Discussion
...does anyone else like it?
I love it but only if it's British - that's not me being zenophobic BTW, it's just that even 'boutique' honey from elsewhere I've found to be pretty tasteless (though someone will now be along to tell me about a wonderful French or Italian honey that I am missing - had some from Savoie early this year - nice but not as good IMO but I will admit the Reblochon was epic).
Currently munching through a jar of Shap heather honey which is wonderful - and not bad at £8 for a full size jar.
Brekkie - some granola, Greek Yoghurt (see, I am outward looking) and some heather honey drizzled on top, wonderful.
We have a lot of lime trees in our village and one of my neighbours produces honey from black British bees (the best bees she says, and she's Polish), the lime blossom imparts a wonderful delicate perfume to it. It's like wine so much depends on the locality and what the little chaps feed off.
Can't stand the squeezy supermarket stuff, apparently cut with all sorts of crap an dutterly tasteless.
On the comb - wonderful, you get to eat it twice!
I love it but only if it's British - that's not me being zenophobic BTW, it's just that even 'boutique' honey from elsewhere I've found to be pretty tasteless (though someone will now be along to tell me about a wonderful French or Italian honey that I am missing - had some from Savoie early this year - nice but not as good IMO but I will admit the Reblochon was epic).
Currently munching through a jar of Shap heather honey which is wonderful - and not bad at £8 for a full size jar.
Brekkie - some granola, Greek Yoghurt (see, I am outward looking) and some heather honey drizzled on top, wonderful.
We have a lot of lime trees in our village and one of my neighbours produces honey from black British bees (the best bees she says, and she's Polish), the lime blossom imparts a wonderful delicate perfume to it. It's like wine so much depends on the locality and what the little chaps feed off.
Can't stand the squeezy supermarket stuff, apparently cut with all sorts of crap an dutterly tasteless.
On the comb - wonderful, you get to eat it twice!
Edited by Lotobear on Monday 17th July 21:07
r3g said:
It's biblically expensive now if it's good quality. You won't get any change out of £20 for a jar of honey that's worth eating and isn't filled with additives and other crap.
....ermm, I paid £8 for a 1lb jar of heather honey from Shap (that's a very high, wild, fell in Cumbria BTW) - it's completely pure and bloody delicious.r3g said:
It's biblically expensive now if it's good quality. You won't get any change out of £20 for a jar of honey that's worth eating and isn't filled with additives and other crap.
Tosh. It’s either a huge jar or they’ve got a lot of windows. Around us it’s about £7 directly from the beekeeper. Having been to a Rowse production facility in Oxfordshire, and seeing it come in by the tanker or pallets of 200 litre drums, err, no thanks.
Unfortunately since I found out if it’s all b
ks, it put me right off. It’s all sugar syrup, sweetness, and st like that. Unsurprisingly most of the adulterated mixture comes from China.
“All UK honey tested by EU investigators has failed authenticity tests, while nearly half of the honey imported into the EU is suspected of being "adulterated". An investigation by the EU has found that all 10 of the British honey samples it tested have failed authenticity tests”
ks, it put me right off. It’s all sugar syrup, sweetness, and st like that. Unsurprisingly most of the adulterated mixture comes from China.“All UK honey tested by EU investigators has failed authenticity tests, while nearly half of the honey imported into the EU is suspected of being "adulterated". An investigation by the EU has found that all 10 of the British honey samples it tested have failed authenticity tests”
CoolHands said:
Unfortunately since I found out if it’s all bks, it put me right off. It’s all sugar syrup, sweetness, and st like that. Unsurprisingly most of the adulterated mixture comes from China.
“All UK honey tested by EU investigators has failed authenticity tests, while nearly half of the honey imported into the EU is suspected of being "adulterated". An investigation by the EU has found that all 10 of the British honey samples it tested have failed authenticity tests”
That's why you need to buy from a small apiary or local supplierks, it put me right off. It’s all sugar syrup, sweetness, and st like that. Unsurprisingly most of the adulterated mixture comes from China.“All UK honey tested by EU investigators has failed authenticity tests, while nearly half of the honey imported into the EU is suspected of being "adulterated". An investigation by the EU has found that all 10 of the British honey samples it tested have failed authenticity tests”
r3g said:
Shop bought stuff, not a jar from a bee-keepers garden hives.
Is it £20 because it’s better or because you enjoy paying additional margin by having a longer supply chain?ETA: that’s not really a fair question and I’m being a bit mischievous in asking. I keep bees and am expecting to collect somewhere north of 1/4 ton of honey this year. Lots of beekeepers sell what they produce in their garden via shops… in my case I currently have 8 hives in my garden and a few more elsewhere and have a couple of local outlets interested in selling it. Also doing a batch of cut comb for the first time this year, will be interesting to see what uptake for that is like.
