FAQs
What is Varietal Honey?
Varietal Honey is the product of patience and dedication. While most beekeepers do one or two big harvests each year, we do multiple smaller harvests so we can separate out each type of honey. We plant multiple different crops, yielding a different honey flavor each season. We cold-filter all of our honey, so there is no pasteurization. This helps retain the flavors and health benefits of eating local honey, as there is still pollen in it. This can help with seasonal allergies, so if you have allergies in the fall, the sunflower variety is right for you as all the fall blooms are mixed in with the majority sunflower honey. Same with spring and summer allergies, just match up with the problem seasons and immunity starts to build.
What is the difference between each variety of honey?
Each Variety of honey has a distinct color and flavor. Locust honey is very light in color and has a slightly floral, delicate sweetness that is hard to compare. It pairs really well with vanilla ice cream. Bramble honey is made from blueberry and raspberry blossoms; it is a light amber color and is very sweet, with a fruity aroma that perfectly complements herbal tea. Sunflower honey is a rich amber color with a slightly nutty flavor, great on toast. Lastly, buckwheat honey is by far the most drastic difference from what you find in stores. It is a dark, almost molasses-like color with a very strong flavor, best used in sauces and baking to really bring out that honey taste.
How do you know what blossoms the bees are going to?
Each blossom variety that we plant blooms at different times of the year, so in spring the black locust tree blooms, then the blueberry and raspberry bushes in early summer, after that is buckwheat in midsummer, then finally we have the sunflowers in late summer and early fall. By basing our harvests on the seasons, we can separate each variety. We also observe our bees very closely and can see the color difference of the pollen on their legs. This helps us determine when to harvest when the bloom overlaps happen. While bees will travel 3-5 miles for nectar sources we keep our hives very close to our fields so they only have to fly into their front yard for an abundance of blossoms.