We had a fabulous time at the International Bacon Fest in Houston this past weekend!  Highlights of the event included Bacon Bros Public House’s amazing bacon inspired foods, as well as Buttz Food Truck that specializes in smoked pulled pork sandwiches.  Some passersby drizzled our delicious and spicy Fiery Sweet Mesquite honey on their meals (we love it when that happens)!  The food was amazing…so many intoxicating flavors floating in the air!
 
Others that joined included Wokker Texas Ranger Food Truck, Shucking Corn, Texas Beer Bus, Grandma’s Boys Lemonade, Doughmaker Doughnuts, Small Batch Pork Rinds, among others. 
 
And the music was a great mix…super cool!  Bow Legged Monkey, DJ Wild Boi Jake, Texas Joe Bailey and Blaze X Black.
 
We can’t wait to come back next year!

Have you noticed that the weather in Dallas is fantastic this time of year?  There's no better way to enjoy this great fall season than spending time at the State Fair of Texas.

A trip to the State Fair of Texas provides endless amounts of fun for everyone.   Schedule time to head out to Fair Park any day beginning September 29 through October 22 and partake in your choice of more than 100 daily shows, live music and family-friendly activities. 

​Join Lone Star Bee Company at the GO TEXAN Pavilion presented by Southwest Dairy Farmers, and the GO TEXAN Pioneer Brand General Store.   At the GO TEXAN Pioneer Brand General Store, you can pick up our Fiery Sweet Mesquite honey and our Lucky Lime & Sea Salt Clover honey (next to the State Fair Wine Garden and close to the Cotton Bowl)!

Houston friends, Lone Star Bee Company has joined the University of Houston in their spanking brand new farmer's market!  The first of the University's markets was held this past Wednesday at the main campus and we thoroughly enjoyed spending time with students and staff as they took time to visit with us and learn about our honeys.  

Lauren Ross (Director of Wellness and Sustainability, University of Houston Dining Services) and Alonso Munoz (Hotel Restaurant Management, University of Houston) and their teams have  worked hard to create a fantastic market which includes vendors such as Loam Agronomics, Popston, Plant it Forward, Texas Hill Country Olive Company, Kickin' Kombucha, Let Them Eat Cobbler, Radicle Fresh Juice, and Lone  Star Bee Company, among others.

We are thrilled to bring our wares to the students and faculty at the University of Houston and can't wait to return to the campus.  Future market days are scheduled for every other Wednesday through the remainder of 2017.  We hope you can make it out to join us and look forward to seeing you there!

Dripping Springs, Texas is well-known as the “Gateway to the Hill Country.”  Just 20 minutes west of Austin, Dripping Springs attracts folks to live music venues, rodeos, wineries, craft breweries and local distilleries.  This past weekend, Lone Star Bee Company was thrilled to participate as a specialty vendor at the 10th Annual Dripping with Taste Wine & Food Festival.

Dripping with Taste festival showcased many Texas vineyards and wineries, breweries, distilleries and gourmet food fares from the area.   The festival also included cooking demonstrations, drink mixology classes, and specialty vendors – like Lone Star Bee Company!  Rum, vodka, gin and even whiskey distilleries joined the party.   It was a true celebration of the Texas Hill Country and the flavor of Texas!

Thank you to those who came out to see us.  We had a wonderful time and can't wait to come back again for the 11th Annual Dripping with Taste Wine & Food Festival next year!

Near our place in Houston, the Buffalo Bayou runs through our neighborhood, as does the major thoroughfare Memorial Drive.  Memorial Drive follows alongside the Bayou, connecting downtown Houston to the Galleria area.  After Hurricane Harvey hit this past week, the Buffalo Bayou overflowed to a level higher than ever in its history.  We suddenly had a lake in our neighborhood when Memorial Drive was covered completely with the Bayou's water.  

The tall building in these photos is the AIG Building, which is positioned on the opposite side of Buffalo Bayou. The entire city endured extremely high water which caused over 100,000 homes to become severely damaged or totally destroyed. Thousands of people were displaced and were temporarily housed at downtown's George R. Brown Convention Center and also at NRG Center, located at the NRG Stadium in the south part of the city.   

Lone Star Bee Company was very lucky.  We suffered no losses.  But, we watched our fellow Houstonians on television who were in need and we joined H-E-B Grocery to help. 

H-E-B has three mobile kitchens that are constructed inside tractor-trailers.  Each trailer is a full kitchen.  As they traveled from one location to another to render aid, several tractor-trailers followed along with food and supplies.  H-E-B came to NRG Center on August 30th and 31st.  We helped H-E-B distribute breakfast and lunch to hundreds of people who had been sheltered at NRG for days.  Scott McClelland, president of H-E-B, was there to help, as was U. S. Senator for Texas, Ted Cruz. Both gentlemen were great listeners as the victims of the hurricane told their heartbreaking stories of how they ended up at the shelter.

