Photo/Allison Young
COOL E
EB
These local beekeepers aren’t afraid of the sting
BY LAURA DAVIS
Bees are not exactly what most of us want swarming in our backyard. In fact, we pay people specifically to dispose of them. We run, we scream, we swat … we conjure up tear-jerking memories of My Girl … but like anything else, there are exceptions. People who not only embrace bees, but who join clubs and go to committee meetings to learn all about them. We took to the Reno local honey scene to discover what it takes to be a bee enthusiast. To be bold enough to walk calmly into an angry swarm—and remain cool long enough to sneak off with their life’s work.
The hobbyist “Every time I go out, I get stung,” says beekeeper Albert Sindlinger.
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Meet Lindsey Pastrell, of local honey producer Over the Roof. While you may not have heard of it by name, you might have already tasted it. The word-of-mouth father-daughter team produces nature’s nectar right in their backyard, and what they don’t give out in hand-to-hand service, they provide for use in local businesses, such as Too Soul Tea Co. on Plumas Street and PJ & Company on South Wells Avenue. The self-proclaimed hobbyists, who now own 20 hives, fell into the art of beekeeping with a little help from the local godfather of honey making himself. “My dad was driving down the street and saw some hives in a backyard,” Pastrell recalls. “He’d always been interested in beekeeping, so he decided to stop and talk to the owner. It ended up being the house of Nevada’s only certified beekeeper of the time—Joe Nunce. Joe talked
my dad into it. This was over 10 years ago.” Once her dad put on the bee suit, Pastrell soon followed. Only her attire of choice was a little more tailormade. The sterile look of head-to-toe white didn’t appeal to her, but seeing as bees are hostile to dark colors, her options where limited. She wisely settled on a pale blue hue to dye her beekeeping garb. “I think I’m the only one in Nevada with a colored suit,” Pastrell laughs. Her tendency to favor color doesn’t end with the thread. Pastrell also prefers her honey to have a bit more distinct hue. While it’s tricky to predict exactly what flavors you’ll get from batch to batch—bees travel around a two-mile radius from their hives, so you never quite know what they’re sampling—different seasons bring different blooms, and the late fall varietal tends to be darker, thanks to shrubs such as rabbitbrush.
