LCBO Food & Drink Summer 2020

INSIDE SCOOP

A lot of work goes into a jar of honey. To learn more, we asked Priscilla Everett, a Brockville-based beekeeper and owner of Made by Bees (madebybees.ca), for an inside look at the wonderful world of bees. The buzz on honey EXPERT ADVICE

Why do beesmake honey? To have a source of food in the cooler months when they’re unable to forage for nectar and pollen. Due to its acidity and lowmoisture content, honey keeps indefi- nitely. Howmany bees does it take tomake a jar of honey? A single female worker bee produces 1 / 12 tsp of honey during her lifetime. The average yield of a well-managed, mature hive in Ontario—roughly 70,000 bees—is 80 to 100 lbs of honey per season.

Howdo local flowers affect the colour and flavour of honey? In Ontario, bees feed upon flowers including clover, alfalfa, buckwheat, goldenrod and basswood. In general, light-coloured and mild-tasting honey is harvested early in the season when they are feeding on things like clover. As the season progresses, the colour deepens and the flavour becomes bolder and stronger. Buckwheat honey is quite strong. What can youuse it for? Buckwheat honey is dark like molasses and rich in taste with a distinctive malty flavour. It’s great in baked goods and makes an especially tasty barbe- cue sauce.

What is beeswax and what are its uses? Beeswax is secreted by young worker bees; they chew and shape it to create hexagonal honeycomb cells then cap the cells with wax once they’re filled with honey. When a beekeeper harvests honey, the caps are removed and filtered to make beeswax. It’s used for candles, cray- ons, cosmetics, polishes, conditioners and reusable food wraps. How important are bees to ourworld? Honeybees pollinate a third of the crops we eat, including tree nuts, stone fruit and many other fruits and vegetables. In Ontario alone, bees are re- sponsible for $170-million worth of crops each year.

How to use honey in cocktails

Honey is delicious in a wide range of drinks, however it needs to be thinned first to mix properly. Simply whisk two parts honey and one part warm water, and refrigerate up to a month. Swap it in for simple syrup in a Whisky Sour and you’ve got a Gold Rush. Use it to sweeten a Scotch Old Fashioned, or try it in a classic gin-based sipper called the Bee’s Knees (recipe at lcbo.com/fdsummer20).

PORTRAIT, HONEYCOMB AND SMOKER BY ELENORA LUBERTO/JEMMAN PHOTOGRAPHY; PERSON USING SMOKER BY MITCHELL BEATTIE

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SUMMER 2020 FOOD & DRINK