Wednesday, December 16, 2015

Meet the Beekeeper: Eamon Lee

There’s nothing quite like local wildflower honey. Try a spoonful and you’ll never want to buy the little teddy bears on the shelf at the supermarket again. Thanks to Beekeeper Eamon Lee, who has kept honeybees on small local farms throughout Central New York since 2008, we've been able to enjoy his unique and delicious Lees Bees honey at our DISHES events!

One of the main differences in Lee’s Bees honey is the unique and fleeting characteristics of terroir. Each bottle is labeled with the specific location, date of harvest, and a snippet of information about who hosts the bees. The one variable that cannot be manipulated by man is which flowers the bees visit to collect the nectar that is ultimately distilled to make honey. Factors such as weather, soil, plants, temperature, hive strength, and wind all have an incredible influence on what nectar makes it back to the hive. Every bottle is different and represents the sum total of more than 700 bees’ life work. It’s no wonder Eamon describes honey as "nature’s purest produce, born of raw, natural, ephemeral whim!"
More about Eamon Lee Eamon Lee attended Paul Smith's College and proceeded to work at the Woodstock Inn and Resort in Woodstock, VT, opened The Arad Evans Inn in Fayetteville, NY, worked at Aureole and Park Avenue Café in NYC, and finally served as Executive Chef at The Century Club of Syracuse where he remained for 10 years. He is now the Corporate Executive Chef for Maine's Paper and Food Service where he provides consultative services to independent restaurants throughout upstate New York. He enjoys fly-fishing and building fine furniture.