What's the Buzz About?

Did you know?

A honeybee visits between 50 and 100 flowers during each flight. The nectar collected is deposited in a cell within the hive and is fanned by the wings of worker bees to reduce the moisture content of the nectar and turn it into honey.

A colony of honeybees must fly 55,000 miles to produce a single pound of honey.

The average honeybee produces only 1/12th of a teaspoon of honey in its lifetime.

During peak season, a colony may contain upwards of 50,000 bees, and the queen may lay 2000 eggs per day.  The majority of the hive consists of "worker" bees which are all female (the queen's daughters).  The males, called drones, make up about 15% of the hive's population.  The males do not have stingers.  

​

Although the sole queen bee may live for several years, individual honeybees have a relatively short life of several weeks.

In addition to producing honey, bees pollinate 80% of the fruits, vegetable and seed crops in the United States. This translates into a 14.6 billion dollar annual value.

Why does honey crystallize?

Have you ever reached into your cupboard, ready to enjoy some natural golden sweetness, and discovered your honey has crystallized?  Don’t panic. And don’t throw it out! Crystallization does not mean your honey has gone bad. In fact, it’s honey’s natural process of preserving itself, often occurring after three to six months of storage. Crystallized honey is still edible. Some even enjoy its grainy consistency as a spread on toast or as a cooking ingredient. 

​

The type of nectar the bees used to make the honey affects how quickly the honey will crystallize.  Honey from nectar with a higher level of glucose than fructose (like clover, dandelion, lavender, etc.) will crystallize much faster.  Also, raw honey contains more pollen grains than processed honey and therefore it will crystallize faster.  What is sad is the almost universal disdain for crystallized honey. By demanding clear liquid honey, consumers have created a market for the over-processed, adulterated, pollen-free “honey” we see on store shelves. If only we could demand the real thing.

​

To return crystallized honey to its liquid state, simply place your bottle of honey with it's lid off inside a pot of warm water.  To preserve raw honey's health properties, the water should be warm about 95-110 degrees fahrenheit - never place honey into boiling water.  Stir and allow the honey to sit in the warm temperature until it melts.

Raw, Pure, Natural Honey? What’s the difference?

Not all honey is equal. Ever stood there looking at the shelf wondering which honey to buy?  And what does it matter?  Honey can be pure without being raw. Raw honey is typically pure and natural, but pure and natural honeys aren’t always raw.  The term natural implies that the honey you’re buying doesn’t include any added color, artificial flavor, or synthetic substance, but it is probably processed.

 Pure honey implies no additional ingredients, such as sugar, corn syrup, or artificial or natural flavoring have been added. Pure honey can come in a variety of colors and flavors, depending on where the bees have gathered their nectar. But pure honey is not necessarily raw, unfiltered honey unless the beekeeper you are buying it from has stated so.  

Raw means the honey is unfiltered, unheated, unpasteurized and packed with its original good-for-you antioxidants, vitamins, anti-bacterial and anti-viral properties. With raw honey, as with many foods, any form of heating is avoided to ensure all the natural vitamins and living enzymes and other nutritional elements are preserved.

​

Most store-bought honeys, including pure and natural ones, are processed to prevent fermentation and to preserve it in a liquid state to prevent crystallization on the shelf.

Collected straight from the honey extractor, our honey is organically pure and raw and is never heated, pasteurized, or processed.  It is honey the way nature intended.