Honeybee: Lessons from an Accidental Beekeeper

Now in paperback, Marina Marchese's inspirational and practical story of learning to raise honeybees and creating a life she loves

 "[An] engaging, delightfully informative work…" —Publishers Weekly

 "Marchese has given us a lovely gift. Honeybee is an entertaining and useful primer for the novice and honeybee devotee alike." —Washington Times

"Surpassing the predictable "how I changed careers" memoir of finding the good life, Marchese's informative guide is packed with facts about everything from pollination to harvesting, life cycles to historical lore, nutritional benefits to gourmet flavor combinations, medical applications to unusual varieties." —Booklist

In 1999, Marina Marchese fell in love with bees during a tour of a neighbor's honeybee hives. She quit her job, acquired her own bees, built her own hives, harvested honey, earned a certificate in apitherapy, studied wine tasting in order to transfer those skills to honey tasting, and eventually opened her own honey business. Today, Red Bee® Honey sells artisanal honey and honey-related products to shops and restaurants all over the country.

More than an inspiring story of one woman's transformative relationship with honeybees (some of nature's most fascinating creatures), Honeybee is also bursting with information about all aspects of bees, beekeeping, and honey—including life inside the hive; the role of the queen, workers, and drones; pollination and its importance to sustaining all life; the culinary pleasures of honey; hiving and keeping honeybees; the ancient practice of apitherapy, or healing with honey, pollen, and bee venom; and much more.

Recipes for food and personal care products appear throughout. Also included is an excellent, one-of-a-kind appendix that lists 75 different honey varietals, with information on provenance, tasting notes, and food-and-wine pairings.

C. Marina Marchese is the founder and owner of Red Bee Honey, which sells honey and natural products to gourmet food shops and fine restaurants all over the United States. (www.redbee.com)  Certified by the American Apitherapy Society, she has trained as a honey judge at the University of Georgia and serves on the board of the Back Yard Beekeepers Association of Connecticut.  Marina has written for Bee Culture magazine and The Journal of American Apitherapy Society, and Red Bee Honey was the cover story of the American Bee Journal in 2004.  A graduate of the School of Visual Arts in New York City, she is also an award-winning illustrator and designer.  Marina lives and tends bees in Weston, Connecticut.