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.

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.

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.

The compressor just broke the silence.

The motel is only part of the promise I made made myself to get back to basics. With the beginning of Grampas Gourmet I not only wanted to run bees like gramps but I wanted walk in his footsteps and sleep where he slept. The first job was to find homes for the bees. In Grampa’s day this task was simple as most ranchers back then understood the importance of pollinators and LOVED getting free honey for the use of what amounted to .0001% of their land. Since wealth here seems to be measured in acres this was a no brainer. In fact if you multiply it out and they would be making what today would be $12,000 per acre on the one hundredth of an acre that the bees occupy. Not to mention surplus mesquite beans, parsimons, and other natural feed for live stock.

Today, however, this is not the case. As mentioned in part one, the highest prices for land use goes first to the highest bidder if the family is willing to sell. The ranches are large from 500 to 1/4 million acres. So as you can imagine they aren’t cheap. The only people who can afford to purchase them are multi-millionaires, corporations, and developers. When the developers get them the land is gone. It is broken up into lots and sold to people who build vacation homes. When any of the other two entities get them the are converted to game ranches. The vacationers don’t  have room for bees as they typically fill their 1to5 acres up with stuff to keep them working while they are on vacation, and the hunters on the game ranches just don’t seem to like those pesky bees around while they are sitting in their hunting blinds trying to kill that big buck whitetail deer. Or even worse have a beekeeper drive in to check the bees and scare away the said deer.  (side note: today was the first day of deer season and the reason I have time to write this as I have to wait to move the bees next week when the city deer hunters go home).

Out of all of the ranches in the area that my grandfather kept bees I would say that 80% have either changed hands or have gone strictly to hunting leases to pay the bills.

As I started to look for bee locations I contacted the children and grandchildren of the previous owners whom my grandfather knew. They helped the best they could and I found 2 that still had their ranches and were ranching. They agreed to let me put the bees out and were ecstatic to get honey. My other locations came by way chance and begging

I believe that the hunting ranches still have promise for the bees. Bees pollenate many of the brush species of plants that deer and other game species feed on.  This obviously helpseoduce fruit and seeds and helps the plants reproduce and thrive, hence larger healthier deer ect. If I can educate the managers of these ranches about this perhaps they will be more agreeable. Time will tell. As for now this country needs rain more than anything.

It is dead quite except for the occasional truck rolling by.

Back then there were at least 5 different beekeeping operators that migrated from Colorado to Texas. All of them were based in Colorado but met up here twice a year. Once in the fall when old man winter started nipping and the bees stopped flying in the San Luis valley (elevation 7400) when every one would gather their bees and truck them 850 miles south to the hill country of Texas. Effectively giving the bees an extended fall, and much milder winter as well as an earlier spring. Why here? Well it was the best place, the farthest south that one could drive without stopping (more or less) in one VERY FULL day. The beekeepers and their hired hands would eventually meet up in town and pick a night hang out, usually on a Saturday such as this.

Another truck just rolled by.

Today there are just two of us Bill Rickey and me. Bill is 60 and a son of one of the original 5. He has ecked out a meager living for the past 30 some years and managed to survive while everyone else is gone. It’s not surprising that our “industry” is all but gone. The Texas hill country was the start and heart of Texas ranching and it is all but gone as well. Here the rule seems to be that land has to pay the bills. Whether its live stock, farming, hunting, or selling. It is clear that the latter two have proven the most lucrative.

A dog just barked.

Out of the depression America was a producing nation and as such commodities were king. The hill country supplied the wool from both sheep and goats that keep our soldiers warm in World War II and my grandfather produced the bees wax that kept the wool and the artillery dry. Today there are synthetics instead of wool and there are petroleum based waxes.

I grew up in the bees, my grandfather passed when I was young, I learned from my uncle who, when he took over the family business quit coming to this part of Texas to winter. I grew up on stories about Barksdale, Camp Wood, and La Pryor Texas. The stories stuck with me and I lavished them. Many of the stories are based around local characters who are ranchers or vise versa.

When I finally went out on my own I was more concentrated on the bees and my own ego. I thought I knew how to improve on my own family tradition. So I put my memories away and opted to winter my bees closer in southern New Mexico. The first few years I was lucky to have favorable weather and healthy bees. But in 2006 I lost half of my 600 colonies during the winter. I didn’t know what had happened but I found out later that it wasn’t just me. It was nation wide. Since that year beekeepers around the country having been having severe ongoing issues. In 2009, after 3 years of trying everything I knew to keep the bees healthy it occured to me that perhaps we as bee keepers have simply forgot the basics, just as most Americans have forgot about wool and beeswax, and have been slowly changing our ways to the point that the bees are out of sync.

As a result of this epiphany I developed a new-old way of beekeeping and in the process started a new company with new-old goals and very old ideas.

Part two. In Grampas footsteps…

Blue and grey veins run through it, making it the not most appealing cheese. Its pungent smell might put off some, and the way it crumbles in your mouth will be the ultimate taste test. But if you’re true to your heart, and blue cheeses whisper soft words in your ear, than this pairing will be your one love when you taste it. Before getting into blue cheeses, let’s first tell you a little about why we choose Tamarisk Honey as the lady in this pairing.

