In May of 2009 Alison and I bought our first beehive. Friends of ours thought we were having a midlife crisis and instead of buying a red sportscar, opted for 100,000 buzzing bees. In some ways we were having a midlife crisis but not the typical one. Tova and Tuvia's Honey is the result of that crisis, as well as months of dreaming, planning, and hard work.

We moved to Israel almost four years ago and were getting back in touch with the land after living in big cities our whole lives. Living in the city we no longer had an intrinsic feeling of when the agricultural seasons started and when they stopped, except when the ground was covered with the white stuff or when we saw pumpkins lining the streets for Halloween. The supermarkets were filled with plastic trays of fruit and vegetables from far off places — harvested, packaged and flown in to satisfy the needs of a global market, despite the distance and the seasons.

Getting our first hive meant figuring out where fruits and vegetables were grown close to our home in Rehovot, Israel. From which direction do the winds come and what are the average night-time temperatures in winter. When is pollen available and when does the nectar flow and from what vegetation. Which plants are pollinated by bees and how to deal with mites and moths that visit the hive.

These are just some of the questions that we had to ask just to set up our first hive. Learning the way bees grow and communicate with each other was another level. All this is being learned by our family as we go to work every day and our kids attend regular school in Rehovot.

We had our first mini-harvest from our two small hives and decided to dive deeper. We found a beekeeper who was selling his spot and we jumped in. Today, we own almost 40 hioves and are in the process of converting them to small cell bees in order to avoid using harsh chemicals.

This year has truly been a sweet one for our family as we learned about nature, our country, and about ourselves.