Miel de châtaignier (Chestnut Honey), Desaignes, France

Desaignes, France (in red)

The chestnut honey that I have comes from producers Stephanne and Sylvie Manganello. They have a farm in Hameau de Grangeon near Desaignes (Ardèche) close to the north side of the Monts d'Ardèche regional natural park. They produce honey, propolis, pollen, royal jelly and spiced, honey bread.

It is an absolutely beautiful part of France. Desaignes is surrounded by rolling hills, vineyards and woodlands. Desaignes is also listed as one of the villages of Ardèche 'with character' because of its monuments and architectural qualities. It has a Protestant church, gothic houses, and at the center of the old medieval section of the town is the Chateau de Desaignes, a 15th century, fortified chateau. It is open to visitors and houses a museum.

Chateau de Desaignes

 The area is also known for its chestnuts. Of note the park, which was created in 2001, was the result, in large part, of the efforts of chestnut growers in the area to preserve the region's cultural and natural heritage. Also of interest, the Ardèche chestnut was given the 'appellation d'origne contrôlée' or 'AOC' label in June 2006 for its fresh chestnuts as well as its dry chestnuts, pieces of dry chestnuts, entire peeled chestnuts and chestnut puree. Receiving the AOC is a great honor as it is official recognition of quality. The Ardèche produces about 50% of France's chestnuts, so it is a very big deal.  

European Chestnut in Bloom

I'm always amazed at how many different types of the same plant or tree there are. Chestnut trees, which belong to the same family as beech and oak, consist of nine different species.  According to wiki, the four main species are the European, Chinese, Japanese, and American chestnut. The European chestnut (Castanea sativa) is the only chestnut in Europe, and while in appearance it is very similar to the horse chestnut, it isn't related to the horse chestnut at all. So, I think it is safe to say that the honey I have is European chestnut honey. Within a species there are a number of varieties. In the Ardèche 65 different varieties of European chestnut are grown, with the most well known being: Comballe, Bouche Rouge, Sardonne, Précoce des Vans, and Merle. 

Miel de châtaignier (Chestnut Honey)

My honey has a very deep brown-ish, mellow color with red undertones that are more obvious in bright light. I've had it for a while but it is still liquid, which, while unusual for many other types of honey, is not so unusual for chestnut honey- it is a slow crystallizer. This is apparently due to its high proportion of fructose. It is a very thick honey with a pungent, somewhat bitter, herbal taste, with the bitterness accentuated in the after taste. This honey is not for everyone. It has a very distinct and strong flavor that hardly resembles the sweat, floral taste that more typical honeys have. It is much too flavorful for a delicate tea, but might be very tasty on hot buttered toast, in a strong dark tea, with goat cheese, or in baking.
bon appétit!

 

Miel de Fenouil (Fennel Honey), Les Ruchers de Normandie, Gisay-La-Coudre, France

I was traveling with my family this summer and visited Normandy, France. In Étretat I found a shop selling regional products with lots (and lots) of different kinds of honey. One caught my eye. Fennel honey. I'd never seen it before. And it had a sticker proclaiming that it was a silver medalist at the 2013 Ministry of Agriculture and Food's General Agricultural Competition. That was all I needed to make a beeline to the cash with it in my hot, little hands. Actually, it had me at Fennel. The 2013 prize was just icing.

Flowering fennel

So what is fennel? It is an aromatic, perennial herb indigenous to the Mediterranean region but now widely grown all over the world that has culinary and medicinal uses. However, some consider it an invasive weed since it propagates well by seed and can be found in open spaces like pastures and along the road. I think the plant is quite elegant with its feathery leaves and umbrella like flowers.

Fennel

If you are a licorice fan, you are probably already acquainted with it since it has a licorice flavor (like anise and star anise). I am a licorice fan. Not surprising it is a major ingredient of absinthe, a highly alcoholic beverage distilled from herbs. It is one of the herbs what gives absinthe its licorice taste (but not its psychoactive properties).


