"Don't Step on a Bee Day" in Washington
“Was you ever bit by a dead bee?” Remember Walter Brennan in To Have and Have Not? July 10th is National “Don’t Step on a Bee Day.” Buzz Bakery (901 Slaters Lane, Alexandria, 703/600-2899), coffee shop and dessert lounge will celebrate the day to help raise public awareness of the crisis in beekeeping by creating Bumble Bee cupcakes. The cupcakes are a vanilla cake filled with a chocolate center, iced with vanilla buttercream and topped with a bumble bee. The cupcakes sell for $2.75 each.
Chef Josh Short’s other honey-themed treats will include wildflower honey ice cream, “Bee Hive” sugar cookies and Tupelo honey panna cotta with fresh berries. Buzz will give children free “honey cups” – mini vanilla cakes – available on a first come, first served basis.
Since October 2006, the American Beekeeping Federation has received reports from commercial beekeepers of honey bee colonies dying in the eastern United States. Beekeepers are struggling for survival and farmers are wondering whether bees will be available to pollinate crops this year.
And speaking of bees and the shortage of honey bees, the Fairmont Washington Hotel (2401 M St.NW) recently welcomed 105,000 Italian honey bees to their new home on the roof of the hotel. The rooftop now has three honey beehives. Executive Sous Chef Ian Bens and Executive Pastry Chef Aron Weber are sharing the responsibility of Chief Bee Keepers. They expect to retrieve 300 pounds of honey within the first year. Honey harvested from the Fairmont’s Bee Hives will be used in soups, salad dressings, pastries, ice cream and other culinary preparations in the hotel’s restaurant, Juniper.
Each of the Fairmont’s hives houses one queen bee and about 33,000 worker bees. They travel up to three miles away from their rooftop home foraging for food; they always return to their hives. Bee Keeper Bens hopes eventually “to use the honeycomb to create candles, soaps and even lip balm.”
foraging for food; they always return to their hives. Bee Keeper Bens hopes eventually “to use the honeycomb to create candles, soaps and even lip balm.”