Kealakekua, Hawaii (June 15, 2011) – Big Island Bees’ organic Lehua & Cinnamon honey has been selected as a 2011 Silver Finalist for Outstanding New Product in the   sofi™ Awards from the National Association for the Specialty Food Trade, Inc.  The sofi Awards recognize excellence in specialty foods and beverages and are a coveted industry honor. “sofi” stands for Specialty Outstanding Food Innovation.

The Lehua & Cinnamon honey was one of 125 SilverFinalists selected by a national panel of specialty food experts from a record 2,236 contenders across 33 Awards categories. Gold Winners will be announced in a red-carpet ceremony July 11, 2011 at the Summer Fancy Food Show in Washington, D.C. hosted by Celebrity Chef Cat Cora.

“We are thrilled that the judges picked our organic Lehua & Cinnamon honey,” said Whendi Grad, founder of Big Island Bees. “The combination of these two organic products from the Big Island seemed like a perfect match to us, and the judges seemed to agree”.  Big Island Bees’ products include organic Ohia-Lehua Blossom, organic Wilelaiki Blossom, and Macadamia Nut Blossom honeys, and are distributed throughout Hawaii, the U.S. West Coast, Canada, Japan, and China.

The sofi Awards are open to members of the NASFT, a not-for-profit trade association established in 1952 with more than 2,900 members throughout the U.S. and abroad. For more information on the NASFT and its Fancy Food Shows, go to www.specialtyfood.com and for complete coverage of the 2011 sofi Awards, visit foodspring.com/sofiawards.

“The field was the most competitive yet, with more than 2,326 entries across all

33 Awards. The innovation and quality of the finalists are a true testament to the entrepreneurial spirit of our members,” says Ann Daw, president of the NASFT.

Coincidence, or are these bees special in a way not recognized by the reporter?

Ohia-Lehua honey is a popular wedding favor in Hawaii and is an inspired gift for any romantic occasion.

For a more complete complete discussion of the legend, and to learn why picking a Lehua blossom allegedly causes rain, see our Lehua page.

Please remember that honey is considered a liquid subject to the TSA’s 3 ounce rule and, unless purchased at the airport, should be packed in checked luggage only.

KEALAKEKUA, Hawaii (October 2010)-

Big Island Bees announced that it has combined its celebrated organic, white Lehua honey with organic cinnamon grown on the Big Island of Hawaii.

Cinnamon’s flavor and putative health benefits have been popular for hundreds of years. The addition of organic cinnamon grown on the Big Island with organic white, crystallized Lehua honey is a marvelous combination of Big Island crops, as the spicy taste and fragrant nose of the cinnamon provides balance to the mild and gentle sweetness of the Lehua.

The Lehua blossom, from which the honey is produced, is indigenous to Hawaii and is the inspiration for an ancient Hawaiian legend of love and fidelity.

Big Island Bees is part of a family business that has been producing honey in Hawaii for almost 40 years. It takes great pride in not heating, filtering or blending its honeys, so as to produce intense single floral flavors. Its honey is distributed on the U.S. West Coast, Hawaii, Hong Kong, and Japan, and is carried by a variety of specialty stores and high-end grocers, including Whole Foods. For more information please visit www.bigislandbees.com.

• 8 medium sweet potatoes (5 lbs), left unpeeled, halved lengthwise and cut crosswise into 2-inch pieces
• 2 navel oranges, left unpeeled, thinly sliced
• 2 large red onions, peeled and trimmed (leaving root ends intact) and cut into 1/2-inch-thick wedges
• 1 stick (1/2 cup) unsalted butter, melted
• 1/4 cup olive oil
• 1 cup golden raisins
• 1/3 cup raw Hawaiian Wilelaiki Blossom honey
• 1/3 cup fresh lemon juice
• 1/4 cup chopped fresh parsley

• Prepare grill for cooking.

• Toss together sweet potatoes, oranges, onions, butter, oil, and salt and pepper to taste.

• Put a 2-foot -long double layer of foil on a work surface. Place half of sweet potato mixture in center and sprinkle with 1/2 cup raisins. Cover with a third sheet of foil and tightly roll up all sides to seal. Wrap packet in a fourth sheet of foil to ensure insulation. Make another packet with remaining vegetables and raisins.

• Put packets side by side directly on hot coals. Cover grill and open grill vents, then grill packets until vegetables are tender, about 30 minutes.

• While packets are grilling, stir together raw Hawaiian honey, lemon juice, and parsley. Remove packets from grill and carefully unwrap. Drizzle vegetables with raw Hawaiian honey mixture.

