There’s something for everyone at the Farmers’ Market. On any given Saturday during the spring and summer, a stroll around Madison’s Capitol Square leads to a number of discoveries. Who knew you had a hidden taste for kale? Who’s to say portobello mushrooms can’t hit the spot just as well as the next type of fungus? And why not take the plunge and buy that sweet gallon of honey?

This is where Gentle Breeze Honey takes center stage. As of last weekend – when the Dane County Farmers’ Market finally returned from its winter hibernation – honey-buying season is officially underway.

Although it was founded in 1965, the idea for Gentle Breeze was unearthed years earlier.

“I came down to the University of Wisconsin … for a farm short course,” Owner Eugene Woller said in a recent interview with The Badger Herald. “I found this class on beekeeping and thought, ‘What the heck?’ By the end of the first week, I was hooked.”

After years of working for other companies and keeping bees as a hobby, Woller and his wife, Donna, decided to turn their pleasant pastime into a full-time profession.

“We just got a little bigger, and a little bigger,” said Woller. “Until Donna and I realized we were working around the clock. That’s when we finally decided the draw was too strong.”

However, the hives are hardly considered work to this industrious family. Woller is extraordinarily passionate about his bees and brings that enthusiasm to the Farmers’ Market every week. Located on the west side of Capitol Square, Gentle Breeze’s stand is one of the first crucial stops on any lazy Saturday morning loop around the Market.

Education is a top priority for Woller, as he attempts to quell customers’ misgivings about the bees themselves. He, as well as other family members, have taken the time to give presentations at local daycare centers and preschools, in an effort to nip honeybee fears in the bud. His endeavors have paid off.

“During the summer, we have the observation hive [at the Market],” Woller said. “It’s like a magnet for the kids. You can hear them coming three or four vendors down, tugging on their parents’ sleeves, shouting ‘Hurry, hurry! Let’s go see the bees!'”

That is the kind of energy that attracted Woller to the Farmers’ Market in the first place, and it’s what keeps him coming back every year.

“We enjoy having people stop by,” Woller said. “We’re not up there just to sell product; we’re up there to enjoy sharing bees and sharing our knowledge. … First you do a good job, and then the money will come.”

Modest as he may be, this businessman knows more than a thing or two about the honey industry. After the sweet stuff was put up for sale in several states across the Midwest, the word about Gentle Breeze spread far and wide – for good and delicious reason.

But Woller clearly senses a connection with the local Farmers’ Market, and pledges his loyalty. Although he sends his breeding stock of honeybees on a winter vacation to sunny Florida, Woller himself does not take time off from Wisconsin, or from his bees.

“You have to remember that they’re still livestock,” Woller said. “If you don’t take care of them, they don’t do well. You have to monitor them, even in the winter.”

As chilly a vocation as it can be, Gentle Breeze Honey is a family affair for the Wollers, one in which the children have been intimately involved. While his sons and daughter have taken their own paths in life, Woller is optimistic the pull will be too strong and will naturally bring them back home to their parents – and to the bees.

Family members learn from each other, and for the Wollers, these Madisonian honeybees have officially become part of that tight-knit tribe.

“The bees have been so good to us,” said Woller. “I was once told, ‘If you take care of the bees, the bees will take care of you.’ And I’ll tell you, I’ve never had a day with them that I haven’t learned something new.”