Tamarisk Honey is our darkest colored honey; deep caramel color, all while being a clear, translucent nectar. Currently produced from Tamarisk Tree flowers in and near Socorro, New Mexico, but in the future the bees will be moved to the Pecos River Valley in Texas due to tree eradication in NM.

Most predominant aromas of the Tamarisk Honey are: molasses, soy (umami), hickory and pine. It’s a honey that deserves to be paired with a strong cheese, one that will fight for that attention; a cheese with a strong nose, and one that will elevate the honey.

Blue Cheese 101

If you’ve gotten this far, you’re certainly a blue cheese lover (or at least you want to give it a second chance), and why not? Blue cheeses are one of the most important cheeses in the world, and their nature is unlike any other cheese.Those veins running through it? They’re actually edible mold, Penicillium Roqueforti, that help ripen the cheese and develop the flavors. Historically, the molds where naturally occurring, but nowadays, it’s a controlled mold as to not run any risks.

If confused with the insane amount of blues in the market, focus on the three main ones and then slowly make your way around the cheese shop: Roquefort (France), Stilton (England) and Gorgonzola (Italy). Another great idea is to ask the person behind the counter at the shop!  They’ll gladly help you explore and taste different varieties and styles of blue cheeses.

Over at Marczyk Fine Foods in Denver, you can find:

Carles Roquefort Unpasteurized Sheeps Milk “The King of French blues”
Aged in caves beneath the village of Roquefort, this pungent cheese is earthy with a pronounced blue bite. One of the best blues available.

Another Denver-based cheese shop to explore is Sr. Kilian’s Cheese Shop, boasting a great assortment of moldy blues that will pair perfectly with the Tamarisk Honey.

Why pair Blue and Tamarisk? Other than the reasons expressed above and the previous times we’ve talked about how “Life’s a Balancing Act”, this would be the perfect example of contrasting flavors and textures that just explode to create a new flavor sensation. The salty, grittiness of the cheese drizzled in the sweet, smooth texture of the Tamarisk provides for great, contrasting flavors.

Check out our blog post on Hosting a Honey Tasting Party and see how you could incorporate your favorite cheeses into the event as well! The more, the merrier!

Chef JP made a polish dish of a fruit Galaretka – or “jelly” in English. The galaretka itself had two sides, one with a cranberry base, and the other with an apples base. Chef JP used our Tamarisk Honey on one side, and the White Honey and Desert Wildflower on the other side.

Here’s a video of Chef JP explaining what he made:

I have to apologize to JP, I kept calling him PJ all day and did it again in the video despite my best efforts to get it right.

Below are some pictures from the event:

As you can image, we couldn’t be happier for the national recognition and it only validates what we knew all along: that based on the terroir alone, small-batch, varietal honeys deliver complex and distinct flavors worth celebrating!

Thank you Cooking Light! And thank you to Jenn Garbee, we couldn’t have done it without you!

Here’s what the page looks like:

On the opposite page, they had the Artisan Cheese Awards, and the whole two page spread couldn’t have been more perfect given our recent interest in honey and cheese pairings.

Here’s what the opposite page looks like:

Go get a copy!

The World of Bees and Honey

Thursday, September 15

5:30 to 7:30 pm

The new season of Salon Nights begins with The World of Bees and Honey, a presentation about beekeeping and honey making, followed by a honey tasting. Just in time for Rosh Hashana (the Jewish New Year). Yum!

Norm Klapper, Coloradoan and Israeli beekeeper, will open the evening with a discussion about the art and science of beekeeping and the importance of bees.

Next we’ll taste Grampa’s Gourmet Honey, raw varietal honeys from the San Luis Valley.

Click here to learn more and to register for this sweet Salon Night!

Local Foods Festival

Below is more information about the event from the organizer’s website:

The exciting second annual fundraising event will highlight local, fresh, sustainable foods and products, focusing on Colorado’s agricultural heritage and culinary diversity. It will take place on Saturday, September 10, 2011 and Sunday, September 11, 2011 from 11:00am to 4:00pm both days.

The Local Foods Festival provides a fun, energetic, and inspiring atmosphere for families to learn more about Colorado food resources. Producers of local fruits/vegetables, meat, prepared foods, culinary gifts, and other items will be featured; as well as chefs from local restaurants and area farmers.

If that doesn’t sound tasty enough, the Local Foods Festival will coincide with the opening of the very popular Botanic Gardens Corn Maze, the largest of its kind in the country.

Bring the family and make a day of it!

We are nurturing some fun-filled activities and events including:

• A farmer’s market of approximately 50 vendors featuring local food, produce and homegrown gifts
• Samplings from local restaurants and chefs at the market
• A chili cook-off, featuring amateur chefs and local professional chefs
• An exclusive VIP evening event, Rhinestone Rodeo, where casual style never looked so glamorous
• A series of educational events focusing on how to prepare foods using fresh ingredients
• And much, much, more! Great events are cropping up all the time.