The guy in town here has a deal set up with some local farmers. They use him to pollinate their crops, and he uses their crops to make honey. Then they both sell the other's products as well as their own. The variety in the stuff that he has is really impressive. The tastes are vastly different going from wildflower to orange blossom to whatever else. One day, I'll have tried it all. But the raw honey he sells has such a distinct and lovely taste that I usually end up leaving with a jar of it along with whatever I decided to try that time around.
yea, if you have only had store honey you haven't had honey. You got to love seeing local producers and business work together. where are you from if you dont mind me asking?
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Hmm. I need to think of another terrible question to ask now. . .
Come at me Bro!
What are your thoughts on the vanishing US middle class and how is it a metaphor for the social structure of bee colonies?
Just kidding!
I think it would be interesting to make a post about queen bees perhaps. Also did you make a post about the tools of the beekeeping trade yet?
I have a post about queens here
bee-syndicate-s1-e4-8-18-2015-her-majesty-the-queen-she-is-sort-of-a-royal-slut
but I will have to reread it. It likely deserves a revisit. I have talked about the tools before but I think maybe I should profile each tool on its own.
Interesting read. Though i do wonder, does the US goverment have a formula or something to determin what kind of honey it is (from one specific plant or a blend of many)?
Hey @Red_Lightning Saw you on @Pistol 's live stream last night good to see you here!
Bees are not controlled like chickens or cows. (That is they are not kept in a pen or held by fences.) They are free to go where they want (That's why people don't "have" bees they "keep" them. )
because of this they gather food wherever and gather whatever they find. Honey is almost always a mix.
You can guess what type of nectar based on what is predominantly available at a given time. so if your bees are near a lot of clover and you harvest new honey when the clover flow is going on (or shortly after) then you can assume that its clover honey. also honey from different sources have different flavors and some people can tell the predominant source for a few of them from the taste.
I imagine a test could be done but its hard. You would have to capture pollen from the honey suspension and identified pollen and you would need a decent sample size as cross contamination of the bees moving about the hive but in the end it always going to be some type of mix. its easier to just look at the available local nectar sources.
Hey,
Yeah I do know a bit about bees since my fathers cousin is a beekeeper. And where I live, there are strict regulations on the type of honey you can advertise. It's probably the same in the US, here they usually move bees depending on what type of honey the beekeeper wants. Of course that all comes down to what is in bloom. The regulations here dictate that all honey has to be tested if you wish to advertise it as a certain type. That all depends on the percentage of pollen found in the honey itself. The general percentage that has to be found in honey to call it a certain type is 45%. Now this varies due to certain plants producing more pollen than others, so for example sweet chestnut honey has to have around 60% or more sweet chestnut pollen in it for it to be considered that certain type of honey. If it is below that, it can only be declared as forest honey. On the other side, acacia produces very little pollen so there only has to be around 10% of acacia pollen in the honey for it to be considered that type.
Now again, this is just my country and it's crazy rules, but it does benefit the end user as they are aware of what they're consuming.
Hope i didn't add to much clutter to your topic
much like the world of wine in the US the regulations are much more relaxed or virtually nonexistent compared to other countries such is the case with honey. There are strict regulations in the food world as a hole. The US is not a country that is not exactly concerned with the terroir of foods (at least from a labeling POV) you want some Merlot blended in your Cabernet its basically OK as far as the government is concerned. Same with hone as far as i have seen i've seen no real guidelines on what it takes to call a honey "clover",or "sour wood " ect. that's just not the way the US gov views food regulation. Most of the time in stores you will only find "Honey" or "Clover Honey and this is a term often used for wild flower honey" but if you get your honey from a local keeper or farmers market. You can be quite confident that they know what the bees are up to what they are foraging on. (probably :p )
Hope i didn't add to much clutter to your topic
Please, I love interaction on the blog! It is great to talk about how things are around the world. Every interaction is a chance for me to learn and I love that. Many of my posts have come out of interactions of previous posts. So Thank you and please post in the future!
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@beesyndicate +1 on the local par. Down here you can get mesquite and prickly pear honey. It is fun when traveling to try different honeys,
mesquite and prickly pear honey
That sounds amazing! I am for sure going to VA this year and want to see what they have! Possibly will go to CA, and DC this year too. I think Im going to have to start a collection. Maybe honey reviews should be a new part of the blog. hmmmmm
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my recommendation for honey would be:
- acacia, it also has a higher % of fructose than glucose, so even some diabetics can eat it under doctor supervision
- spruce honey, supposedly good for people who suffer from anemia, cough and bronchitis
tha'd be awesome. Let me know if you make your way to oregon ever. I need to investigate cool local honey. I know there is a pretty good local scene here, but I haven't looked into it much.
good for people who suffer from anemia, cough and bronchitis
There are lots of types of hunting that are considered to have medicinal purposes . You should always consume Raw honey if you're using it for the medicine because pasteurization removes a lot of the enzymes and beneficial properties of the honey. I think we have another idea for another blog post. I think I will have the little reading to do tonight . Thanks for the recommendations and the idea.
Plus honey is good for its soothing properties with regards to the throat from what I've heard and what things like cough drop flavors suggest right? I remember seeing a backstage video with James LaBrie of Dream Theater, talking about how he always had a thermos of hot water and honey (iirc) on hand during shows. He ruptured his vocal cords earlier in his career, so I'm sure that he really tries to take good care of himself nowadays.
I guess this kind of goes along with Red_Lightning's comment perhaps.
If I do this you know I'm going to have to try and taste honey from all 50 states. not to mention internationals.
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This would make an amazing vlog :D
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Yea it might be a good place to start prior to starting a vlog about bee keeping.
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all i got was those honey pictures were hella yummy looking