Serves 10 to 12.

Gas grill method: Put packets on grill rack and close lid. Roast with grill set to moderately low.

Oven method: toss potatoes, oranges, onions, raisins, butter, and oil together in a large shallow roasting pan. Cover tightly with foil and roast in  a pre-heated 450 degree oven until potatoes begin to soften, about 50 minutes. Uncover and roast until vegetables are browned in spots and tender, about 25 minutes more.

Here are several of the most common bee dances:

Round Dance
Purpose: To inform other bees of nectar within 10 meters.
In this dance, the bee: Runs in small circles.

Cleaning Dance
Purpose: To ask another bee for a grooming.
In this dance, the bee: Stamps her feet and shakes her body.

Joy Dance
Purpose: To celebrate, for example, when a new queen emerges from her cell.
In this dance, the bee: Places her front legs on one another and pulses her abdomen up and down

Massage Dance
Purpose: To request a massage…even a bee needs a massage sometimes!
In this dance, the bee: Moves her head in a certain angle. Other bees respond by pulling her leg joints and touching her sides.

Alarm Dance
Purpose: When a food source is contaminated, bees dance to warn others of the danger.
In this dance, the bee: Vibrates vigorously and runs in a zigzag, spiral motion.

Tremble Dance
Purpose: To inform other bees that a large load of nectar has arrived in the hive for processing.
In this dance, the bee: Walks leisurely and wiggles their legs, causing their bodies to quiver and tremble.

Shake Dance
Purpose: To inform house bees to help the foragers collect nectar from a particularly rich source.
In this dance, the bee: Foragers shudder in front of one housebee at a time, to notify up to 20 per minute.

Whir Dance
Purpose: To motivate the colony to leave the hive and swarm.
In this dance, the bee: Runs in zigzags, whirs its wings and shakes its body.

Waggle Dance
Purpose: To explain the distance, direction and desirability of a nectar source farther than 10 meters.
In this dance, the bee: Makes two semi-circles and then runs the diameter of the circle. The straight side of the semi-circle shows direction, the running speed shows distance and the intensity shows the nectar’s sweetness and quantity.

The Queen Bee

The queen is like the goddess: her life is committed to selfless service by being the reproductive center of the hive. She lays all the eggs (about 1,500 per day!) and only leaves the hive once in her life in order to mate.

Becoming the queen bee is a matter of luck. Queens become queens only because as eggs they had the good fortune of being laid in cells specifically designated for raising queens. Then, they are fed more “royal jelly” (which contains more honey and pollen than the “larval jelly” that is eaten by workers and drones), allowing them to grow larger than other female bees.

Without a queen, life in the hive grows chaotic. The worker bees forage for nectar and pollen less, and when they do forage, they bring less back to the hive. When the queen dies (or if she slows down egg production), worker bees once again designate queen cells and raise new virgin queens.

The Male Drones

A male drone has only one purpose in life: to mate with the queen. And, there are 100 female worker bees for every male drone bee. While this may be appealing to some males, a drone’s life is hardly enviable.

Drones are incapable of feeding themselves or foraging for food, they lack stingers, and they die immediately after mating. And, when times are lean or during the winter (when the queen does not mate), worker bees force drones outside the hive, leaving them to starve. But, don’t worry…our male bees don’t suffer because Hawaii’s year-round warm climate ensures consistent warm weather…and our beekeepers make sure they are always in a honey flow!

The Female Workers

“A woman’s work never ends.” Nowhere is this statement truer than in the hive, where all of the work is done by female bees, which outnumber male bees by a ratio of 100 to 1.

Worker bees are responsible for every job in the hive except reproduction. The female worker bees have different positions within the hive. Some are scouts, some are guards, some care for the queen, some produce honey, etc. Below are some of the jobs in the hive:

“House Bee” Activities:

Nursing: Nurse bees feed and care for growing larvae.

Attending the Queen: Attendants to the queen groom her and feed her frequently.

Cleaning the Hive: This may involve cleaning used cells or clearing the hive of debris.

Cleaning other Bees: These chores involve cleaning dust, stray hairs, and other debris off several others in rapid succession.

Undertaker duties: Although 90% of bees die outside the hive, those that do not are dropped immediately outside the hive to dry. After they have dried, undertaker bees pick them up, fly them several hundred meters from the hive, and drop them (to prevent dead bees from accumulating by the hive, which could attract pests or pestilence).

Building Honeycomb: Bees secrete beeswax and use it to build honeycomb. Oftentimes hundreds of bees will work on the same small section of comb.

