Foodlore Library

My grandpa Brigham was a beekeeper in Richfield, Idaho, a small town near Sun Valley in central Idaho. He and his five children worked with the bees, coming home with sticky hands and bee stings on their ankles and wherever the pesky insects found a place to make their mark. Growing up, I was always fascinated with my mother's stories about working with her father in the honey business. Honey is not the only interesting thing that is harvested from beekeeping. Because Grandpa Brigham died young, I have never heard any beekeeping stories from his own lips, only from my mothers. The business of bee-keeping cemented the family together in a kind of sticky-sweet way. The Patterson children took the memories of working with dad home with them.