single layer on a large rimmed baking sheet. Bake, stirring occasionally, until golden brown, 30-40 minutes.

3. Remove from oven, stir in dried fruit and bee pollen, if using, and let cool. Store in an airtight container.

For more information or to make a donation, go to Hayes Valley Farm. A memorial for the bees will be held as part of Sunday's volunteer workday, 12:30-4:30pm on Sunday, July 25. A class on Honey Bee Basics will be offered at 10am on Aug. 1. The farm is located at 450 Laguna St at Fell in San Francisco.

With spring just a few weeks away, it's a busy day at the Sacramento Beekeeping Supplies. In between ringing up jars of local honey, three generations of the Stewart family answer a stream of questions with both patience and passion. If you're curious about how bees make honey, which size wick to use in your candle-making, the science of animal communications or the health benefits of bee pollen, there's no better place to spend an afternoon. If you're already a dedicated beekeeper, well, then, you've probably already met Nancy and Fred, the proprietor and the talker, respectively, who run this gem of a shop.

They're known and loved by apiarists throughout Northern California and have loyal customers extended throughout the west. Nancy opened the business in 1985 and ran the day-to-day operations, while Fred supplied bees to local orchards in his hours after work. Once he retired, though, he was able to spend more time at the shop, and now, on any given day, you'll find him leaning on his cane offering mini lectures on any topic from why hives swarm to the best way to catch a queen bee.

You can taste different varieties of honey at the tasting bar. Choose your own too-cute jar to fill with one of the honeys that they keep on tap, or head to the bee-themed gift section for souvenirs that the TSA won't confiscate. Crafty folks will love the back room, where candle molds, sheets of wax and Ukrainian egg kits (just in time for Easter) provide distraction during these rainy days. For now, I enjoy their honeys -- sage, coastal wildflower, the unique Davis blend -- but already hooked by their excitement, I can't help daydreaming about my very own beginner's beekeeping kit.

Sacramento Beekeeping Supplies
2110 X Street
Sacramento, CA 95818
(916) 451-2337
Map

I'm not sure my neural pathways for good ice cream and the future of agriculture have ever sparked simultaneously before, but a recent posting sure caught my attention. If you happen to know someone who recently received their Ph.D. in entomology, you can point them, too, toward Haagen-Dazs' recently established fellowship in honey bee biology at the University of California, Davis. For those who need more hands-on training, be sure to check out the advanced workshop later this month on queen bee insemination.

I've had a special place in my heart for bees ever since 10th grade, when I sewed a poufy costume out of black and yellow felt, donned a pair of glittery oh-so-80s deely boppers, and performed the bee dance right there in front my Life Sciences classmates. My two best friends dutifully stood in opposite corners of the room, one holding a cheerful cardboard sun and the other a giant flower fluffed out of pink tissue paper. Meanwhile, I buzzed and wiggled my ass up and down the center aisle to demonstrate the figure-eight flow of a honey bee's information-laden wag-tail dance (pdf). Yes, I got an A for my earnest efforts. No, I never did find a date until I fled for college.

So, it was with special delight that I created a bee avatar and sent bee-mail at Haagen-Dazs' Help the Honey Bees website. The pages have a charm often missing in both corporate and environmental education sites, let alone one that tries to inform consumers about Colony Collapse Disorder, an obscure but very real crisis threatening bee populations, farmers' livelihoods, our country's food supply, and several of our state's leading businesses. (Almonds anyone?) In keeping with the sugary high of America's favorite dessert, the dire messages remain upbeat. Not even this cynic -- viral marketing and Nestle be damned -- could resist a parade of little buzzing bees holding up signs with hand-lettered slogans such as "Save Our Hive" and "Act Now" in order to move consumers to care for their plight.

Other Honey Bee Resources
For an excellent presentation on the lives of bees, full of passion and humor, watch honey bee expert Dennis vanEngelsdorp's appearance at last year's Taste3 conference. (You can join the 2008 Taste3 gathering in nearby Napa if you happen to have $1,950 budgeted for continuing education on wine, food and art.)

Don’t forget Bug Day at the Randall Museum. This Saturday, the San Francisco Beekeepers' Association will be there with their very own exhibit of live honey bees. Admission to this celebration of all things with six legs is free. You can buy a picnic lunch there or bring your own hamper of treats to enjoy on the museum's wonderful lawn with a view. I highly recommend this event for anyone from age 3 to 103.

If you've always wanted to keep your own hive, read this classic booklet on beekeeping in California (pdf).

Since I have no room for a hive on my fire escape, I content myself with a few pots of bee-luring flowers. This excellent guide on urban bee gardens created by a research group at the University of California offers specific advice for bee-lovers in the Bay Area.

And for those who just want to cut to the chase, Marshall's Farm Honey is the way to go. Remember that anything sweetened with honey rather than sugar depends much more on bee-power than fossil fuels.

What better way to enjoy the sweetness of our land?

For more info on Bees watch, listen and discuss KQED QUEST's Better Bees: Super Bee and Wild Bee.