A hand holds up a frame of capped honeycomb; beside it an amber jar of honey, an uncapping fork and a metal smoker on the bench.

Food and wine

Honey and Beekeeping

Beekeeping is a patient and silent craft. The beekeeper works with an animal that is not really his — the bee is wild, even when it lives in a hive built by human hands — and that asks for respect, prudence, and a reading of the seasons and of the territory. Honey is the result of work that belongs above all to the woods and the meadows, and the beekeeper accompanies it to the harvest. He knows which flowering is coming, where to move the hives to catch it, when to leave the colony in peace and when to step in.

A row of coloured hives follows a grassy hillside path among wildflowers; a stone farmhouse sits behind and an olive tree in front.

Where

Where it is practised in Tuscany

In Tuscany honey has geographies that follow the woods and the hills. The Lunigiana (Massa-Carrara) produces dark, faintly bitter chestnut honey and very pale acacia honey. The Casentino and the Val di Chiana (Arezzo) have traditions of wildflower honey and chestnut honey. The Maremma (Grosseto) produces eucalyptus honey — sought after and distinctive, from an imported tree — and wildflower honey. The Siena and Firenze hills give fine wildflower honey, sunflower honey from the arable plains, and clover honey. The Florentine Mugello and the Pistoia area have traditions of chestnut and acacia honey. The Versilia has niche beekeeping, often combined with other farming activities.

On the bench: a comb frame, an uncapping fork, a strainer, a jar of honey, the smoker, a hive tool, a brush and the folded bee veil.

How

The techniques of the craft

The techniques of the craft call for detailed knowledge. The modern hive is a modular system of boxes with movable combs, which lets the beekeeper intervene without destroying the structure of the colony. Extraction is done by taking out the ripe combs, uncapping them (removing the wax seal that closes the cells) and spinning them — the honey comes out by centrifugal force without the product being heated. Monofloral honey (acacia, chestnut, lime, eucalyptus) is obtained by placing the hives in areas where one species predominantly flowers and harvesting only during that flowering. Wildflower honey is the "default" honey, which gathers the whole season and contains many different nectars. Propolis, royal jelly and wax are by-products: propolis is the resin the bees collect from trees and use to disinfect the hive; royal jelly is the substance the workers produce to feed the young larvae and the queen bee; wax is produced by the glands of the young workers to build the combs.

A steel extractor stands in the middle of the workroom; shelves of honey jars in many shades line the wall as a man works a comb by the window.

Now

The craft today

Doing it today is a craft in deep difficulty. Beekeeping is in crisis worldwide: pesticides (neonicotinoids in particular), loss of habitat, agricultural monocultures that reduce the biodiversity of flowerings, parasites such as Varroa destructor (a mite arrived from Asia that decimates colonies), climate change (flowerings out of step, harvests that fail or turn out exceptional in unpredictable ways). The finest Tuscan businesses practise migratory beekeeping (moving the hives between different flowerings), certified organic production, and integration with other farming activities. Quality Tuscan honey has a knowledgeable market in Italy and abroad.