4 Delightful Rare Honeys That Need More Buzz
Exploring the fascinating world of rare honeys and the good of beekeeping
Dear Gardenerds,
I am enchanted with honeybees and honey.
For years now, I’ve always bought my honey and beeswax candles from a local beekeeper. During the first summer of the pandemic, I got to go on a virtual tour of beehives. That led me to delve deep into books on beekeeping.
I would definitely become a beekeeper, except for one little thing.
I’m scared of getting stung.
Like, terrified.
To be fair, I’m not scared of bees in the garden. (Well, not that scared.) I know that as long as I let them do their thing, they have no reason to sting me (unlike wasps, who need no reason but the fury in their hearts). Bees only sting if they feel threatened — mostly if they feel their hives are threatened.
But beekeepers get stung. Maybe not very often, if they’re careful, but bees will defend themselves if you accidentally smoosh their friend. The beekeepers who took me on that virtual tour don’t wear protection gear because their bodies have adapted to getting stung, so it doesn’t hurt as much. But I think the most terrifying thing would be bees flying around me.
Maybe it would be different if I actually went to a beehive in person. Maybe I’d just find it so cool that the flying swarm would seem like a small price to pay.
But in the meantime, I’m just going to nerd out about rare honey. Who’s with me?
Something to learn…
Most of the honey you find in the grocery stores isn’t real honey. In the US, you can put the word “pure” on a honey jar even if it’s mostly honey-flavored corn syrup. If you don’t like honey, and all you’ve ever tried is the stuff from the grocery store, then that’s probably why. (There’s also a lot of honey fraud going on, so check your suppliers. The best place to get real raw honey is from a local supplier.)
Most actual honey is multifloral, which is excellent and the best for honeybees nutritionally. But beyond that is a extensive world of rare honeys.
Rare honey isn’t just honey that’s limited in quantity. Rare honey comes from very specific, often ephemeral conditions that are difficult or impossible to reproduce elsewhere. There’s a lot of honey that fits under this bill (Manuka being the most famous), but today I just want to highlight four.
Honeydew Honey
By honeydew, I don’t mean the fruit. Honeydew is a sugary liquid secreted sap-sucking insects like aphids and mealybugs. Ants will herd aphids in order to get their mandibles on the stuff, and honeybees will use it like they would nectar. But the bees don’t make honeydew honey from the aphids infesting your lettuce (sadly). This honeydew is from tree sap, and commercial production takes place in forests away from flowers to ensure purity.
Interestingly, some retailers make it seem like the honey comes from trees, and don’t include the part about insects. 🤷♀️
Heather Honey
Heather honey is another rare honey for a number of reasons. Heather only blooms for a short period (4 to 6 days) during a timeframe when honeybees are usually winding down. Production-wise, it’s harder to get it out of the honeycomb because it’s much thicker than other types. In fact, you could hold the jar sideways and none will come out.
It’s also rare because the number of places that can produce heather honey have shrunk.
In Germany, most of the heathlands were turned into croplands and forests, and only a few beekeepers keep the tradition alive today.
Being cold and damp, Scotland isn’t very hospital to honeybees. It is very hospital to rhododendrons, however. Prior to the 20th century, estate owners loved to plant rhododendrons in their garden. But once the large estates declined, the rhododendron ran rampant. And it’s a problem for beekeepers, as bees love rhododendron flowers, but rhododendron honey isn’t so great for humans. The effects of eating “Mad” honey include hallucinations, slower heartbeat, temporary paralysis, and unconsciousness. That’s not exactly the effect you want to have on your customers.
Buckwheat Honey
If you’re like me, then you probably didn’t know that buckwheat isn’t actually a grain — it’s a flowering plant. While it’s a niche grain-alternative here in Canada, its short growing period (only 12 weeks) seems like it would be great to grow in our short summers.
Buckwheat makes a very dark honey, although you can get some lighter mixtures. It’s not as sweet as other honeys, which is nice, and has a higher amount of antioxidants (like other dark honeys).
