fireweed honey

one of the few foods i've been missing, while i'm living in Dawson instead of Paris, is NOT croissants but honey. the only honey i can find here is mass-produced and not very tasty, whereas in France, local honey is readily available (even in small towns). so i was wondering if there are honeybees in the Yukon. i don't know how the bee population up here is doing. there's a depressing downward trend in bee population across North America (see a recent BBC story here). and yet, in France there is an increasing push towards small bee-keepers, even keeping bees in the city. i used to be amazed to see bees that looked very much like honeybees up on my 6th-floor balcony, checking out the heather and miniature cherry tree i kept there.

so i did a bit of research...and it's encouraging to discover that the Yukon DOES have a healthy honeybee population. while i can't buy any local honey in Dawson, when i get to Whitehorse at the end of March, i can try wildflower honey from organic Yukon farms. i'm also going to keep an eye out for fireweed honey--because fireweed is the flower of the Yukon (& the Yukon Brewing Co. uses fireweed honey in its excellent Discovery Ale.) above, the fireweed image is a Yukon quilt design from Bear's Paw quilts.