When you buy honey direct from a beekeeper, you can be sure that it is as natural as it comes.
Beekeepers don’t just keep bees. They:
– make sure that their bees are kept in hives that are suited to their needs and placed at a site that provides ample varied forage throughout the season
– care for their bees all year long, making sure that the hives are secure whatever the weather
– only take honey that the bees can readily spare, leaving them more than enough for their own needs
– handle their honey carefully and hygienically from the apiary to the jar
Members of our association usually have honey for sale. If you would like to buy or would like more information, please send us and email stating your location (such as the first part of your postcode).
FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTIONS
Do you have raw, organic honey?
It’s very difficult to say whether honey is organic of not. Hives may be in an area that is certified to be organic but honey bees will forage up to 3km from the hive and are partial to wild flowers such as white clover, brambles and dandelions. Regulations stipulate that we cannot claim anything about our honey that we cannot prove.
There is no accepted definition of raw honey. Commercially prepared honey may have been heat-treated and finely filtered to give a uniform product with a long shelf life. Beekeepers simply spin or scrape honey off the comb and allow it to drain through a sieve to remove unwanted lumps such as wax. If “raw” means “in its natural state”, then that is what a local beekeeper offers.
We like to call it “real honey”.
Why is your honey expensive?
Honey varies considerably in price. Commercially produced honey sometimes contains sugar syrups enabling them to be sold at very low prices; sometimes as as much a beekeeper will pay for a single jar. Keeping bees is not a cheap hobby. A hive costs anything upwards of £120 and there are many annual, ongoing costs. We don’t include the many hours that we spend working with our bees. We aim to sell our honey at a competitive price because we want people to enjoy the wonderful honey that we offer; but at the same time we need to be realistic about our costs.
Why has my honey turned solid?
All honey will turn solid – granulate – some honeys sooner than others. Every batch of honey that we harvest is different, even from the same hive in the same location. The nectar that bees forage varies enormously depending on local weather, long-term climate, soil condition and more. Honey bees will choose blossoms that offer the best return for their effort, so may visit different combinations of flowers. Bees turn the nectar into honey; a long, complicated process resulting in sugar-rich honey with unique taste and aroma. If the predominant sugar in the nectars is glucose, the honey will granulate quickly.
If you prefer runny honey, you can rest the jar – tightly sealed so that no water gets in – in a pan of gently simmering water until the honey is liquid and clear. Be careful not to overheat it, otherwise the precious enzymes will be lost.