I first learned about buckwheat honey in a farming memoir (sorry, I can’t remember which one), and then I was so excited when I saw that a local beekeeper was selling buckwheat honey at the Farmer’s Market. Well, I actually bought the lighter version to try it first, and I really liked the bolder taste.
Inkberry Honey
I came across this honey when researching the best deer resistant hedges. Inkberry Holly (Ilex glabra) is an evergreen native to the eastern US, and is considered pretty deer resistant for both an evergreen and native plant. Then the Missouri Botanical Garden dropped a tantalizing note that Inkberry Honey is highly sought after.
So of course I excitedly googled it.
The taste profile was… disappointing. It’s described as mild and not too sweet, good for both eating and baking. Huh.
But a good baking honey is nothing to sniff at. My husband tried baking a cake using the light buckwheat honey, and while it was okay, there was a really bitter taste at the bottom (it’s much better in tea). But Inkberry honey can be used in my tea, on toast, and in cake. So it’s definitely on my list of honeys to try.
It’s also apparently rich in pollen and enzymes, and slow to crystalize.
Something to read…
The Lives of Bees: The Untold Story of the Honey Bee In the Wild by Thomas D Seeley. [Book]
There’s plenty of books about beekeeping, but if you really want to nerd out about honeybees, then you’ll love this book. I devoured it in just a few days. Did you know that honeybees originated in the subtropics? Or that Russian beekeepers used to make nests in old-growth trees for bees to inhabit? And if you like beekeeping, and want to keep bees more naturally, he goes into how to apply his research in the field to make your bees happier.
For These Teens, A Unique Beekeeping Program Teaches About Much More Than Honey, by Bridget Shirvell
This program in New Haven, Connecticut, seeks to teach struggling young people life skills and mindfulness through beekeeping. The program focuses on helping young people who have graduated out of or are about to graduate from the foster care system. One exercise they start off with is not wearing protective gear around honeybees so that they can better understand and talk about fear, and thus regain a sense of control. So maybe I should think about beekeeping.
The author of A Honeybee Heart Has Five Openings, Helen Jukes muses about beekeeping, its ancestral roots, potential ecological harm by outcompeting native bees, and the way that beekeeping can become a gateway into a desire to protect wild bees as well.
If you wondered what it’s like running an urban beekeeping business, this interview provides a quick glimpse into the highs and hardships. You can also read more of his story in Honey and Venom: Confessions of an Urban Beekeeper by Andrew Coté.
Honeydew: A Mixed Blessing by Ben Sallmann
A beekeeper’s perspective on the pros and cons of using honeydew (from trees) as a food source for when flowers are hard to find.
Something to watch…
#56 Harvesting Raw, Organic Honey from the Beehive | Bee’s Dream Dessert
Thu Thuy Dao of Her 86m2 shares her day spent with a master beekeeper collecting heather honey in Germany. Both super aesthetic and informative. Watching the process is a lot different than just reading about it.
Something to eat…
Honey Cake recipe by Michelle Polzine
Ever since I first tried it in Prague, Honey Cake is my absolute favorite cake ever. You’d think it’d be overly sweet, being soaked in honey, but it’s not. It’s the bold taste of honey. (By the way, this isn’t the cake recipe that didn’t work with buckwheat honey.) The longer it ages, the better the taste.
Edinburgh Honey Co suggests skipping putting honeydew honey in your tea (it’s very heat sensitive), and use it to make honeydew honey ice cream. They also include the culinary reasons to use organic and free range ingredients instead of conventional, which is interesting.
Your turn: Do you have a favorite honey? Have you ever thought about beekeeping?
Please share with all of us in the comments! I respond to every comment.
Happy gardening,
Tanith
P.S. Your joke of the week!
another great post-- I hadn't realized how often honey comes into my conversations until recently, and I'm still not sure why...last time, it was 'where lavender honey grows best' .. thank you!
This might be a bit controversial, but I prefer creamed honey over regular honey. It just makes it so much easier to use without spilling honey everywhere. Anyone else with me?