Beekeeping as a Chef

I used to walk or stumble out of whatever restaurant I was working in after a very late night and wonder if there was anyone who worked near as hard as I had that evening.  It is very easy to think that we, at the top of the food chain, are the hardest working things on the planet to bring that food to the table.  I am seeing the new angles now that we are going to be raising food.  It had always been in the back of my mind as I had learned in grade school who did what in the animal kingdom.  Now, seeing it, I have a better appreciation for the amount of work that went into the apple that ate a few moments ago.

The bee populations across the country are in decline.  They are even worse in here in California because of drought conditions.  In my Facebook feed, I am seeing random posts about the things that are going to get more scarce or even disappear because of droughts like almonds and avocados.  Now that it is real life, right in front of me in the form of a buzzing little bug that flies about four miles away from its home, numerous times, on a daily basis, I am getting a little better perspective.

I became a chef to feed people and our goal is to help that along a little.  We had people take a little
time out of their day to contact people who were interested in bee keeping.  What we found was that there were a lot of people out there who were very interested in the art and skill of beekeeping but either did not have the time or did not have the money.  As a hobby, it can be both time consuming and expensive.  Still, our little friends in the hive need some help so we thought about how we can help that.

Colony Collapse Disorder is a condition that is killing off millions of bees each year and wiser minds than mine argue about the cause, nonetheless it is still occurring.
We at 99Knives thought that we could do something to help that.  We reached out to people, namely land owners, and asked them if they would be willing to host a hive.  Mainly we would foot the bill for the hives and gear and ask them to put hives on their property.  We are setting out to create a human hive of our own.  These are made up of people who want to learn and those who have the resources.

A quick search has shown us similar projects going on all over the country with this.  We are based in California and South Carolina, but there are groups forming all over the country that are working on a number of projects.  The struggle to bring bees back has begun.

I put honey in my tea sometimes and that's about it.  Looking around, though, there are so many other things that these little guys do.  Just about every fruit that we eat is here because of them.  The beeswax that is in the lip balm that I use is there because of them.

Our goal in 2015 is to educate and we are starting with the "foundational" aspects of our food system; the things that create the things that grow our food.  I am not going to lie, these little buggers used to scare the hell out of me and I must admit that my first instinct is to crush them or run.  I have a new perspective as a chef and soon being a beekeeper.  They do not just make honey, they do a lot more hard work.

Wanna help?  You can help fund the purchase of a hosted hive by donating here.

Wanna see what is going on?
Carol Jordan tweets at @9t9knives
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contact us at epochpeople@gmail.com