In addition, you can cook the bulb part of the fennel (great with salt, butter or cream) or eat it raw (great in salads). The leaves and seeds of the fennel plant are also used in cooking. If you've ever cooked Indian food, you may have noticed that fennel seeds were called for. Or, if you've ever eaten at an Indian or Chinese restaurant at the end of the meal roasted fennel seeds (sometimes sugar coated) might have been served as an after meal digestive or breath freshener.

Fennel is also purported to have a number of medicinal properties. It has been used to treat flatulence, airway inflammation, and colic, and it is thought to improve eyesight (some animal studies suggest it may be useful in treating glaucoma), and reduce hypertension. Of interest, Pline wrote about how fennel improved eyesight in the first century. Furthermore, powdered fennel has been used in kennels and stables as an anti-flea preparation.
 

In addition, the Greeks considered fennel a symbol of victory after their victory over the Persians at Marathon. The plain of Marathon was a field of fennel.

And, bees make honey from it in Gisay-La-Coudre in Normandy. One website suggests that fennel honey happened by accident. A apiarist from Marseille, Gerard Jourdan, regularly put his beehives on the plateau of Valensole to collect lavender honey. However one year the Ricard Society requested that local growers grow fennel on the plateau for the production of pastis. Bees on the plateau split their time between the fennel and lavender, and the resulting lavender/fennel honey was a slightly green honey with an unusual flavor. Given its mixed origins, it couldn't easily be sold in France. Therefore, the next year, Mr. Jourdan positioned his hives in the middle of the fennel fields to get a pure honey from just fennel. This began fennel honey production.

Florant and Melanie Maugeais of Les Ruchers de Normandie

Gisay-La-Coudre is a small community (population 244) in Haute-Normandie where apiarists Florent and Melanie Maugeais have 200 beehives. They are a young couple with agricultural roots, advanced studies in agricultural business and beekeeping, and pride in producing quality, organic honey.

The red dot in the NW corner of France, showing Gisay-La-Coudre

At Les Ruchers de Normandie, the Maugeais' label, they produce a number of different kinds of honey: acadia, linden, wildflower, and fennel, to name a few. 

The fennel honey that I have won the 2013 Silver Medal from the Ministry of Agriculture and Food's General Agricultural Competition.  This competition, which was created in 1870 and happens every year, is a big deal. Honey is judged in the Regional Products and Wine division. Producers are anonymous to judges and judges, who are regarded as experts in their fields, come from all over France to participate. Products, like honey, are obtained in the marketplace by anonymous buyers and then sent to the competition. It is the oldest competition of its kind in France and has many safeguards in place to minimize bias. Winners can label their products as medalists and have the glow that comes from knowing that their products are worthy.

The fennel honey is a deep amber color and slightly opaque. I thought it would be very thick because of the way it swirled in the jar but in fact it is a very thin honey and difficult to capture on a toothpick. It has no crystals or texture, just clear, thin honey. It has an extraordinary herbal, medicinal flavor with an undertone of molasses and a spicy aftertaste. I've heard it described as also having an almond, nutty flavor, but I think the herbal/spicy may overpower this.The aftertaste reminds me a bit of radish honey. It doesn't have any licorice taste at all. Quite lovely! Too strong for a delicate tea, too good to put in baking, but probably great on buttered toast or on crepes. Why it did not win Gold I'll never know. It is very unique.

You can buy this honey and other Les Ruchers de Normandie products on the Les Produits Normandie website. Well worth the bother!

 

Miel de Bruyère Callune (Heather Honey), Anjou, France

"Bruyère Callune" is Calluna vulgaris, or common heather. It is a low growing perennial shrub and is found widely throughout Europe. It thrives in acidic soils and is the dominant plant in heaths and moors. It generally has purplish flowers and blooms in late summer, and is sometimes referred to as Summer heather. White flowers do sometimes occur and these are thought to bring luck. Calluna vulgaris should not be confused with Erica vulgaris, another common heather. Erica vulgaris blooms in Winter/Spring (and is therefore completely different). Think about Scotland (where heather grows abundantly) and imagine 'fragrant hills of purple' and you may picture it. 

