July 13, 2009
Nine years ago, from her home in Connecticut, Marchese, then a creative director for a giftware company, became a beekeeper and honey entrepreneur. In this engaging, delightfully informative work, she recounts how visits to the apiaries of the neighboring community's Back Yard Beekeepers overcame her initial trepidation of bees as she learned about the industry and craftsmanship of these insects and became bowled over by the taste of fresh honey. Step by step she explains how she got started as a beekeeper, from studying bee anatomy and hive organization, to ordering equipment online such as her Langstroth hive, a smoker (to calm the bees while working) and protective clothing. She had to learn to “pour“ her three pounds of live Italian honeybees into the hive (the first time she got stung six times), while carefully introducing the all-powerful queen. Marchese is fascinated by the marvels of bee behavior—pollen foraging, dances, swarming—and imparts as well a goodly bit of bee history. She offers plenty of her own honey-beeswax concoctions, both edible and cosmetic, with excellent appendixes on the varietals of honey.
September 1, 2009
It was love at first bite for Marchese. After just a taste of pure honey straight from the hive, dreams of giving up her worker-bee drudgery for a chance to become the queen of her own destiny buzzed around her brain. With the generous help of some local beekeepers and intensive research and self-education, Marchese took the plunge and established her own hives. Getting stung in the process was no deterrent to eventually establishing her own honey-producing business, and the more time she spent among the swarms and honeycombs, the more she knew shed made the right decision. Surpassing the predictable how-I-changed-careers memoir of finding the good life, Marcheses 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. Complete with recipes, charts, and helpful tips, Marcheses book offers a bees-eye view of life insideand outsidethe hive.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2009, American Library Association.)