Honey with a story in every jar

1. 

   Morning! Coffee for you, nectar for me.

   Chapter 1

   Six in the morning

   The sun climbs over the hill and the hives wake up. Forty boxes, painted in whatever color was left over in the barn, each one home to about forty thousand bees.

2. 

   That's a lot of flowers. I counted. Twice.

   Chapter 2

   Ten thousand flowers

   Clover first, then lavender, poppies and the old lime trees by the stream. A bee visits up to a hundred flowers on one trip, so every jar tastes like the week it was made.

3. 

   We fan it dry. It's a lot of flapping.

   Chapter 3

   Back to the hive

   Inside, the nectar is passed from bee to bee and fanned with tiny wings until it thickens into honey. Then the cells are capped with wax and left to rest.

4. 

   Gently! That's a whole summer in there.

   Chapter 4

   The old extractor

   In late summer we lift only the frames the bees can spare. Grandpa's hand-cranked extractor spins the honey out of the comb; no heat, no filters finer than a kitchen sieve.

5. 

   Every jar gets a name. This one's Gus.

   Chapter 5

   Into the jar

   Each batch rests for a week, then goes into glass jars by hand, one ladle at a time. The label says which hives and which weeks it came from.

6. 

   My work here is done. Pass the toast?

   Chapter 6

   Your breakfast table

   A few days later the jar lands on your table. Stir it into tea, drip it on toast, or eat a spoonful standing at the fridge. We won't tell.

The end (of the beginning)