We are hoping for a very speedy recovery for Houston, and for the many fine Houstonians who were completely overwhelmed by this catastrophe.  #HoustonStrong

Looking for a new cocktail recipe?  This is a feisty and fun one!

Ingredients: 

• 2 ounces Dry Gin (We recommend Genius Gin: Texas Oaked Gin or Old Highborn Gin)
• 1 ounce Fiery Sweet Mesquite honey syrup*
• ½ ounce fresh lemon juice
• Cracked black pepper or red pepper flakes

 
*To make honey syrup, thin the honey out with equal parts hot water. This will allow for the honey to integrate easily throughout the cocktail.  

Instructions: 

1. Add gin, honey, and lemon juice to shaker.
2. Shake with ice and strain into a chilled cocktail glass.
3. Sprinkle black pepper or red pepper flakes over surface of cocktail.

 
Note: For those who like extra heat, increase Fiery Sweet Mesquite honey syrup to 1.5 ounces.
 
Shutterstock/Kazanovskyi

Mark and I are thrilled to tell you that Lone Star Bee Company has been selected as a Finalist in H-E-B’s 2017 Quest for Texas Best contest!  Our Fiery Sweet Mesquite infused honey and our Lucky Lime & Sea Salt infused honey have both caught the eye of H-E-B and we can’t wait to show our favorite grocer how well our infused honeys pair with so many foods.
 
A couple of years ago, Mark and I noticed H-E-B’s ad in the Houston Business Journal showcasing the winners of the previous year’s contest.  We pasted the ad on our fridge at home and looked at it each time we visited the kitchen, hoping that one day we would be ready to enter the contest.  Earlier this year, we threw our hat in the ring.  Today, we are pinching ourselves that we made it this far.
 
Lone Star Bee Company is honored to be a part of this exciting H-E-B journey! 

The queen bee is the “mother” of all the bees in her colony.   Each honey bee colony will be ruled by only one queen at a time.  She begins her life as a tiny larva, selected by worker bees and fed a special diet of exclusively royal jelly, which allows her to grow into an adult queen bee. 
 
Worker bees take charge in creating a new queen whenever one is needed in a colony.  Space constrictions, poor egg laying performance associated with the queen’s age, or perhaps the unexpected death of a queen will trigger worker bees to get right at work. 
 
Queens are raised in special cells, fittingly called queen cells, which resemble the shape and texture of a peanut and are constructed by the worker bees.   The old queen lays an egg in the queen cell while it is in the early stages of construction.  The worker bees then continue building the remainder of the queen cell around the egg.  In just three days, the egg will hatch into a larva.  After eight days, the cell that houses the queen larva will be fully encapsulated in beeswax by the worker bees.   Once encapsulated, the queen transforms into a pupa.  After 16 days, she is ready to emerge as the queen bee of the colony.    
 
She will fly only once in her lifetime and this flight event is referred to as her “maiden flight”.  The purpose of the maiden flight is to mate with several drones before returning to her colony for the remainder of her life.  Thereafter, the queen’s only job is to lay eggs…sometimes more than 1,500 eggs each day!
 
It is typical for a colony of bees to construct a few queen cells at one time, in order to better their odds that one queen will survive her maiden flight, mate, then return to the colony.  In the photo above, the worker bees have created three queen cells side-by-side, and only one of these queens will emerge victorious.
 
The first queen to emerge from her queen cell will immediately begin searching for other queen cells. She makes her best effort to kill all the other queens, while they are still encapsulated inside their cells, by stinging them through the wall of the cell from the outside.  Queen bees do not have a barbed stinger, so she can user her stinger repeatedly, without the threat of dying.  

Who knew honey could be such a fantastic ingredient in cocktails?  And, our Lucky Lime & Sea Salt Clover honey is exceptional in mixed drinks!
 
Lately, Mark and I have become mixologists of sorts.  We’ve been toying around with our infused honeys as a fun ingredient in cocktails, and this cocktail is truly wonderful.  We have taken the classic Paloma (Spanish for “dove”) and changed it up just a bit and I have to say, our twist on this recipe is invigorating.  It is a perfect drink to sip on in the summertime; when lounging by the pool, after a hard day’s work in the yard, or celebrating with friends and family on the Fourth of July.   Here’s our Honey Paloma recipe, give it a try!
 
Ingredients:

• 2 ounces of your favorite blanco or reposado tequila
• 2 ounces fresh squeeze grapefruit juice
• 2 ounces club soda
• ¾ ounces Lucky Lime & Sea Salt Clover honey
• Salt

 
Instructions:

1. Rim glass with Lucky Lime & Sea Salt Clover honey and salt.
2. In shaker, mix grapefruit juice and tequila.
3. Add ¾ ounces Lucky Lime & Sea Salt Clover honey to shaker.  Shake very well to incorporate honey into tequila and juice.
4. Add ice and shake.
5. Pour into glass.
6. Top off with club soda.
7. Garnish with grapefruit and lime wedges.   Enjoy!

shutterstock/robstathem