Edited by LooneyTunes on Monday 17th July 21:55
LooneyTunes said:
Is it £20 because it’s better or because you enjoy paying additional margin by having a longer supply chain?
ETA: that’s not really a fair question and I’m being a bit mischievous in asking. I keep bees and am expecting to collect somewhere north of 1/4 ton of honey this year. Lots of beekeepers sell what they produce in their garden via shops… in my case I currently have 8 hives in my garden and a few more elsewhere and have a couple of local outlets interested in selling it. Also doing a batch of cut comb for the first time this year, will be interesting to see what uptake for that is like.
I don't eat it now as it doesn't fit with my diet, but I was eating a lot of it (with lemon) to get rid of a nasty fever a while ago. That was when I noticed the prices were bonkers for anything genuine which wasn't filled with other crap. I don't know any bee-keepers but should I require some honey again, that will be where I head to ETA: that’s not really a fair question and I’m being a bit mischievous in asking. I keep bees and am expecting to collect somewhere north of 1/4 ton of honey this year. Lots of beekeepers sell what they produce in their garden via shops… in my case I currently have 8 hives in my garden and a few more elsewhere and have a couple of local outlets interested in selling it. Also doing a batch of cut comb for the first time this year, will be interesting to see what uptake for that is like.
Edited by LooneyTunes on Monday 17th July 21:55
.I like runny honey on my weetabix and set honey on my toast.
I’m picky too usually buy the local one from farm shop that is bee keeper association stuff. Costs £6-7
It’s very much like buying hashish. Lots of supermarkets selling soap bar so you have to hunt around to find the zero zero from the small suppliers.
I’m picky too usually buy the local one from farm shop that is bee keeper association stuff. Costs £6-7
It’s very much like buying hashish. Lots of supermarkets selling soap bar so you have to hunt around to find the zero zero from the small suppliers.
Edited by LaterLosers on Tuesday 18th July 06:33
guillemot said:
Oh I adore cut comb - not East of England based are you LooneyTunes? We get ours direct from local beekeepers but none at the moment sell comb.
Sadly not around there… It’ll be a little while since I know how they’ve got on making it (I only set them going on the right sort of frames about 10 days ago and haven’t been back in to check just yet) but they should be well on with it by now. Never looked to produce it as a product before, so thought it’d be an interesting experiment to see how people react to it. It takes more effort for the bees to make because you’re getting rid of all of their effort in making the comb (when, if you were simply after the honey, you’d reuse it) and the frames are harder to handle so it’s much harder to produce at scale.
The thing that I always find fascinating is just how much the honey varies year to year, season by season, and even hive by hive. You really can see and taste the difference between batches and every now and then you get an absolute stand out batch that just has something really special about it. You simply don’t get that with the supermarket stuff which is filtered to remove any sense of place, and everything that makes honey good to start with…if it’s even honey in their jars to start with.
When people are selling it, the going rate seems to generally be towards the upper end of £5-10/jar depending on where you are in the country, with cut comb having a bit of a premium on that. I know a few people are contemplating price rises due to cost of jars going up, but there are very few people doing it mainly for the money. Historically we haven’t sold ours and just give it away to friends, neighbours, people who do jobs around the place, etc but we’re now producing so much that we’re considering selling a bit locally to support a couple of local causes.
What’s also interesting is the demand for beeswax. We could get rid of 10x what we produce, but ours mostly goes to a local artist who does pottery with disabled kids (apparently it gets used as part of the glazing/firing process) and the local blacksmith who also uses it as part of his production process.
RobbieTheTruth said:
r3g said:
It's biblically expensive now if it's good quality. You won't get any change out of £20 for a jar of honey that's worth eating and isn't filled with additives and other crap.
Lol stop it with those £20 shouts ladLaterLosers said:
I like runny honey on my weetabix and set honey on my toast.
I’m picky too usually buy the local one from farm shop that is bee keeper association stuff. Costs £6-7
It’s very much like buying hashish. Lots of supermarkets selling soap bar so you have to hunt around to find the zero zero from the small suppliers.
Speaking of hashish, Mrs Loto brought me a jar of honey back from Nepal which has, shall we say, unusual propertiesI’m picky too usually buy the local one from farm shop that is bee keeper association stuff. Costs £6-7
It’s very much like buying hashish. Lots of supermarkets selling soap bar so you have to hunt around to find the zero zero from the small suppliers.
Edited by LaterLosers on Tuesday 18th July 06:33
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