Our Honey comes from the nectar our honeybees gather as they visit blossoms within two miles of our mountain home between Asheville and Hendersonville, NC.

Unlike most honey in the country, our mountain honey is derived almost entirely from the blossoms of trees and wild plants, and very little from agricultural crops. The main spring flow is May and generally is heavy with Tulip Poplar plus variable amounts of Black Locust and Blackberry nectars. Then there is a break in the action until Sourwood and Sumac bloom in late June. After that, the summer dearth can be long and hard for bees and beekeepers alike and the bees may have to eat much of what they’ve stored. This is the time of the year when you’ll see honeybees in clover-covered lawns and buzzing around the humming bird feeders.

The final bloom period is September and October with goldenrod and many different asters. Sadly, this flow has decreased significantly as the meadows, fallow fields and roadsides, once lush with the purples, whites and golds, are becoming developed. (This loss of habitat is even more devastating for our native pollinators.)

Each year’s honey harvest is unique, similar to the concept of wine vintages.

In 2005 most of the Tulip Poplar blossoms froze and died so spring honey (generally a rich dark color) was nearly ‘white’ from the locust and blackberry crops.

In 2006 the summer honey (usually the light sourwood honey) had a red tinge, perhaps from sumac. 2007 brought the horrific Easter freeze and we made no spring honey, but were rewarded with a bumper fall sourwood harvest.

Spring 2008’s honey was the most aromatic locust blend in memory, but the extreme drought meant little or no summer honey and no goldenrod / aster flow.

Each year also brings a different yield — a good year is 100 or more pounds of honey per hive. Some years bring no rain and few blooms with little or no nectar; untimely rains or cold weather can prevent the foragers from gathering great quantities of nectar.

Nectar becomes honey when the bees add several healthy enzymes (including invertase) as they collect and transfer their precious load. The watery nectar is ‘ripened’ as it is dried during the actual transfer process from worker to worker and by the fanning of thousands of tiny wings once it has been deposited in a tiny hexagonal wax cell. When less than 18 ½% water, workers ’cap’ or seal each cell with a fine layer of pure beeswax. Now, it’s honey.

 

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