Capping Honeycomb: Bees secrete beeswax and use it to cap pupae cells and cells full of ripened honey.

Pollen Packing: House bees collect pollen from returning foragers and pack it in cells for later consumption.

Nectar Ripening: House bees ripen nectar into raw honey by depositing it in cells, and fanning the nectar so that excess water evaporates.

Repairing Hive: Bees use propolis to repair cracks in the hive and to cover foreign particles that are too large to remove.

Forager Bee Activities:

Collecting Nectar & Pollen: Bees visit 50-100 flowers to collect nectar and pollen on each foraging trip. They carry nectar in their “honey sacks” and pollen in the “pollen baskets” on their legs.

Collecting Propolis: Certain bees only collect propolis (“bee glue”), gathering the resinous substance from trees and carrying it home in their “pollen baskets.”

Collecting Water: 1% of the bees in the hive collect water. Water helps keep the hive cool and allows nurse bees to dilute raw honey for young larvae.

Guard the Hive: Guard bees protect the hive, stinging intruders and emitting a pheromone to warn bees inside the hive of impending danger.

A single bee can produce 1 tablespoon of honey in its lifetime. 683 bees fly roughly 32,550 miles to gather 5.93 lbs of nectar from about 1,185,000 flowers in order to make one 9.5 oz. jar of Big Island Bees’ honey!

Bees can fly up to 12 mph.

On every foraging trip, a bee will visit 50-100 flowers to collect nectar!

Bees heat and cool their own hive to keep it between 93 and 95 degrees year-round.

Bees are cold-blooded and must keep their hive at a constant temperature. In cold weather, bees keep the hive warm by swarming together to generate body heat and by sealing cracks in the hive with propolis.

In warm weather, the bees collect water and line up in a circle around the hive entrance. Using their wings, the bees fan the water so that it evaporates into the air. They then fan the cool air so that it circulates around the hive as a sort of central air conditioning.

A Queen Bee will lay 800,000 eggs in her lifetime!

Bees are remarkably tidy. Bees are very meticulous. They groom each other and keep their hive incredibly clean.

The hexagonal shape of the honeycomb is the most efficient shape in our world.

The pattern allows for the cells to be packed with no empty space in between. Though the wax is thin and delicate the structure of the hexagonal cells can hold a tremendous amount of weight.

Bees communicate by dancing! Click here to learn about bee dances.

Bees are known to raid other hives and steal honey!
Bees “rob” honey from other bees if honey from another hive is available (say, if a beekeeper leaves a hive open), or if times are lean. However, if a guard bee from the robbed hive catches an interloper (detecting the foreign smell of the intruder), the two will engage in battle—stinging to the death. If the robber makes it into the hive unnoticed, she will gain the scent of the hive (and learn the entrance well enough) that she can come in and out without being detected as an intruder.

A Bee’s diet consists of honey and pollen.
Honey and pollen are the building blocks of a bee’s diet. Bees eat honey because it provides them with energy-laden carbohydrates, while pollen’s protein provides bees with essential amino acids.

But, the Queen’s diet is richer in honey…which gives her fertility.
The queen’s staple food is a special honey and pollen mixture called “royal jelly.” Royal jelly contains more pollen and honey than larval jelly (the food eaten by worker and drone bees). The phrase “you are what you eat” is especially fitting here, since the queen would be infertile and indistinguishable from smaller worker bees if it weren’t for the added carbohydrates in royal jelly.

In Tea: Our artisanal honey varietals pair beautifully as follows: Lehua with green tea; Wilelaiki with chai, and Macadamia blossom with herbal teas.

With Breakfast: Put honey on pancakes, waffles, cornbread, muffins and toast.

As a fish marinade: Mix with soy sauce and hot spices and marinate for a few minutes.

To baste a Roasted Chicken: Baste a roasting chicken with honey, butter, lemon and soy sauce.

As a dressing: Simply mix any of our raw honeys with vinegar, oil and herbs…and pour over your favorite salad. Or simply drizzle it over a green salad with crumpled blue cheese.

Spooned straight from the jar. There are few things as luscious as artisanal single-floral honey! Be careful…it’s addictive!

On Fruit Salad: Mix organic honey with lime juice and pour over a fruit salad.

For baking: Use honey to replace sugar in most recipes…just slightly reduce other liquids.

To fight a cold: Mix hot water, honey, lemon and/or fresh ginger for a great pick-me-up.

To promote sleep: As a child, Whendi’s mother always served her hot milk and honey to help her sleep. Try it with your family.