Busy Bees

Grandpa started keeping bees in the 1950s. Don't know whether there was a market for honey, of if he wanted the honey for himself. He planted a field of buckwheat so the bees would produce dark, strongly flavored buckwheat honey. I was always amazed that the bees kept the honeys separate. They would fill one frame with the dark buckwheat honey and another with the regular mild honey. I was just a kid. I never noticed whether there was a difference between say, spring honey from fruit trees and summer honey from clover. Grandma put huge chunks of comb dripping with honey into a colander and mashed it to release the honey, letting it sit to drain for a long time.

The photo is of my grandfather, Oras Stutler.