Everett, Wash.
Published: Wednesday, March 28, 2007

Get fresh

Sweet stuff

Rich, golden honey a natural sweetener made by local bees

By Sarah Jackson / Herald Writer

 Honey.

It's sweet. It's golden. It's so sticky you just have to lick it off your fingers.

What could be better?

In a fast-food nation dominated by high-fructose corn syrup and an endless supply of artificial sweeteners in pink, blue and yellow packets, it's easy to forget the miracle of honey and the bees that buzz their butts off to make it.

But you don't have to go far to find fresh local honey in Snohomish County.

Just outside Snohomish, we found Bee Haven Honey and Pollination, where Tim and Connie Bueler have kept bees for 10 years.

Their steadily growing hobby has turned into a thriving business, if not a livelihood, and they are loving every minute of it.

"This is as pure as pure gets," said Connie Bueler, 47, watching her husband break through the beeswax of a honeycomb for a sample.

"This is blackberry," Tim Bueler, 45, said of the oozing goo, left in the hive to feed the bees as they wait out the season's cool, wet weather.

"You have to make sure you don't take too much honey from them," said Connie Bueler, who as a child helped her grandfather keep bees.

Come summer, Bee Haven's 70 colonies of Italian honey bees and their queens will dramatically expand their populations from about 15,000 to more than 70,000 in each hive.

Those bees will gather nectar to make more than 400 gallons of honey.

That's not to mention heavenly smelling beeswax candles, hand creams, soaps and lip balm, all made on the couple's 7-acre farm.

Their pleasant perch on Fobes Hill is about as quaint as farming gets, with views of the Snohomish River valley and Mount Rainier. They also raise their own beef cattle and chickens.

Tim Bueler, who works as a custom homebuilder, has a shop on the property, and Connie Bueler, an engineering technician for Verizon, has her own craft workshop, decorated with all things honey bee.

"It's romantic," she said of life on the farm with animals and bees, including their wire-hair fox terrier, Bridgette. "It's very romantic."

Demand for local honey has grown, Connie Bueler said, as the trend of eating local food has blossomed. Last fall, the Buelers opened a year-round, dawn-to-dusk farm stand right off their driveway.

"It amazes me," Connie Bueler said. "It has by far exceeded our expectations. We are very happy to see the great rising of the direct-farm foods revolution."

Though the Buelers have found many ways to enjoy honey, their favorite is homemade honey mustard dressing on fresh spinach greens, picked from their own yard.

They add barbecued chicken breast, Granny Smith apples, cucumbers and homemade garlic-bagel croutons.

"When you make it, you'll understand," Connie Bueler said, adding that the secret ingredient in the dressing is fresh lemon zest, and of course, local honey. "It makes it."

"Oh, man, it's good," Tim Bueler said.

While some of the honey from Bee Haven looks like supermarket honey, it's most definitely different.

Bee Haven's color palette is more diverse, ranging from delicate golden wildflower honey to the nearly molasses-colored knotweed honey.

Like a stout beer or a dark-roast coffee, their honey flavors and aromas become more rich, powerful and complex as the color darkens.

The Buelers recommend using the darker honeys, which cost almost twice as much as the golden ones, on toast or over a soft cheese such as Gorgonzola to really showcase the local character.

All the color is natural, with nothing in their honey-bear dispensers but pure honey.

Bee Haven bees are always free to visit whatever flowers they like, however, beekeepers like the Buelers create flavored honeys by transporting bees to places with large concentrations of high-nectar flowers at their peak bloom times.

Hives are like little tour buses filled with rock-star bees. They cruise fireweed in the clear-cuts of the Cascades, wild blackberries at Connie Bueler's family farm in Silvana and knotweed on a farm near the Pilchuck River.

If the Buelers aren't sure what flowers the bees used to make the honey, they call it wildflower, typically buzzed from maple-tree blossoms, dandelions, clover, fruit trees, berry blossoms and heather.

Bee Haven also produces a lavender honey that's bee-gathered and sold exclusively at the Lavender Hills Farm in Marysville during the lavender festival every July.

When it's time to bottle the honey, the Buelers retreat to their high-tech honey house, where they extract the sticky substance from the hives and heat it gently to no more than 120 degrees to preserve the natural flavors, trace nutrients, pollens and enzymes from local flowers.

Though Bee Haven honey may "sugar," or begin to form white crystals, sooner than pasteurized honey, the Buelers believe their traditional methods make for better tasting, and perhaps more nutritious, honey.

Many customers say local honey has lessened their seasonal pollen allergies, and scientists are now studying antioxidants found in honey, typically highest in darker varieties, according to the National Honey Board.

Many of Bee Haven's customers are adamant about buying local, a comforting notion to the Buelers, both Snohomish County natives, raised on dairy farms that are still in existence.

"There's been a shift," Connie Bueler said. "When we go out and we meet the people, they come and tell me why they want my honey."

