Grampa’s Gourmet is proud to be able to offer nucleus colonies “nucs” for sale this year.

Buy Bees from Grampa’s Gourmet

The nucleus colony is a small wooden box consisting of four frames from the original parent colony. Three of the four frames have brood in all stages, from eggs to hatching adult bees, and the entire frame set has a sufficient quantity of bees to ensure colony chores are maintained.

We are taking orders for the nucs online, and will be delivering them to downtown Denver, where the nucs will be available for pick up.

For details, see our new Buy Bees page, which we’ll be updating with more and more beekeeping related information in the weeks to come.

Also today, LA Weekly published a Q&A with Brent Edelen on it’s blog.

It’s a fairly in-depth interview and really captures the mission of Grampa’s Gourmet. Below are a few excerpts:

​Squid Ink: You’ve always been a beekeeper?
Brent Edelen: No, actually I hated it when I was a kid. My grandfather and my great grandfather were both bee keepers, and you learn quickly that it is pure hard work. I graduated in college with communication degree, doing radio production, but soon after I realized that I couldn’t stand being in an office. I knew I had to be back outside with the bees.

SI: How much of a role does a beekeeper like you truly play in how a honey tastes?
BE: I’d like to say a lot, that it is all me. [Laughs] But what’s really unique is the Southwest, not me. It’s basically giant desert compared to the Midwest and East Coast. Scarcity is what makes these honeys unique. When the flowers bloom, they’re stressed from no water, and I think they are very intense and they really produce a flavor that is more concentrated.

SI: So explain how exactly you “make” a specific varietal of honey.
BE: Well, you do have to manage the bees to keep the florals separate. That’s really all you’re doing. There are different ways. Usually it comes down to placement or timing. Like the chamiso “rabbit brush” blooms only at a certain time, so the key there is getting the other honey you’ve been making [harvested] and starting a new one right away when it blooms.

Today Grampa’s Honey got “discovered” on Treat du Jour!

I quote:

Honey is one of those indescribable miracles of nature. Thick with a glassy sheen, and sweetness and flavor unlike anything else. When honey is produced the way it should be, you get a product just like gramps used to make.

Grampa’s Gourmet was founded on the experience of generations of beekeepers. Beekeeping, and honey-making takes passion and love for the land as well as the bees. Brent Edelen, Grampa’s Gourmet’s main-man vowed to make the best honey around, using his grampa’s traditional methods.