An Akron beekeeper is offering unique types of honey from hives scattered across the city.
In today鈥檚 Quick Bite, WKSU鈥檚 Vivian Goodman reports the color and flavor of each batch depends on the nectar source in different residential neighborhoods.
Brent Wesley, the founder of , works full time in information technology. He got into beekeeping for the love of honey.
"I didn鈥檛 know anything about bees. I just knew that I wanted to help my city, and help this community we have, to improve and take ownership of what I could to make it happen.鈥�
Sweetcatalyst
He says it all started a few years ago with a trip to Amish country. He got a taste of artisan honey, the best he鈥檇 ever had. At about the same time, he was considering buying a vacant lot near his Akron home.
鈥淚 drove past this lot every single day on my way to work. And it was kind of overgrown. Someone threw a tire or two over here. It wasn鈥檛 the best looking.鈥�
But looking at it after that taste of Amish honey, he suddenly knew what he could do with it. 鈥淚鈥檓 like, 鈥極K I think I鈥檓 going to do bees.鈥� So I bought it, and then this fence, I built it. "
What鈥檚 now Akron Honey Company鈥檚 Crestland Park Apiary is on Jefferson Avenue in a densely populated neighborhood of tidy, well-kept homes. Twice a year the city blocks traffic so Wesley can sell honey here along with other local vendors at a bustling street market.
Communitysupport
Wesley wondered at first whether neighbors would object to the bee yard in their midst.
鈥淔or a long time they didn鈥檛 know what I was doing over here. They just saw, all of a sudden, they saw a fence go up. People didn鈥檛 know that I had 10 hives behind here. Then we started doing the market day, and then people began to believe.鈥�
He鈥檇 been strongly advised to take a beekeeping class. 鈥淚 didn鈥檛. I just learned as much as I could online.鈥�
He learned the value of dead leaves.
鈥淒uring the fall, I rake them into a pile, let them dry out, and collect them, and this is my smoker fuel.鈥� He crushes, then ignites the leaves with a bellows smoker to calm his bees so he can tend to the hives.
鈥淪o I just want to get smoke. The point isn鈥檛 to create fire, it鈥檚 to create a smolder.鈥� As he pumps the bellows and smoke begins to billow, Wesley tells us he鈥檚 rarely been stung. He says bees have better things to do.
Dispelledfears
鈥淢an, I鈥檝e had, how many? Four market days now. And nobody鈥檚 been stung.鈥�
He says the street markets help dispel the fear that he once shared.
鈥淏efore all this, man, I would spray a bee to death because I didn鈥檛 understand. I didn鈥檛 understand that they don鈥檛 care. I鈥檓 standing 3 inches from them by a flower and they鈥檙e not messing with me. You saw that bee over there. It didn鈥檛 care about me. It had two legs full of pollen. It didn鈥檛 care about me.鈥�
When it鈥檚 smoky enough, we enter the bee yard without protective gear.
Amid the profuse foliage surrounding the hives, Wesley stops to marvel at a swarm of bees streaming in single file through a beam of sunlight into the treetops.
鈥淵ou see that. It鈥檚 like a highway. They鈥檙e all like on this highway. They鈥檙e on their way to somewhere.鈥�
Educating kids andneighbors
Wesley also keeps bees at St. Vincent- St.Mary High School, where students help out and learn, and on Akron鈥檚 east side at his Middlebury Apiary. The bees at his Crestland Park Apiary can forage on a community garden nearby, and Wesley encourages neighbors not to trim their lawns to excess.
鈥淚 mean clover, people think those are weeds. I mean those are very invasive, but you should see the honey they make from it. You鈥檒l stop cutting your grass in a hot second after tasting that stuff.鈥�
The honey that results from clover is so pale it鈥檚 almost transparent. And the taste:
鈥淐itrusy, not too sweet,鈥� says Wesley. 鈥淚t鈥檚 pretty crazy. People think that honey has to be sweet all the time. It doesn鈥檛. It ranges from there to like a red, an actual red honey. You鈥檙e going to find a little bit more red influences on the east side at my other apiary I have.鈥�
Taste and color varies
Many beekeepers wait until late in the season or the last nectar flow to clear out their hives, but Wesley harvests small batches several times throughout the year to get distinct color and flavor profiles.
鈥淵ou鈥檒l get anything from light to little darker, little bit darker, red, and then really dark. You got Japanese knotweed that鈥檚 around Akron. I see a lot of it in East Akron though. That鈥檚 kind of what makes that red color in honey. And it makes it more boldly sweet.鈥�
Brent Wesley had a chance to take his business into Cleveland. He turned down a $100,000 investment offer and dropped out of the running in LeBron James鈥檚 CNBC reality show 鈥�.鈥�
The joy of beekeeping, he鈥檚 discovered, is letting the bees be the busy ones.
鈥淚 mean, I really wish I could retire right now, because I would just come in here, and be with the bees.鈥�
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