Tim Bueler, a regional representative for the Washington State Beekeepers Association, wants to keep the art of beekeeping alive.

"There's a huge segment of the population," he said, "who want to know where their food comes from and who's making it."

Reporter Sarah Jackson: 425-339-3037 or sjackson@heraldnet.com.

Honey doesn't spoil

Honey that hasn't been heavily processed has a tendency to crystallize or "sugar" over time. Don't worry, it hasn't gone bad. Simply place your honey container in warm water and stir it until the whitish crystals dissolve.

It's also OK to heat 1 cup of honey at a time in the microwave, for 30 seconds at a time, in a microwave-safe container, stirring repeatedly until the crystals dissolve. Do not boil or scorch honey or you may ruin its delicate flavor. Store honey at room temperature.

Honey for sugar

When substituting honey for granulated sugar in recipes, begin by substituting honey for up to half of the sugar called for in the recipe. For baked goods, make sure to reduce the oven temperature by 25 degrees to prevent over-browning; reduce any liquid called for by 1/4 cup for each cup of honey used and add 1/2 teaspoon baking soda for each cup of honey used.

Because of its high fructose content, honey has higher sweetening power than sugar. This means you can use less honey than sugar to achieve the desired sweetness. It does, however, have 14 more calories per tablespoon than granulated sugar.

Sources: National Honey Board and the Mayo Foundation for Medical Education and Research

Recipes

Honey chews

Connie Bueler, who owns Bee Haven Honey and Pollination with her husband, Tim, in Snohomish, shared this recipe, which won both the Honey Award and a blue ribbon many years ago at the Evergreen State Fair in Monroe.

11/4 cups sifted flour

1 teaspoon baking soda

1/2 teaspoon salt

3/4 cup part butter, part shortening

1 cup sugar

1 slightly beaten egg

1 teaspoon vanilla

1/3 cup Bee Haven honey

1 cup walnuts, chopped

2 cups rolled oats

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

Resift flour with baking soda and salt and set aside. Melt butter and shortening. Stir in sugar, egg and vanilla. Stir in honey. Then stir in flour mixture, nuts and rolled oats.

Drop with a teaspoon onto greased cookie sheets. Bake 8 to 10 minutes. Cool for 3 minutes, then move to a cooling rack.

Pumpkin pudding cake


3 eggs

1 large can pumpkin

1 large can evaporated milk

11/4 cup sugar

1/2 teaspoon cinnamon

1/4 teaspoon ground cloves

1 box Krusteaz Honey Cornbread & Muffin Mix

1 cup chopped nuts

1 1/2 cubes melted butter

1/2 cup Bee Haven honey

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

Beat eggs in a large bowl and add pumpkin, evaporated milk, sugar, cinnamon and ground cloves. Mix well. Pour into a 9-by-13-inch baking pan. Sprinkle with cornbread mix and nuts and drizzle with butter and honey.

Bake for 30 to 40 minutes or until golden brown and firm.Honey mustard dressing

1 tablespoon sugar

1/2 teaspoon salt

2/3 cup mayonnaise

1/8 cup apple cider vinegar

1 tablespoon Grey Poupon mustard

1/4 cup Bee Haven honey

1 teaspoon grated lemon zest

Combine all ingredients in a jar or a tightly sealed container and shake to mix. Refrigerate for 30 minutes. Pour over fresh spinach salad.

Where to buy

Bee Haven Honey and Pollination Tim and Connie Bueler 7914 69th Ave. SE Snohomish 425-334-9684 beehaven@clearwire.net. Farm stand open dawn to dusk. Five types of honey, beeswax candles, soaps, hand cream, lip balm and homegrown garlic. The honey costs $4.25 to $8.25 for an 8-ounce squeezable bear The darker colors are higher priced.

Also available at McDaniel's Do It Center 510 Second St. Snohomish 360-568-1544

Nature's Remedy 14150 NE Woodinville-Duvall Road Woodinville 425-485-4633

Klesick Family Farm grocery home delivery service based in Stanwood 866-629-5350 www.organicproduceshoppe.com. Bee Haven honey is also available at seasonal roadside stands, fairs and festivals.

Moon Valley Bees and Botanicals in Arlington produces three types of honey and a full line of skin-care products sold online at www.moonvalleyhoney.com, 877-652-1819.

Also available at:

Foster's Produce and Corn Maze (opening April 1) 5818 Highway 530 NE fosterscornmaze.com, 360-435-5095

Pike Place Market 1903 Pike Place A Seattle, www.pikeplacemarket.org, 206-623-0158 Moon Valley honey is also available through local grocery-delivery services, including Spud.com and PioneerOrganics.com.

Beekeepers honey by Ron and LaVonne Babcock of Granite Falls is for sale at: Sno-Isle Natural Foods Co-op 2804 Grand Ave. Everett, www.snoislefoods.coop, 425-259-3798 Also at many health foods stores and produce stands.
© 2009The Daily Herald Co., Everett, WA