According to wiki there are a lot of uses for heather- apart from as a source of food for sheep and deer. It is used to dye wool yellow and to tan leather. It is an ingrediant to add flavoring (before hops) in the brewing of heather beer ( a Middle Ages brew). Of interest, the use of heather as a flavoring for beer is carefully regulated today because the undersides of its leaves may contain a fungus that has hallucinogenic properties. Heather beer must have been a popular beverage in the Middle Ages!


The honey I have is French and comes from the Anjou region, now the department Maine-et-Loire. The label claims that it is heather honey that is collected on the edge of a forest in the heart of Anjou.
Anjou is a beautiful, historic area of France. It has been a county (ruled by a count, circa 880 AD), duchy (ruled by a duke, circa 1360 AD), province, and now is a department. It is centered around the city of Angers and is located in the lower Loire valley of western France.

 Anjou is changed hands many times. The Gauls, Romans, and Franks have all had turns. And Brittany and Normandy seem to have constantly threatened its autonomy. Being under constant threat from its neighbors the area is full of fortified castles and ancient battlefields. Charles the Bald, Robert the Strong, Hugh the Abbot, Odo, Fulk the Red, and Geoffrey Greytunic, all figure prominently in its early history.

It is home to the tombs of Plantagenets Eleanor of Aquitaine and Henry II at the abbey of Fontevraud, and it has many châteaux: Angers, Saumur, Brissac, Serrant, Le Plessis-Macé, Montsoreau, Le Plessis-Bourré, and Montreuil-Bellay. The National School of Horsemanship (École Nationale d'Équitation), and the tank museum (Musée des Blindés) are also in the region. It is also a major wine growing region. If you are into beautiful countryside, romantic and fortified castles, wine, history, horses or armored vehicles, Anjou may be a good destination choice.

Anjou may also ring a bell because of the Anjou pear. According to wiki, it was all a big mistake. For some reason when the pear was introduced to the US, it was called Anjou but it actually seems to have originated in Belgium. Its original name was Nec Plus Mauris. How did they get from this to Anjou? It is a great mystery.

The miel de buryère callune is a warm, clear, amber color. It is medium thick and very smooth. It has been described as having a gelatinous texture and I can see why. It is not too sweet with a subtle clear herbal flavor that then ends with a slightly bitter woodsy up tone. It would be good in baking (ginger bread), in hot cereal, on toast, but may change the flavor of tea.

Rosemary Honey (Miel de Romarin), Col de Pointu, Bonnieux, France

Rosemary honey is from rosemary, or Rosmarinus officinalis, a woody, perennial herb with fragrant needle-like leaves and white, pink, purple or blue flowers. According to Wiki, it is native to the Mediterranean region, and the name 'rosemary' comes from Latin. It translates as "dew" (ros) and "sea" (marinus), or "dew of the sea", because it is very drought resistant, needing only the humidity carried by the sea breeze as a water source to sustain itself.

Rosemary

Rosemary is used both dried and fresh is cooking, and it is reported to have some medicinal qualities especially related to treating gout, and improving memory. Of note, a miraculous balm containing rosemary (balm of Fierabras) is described in Don Quixote, and given its association with memory, rosemary is used as a symbol of remembrance; it is often depicted on war commemorations, worn on Remembrance Day in Australia, and, in funerals, it is thrown into graves to remember the dead. Also according to Wiki, in the Middle Ages, rosemary was used in wedding ceremonies as symbols of love and loyalty. The bride would wear a rosemary headpiece and the groom and guests would wear sprigs of rosemary, and newlyweds would plant rosemary on their wedding day. If the plant grew it predicted a strong marriage and family.

Rosemary was also believed to repeal witches if planted in the garden, and this association between witches and rosemary then morphed into being a symbol that women ruled the household in homes where rosemary grew. There are accounts of men in the 16th century ripping up rosemary to show that they and not their wives ruled their households.

Bonnieux, France

Bonnieux, France, where this honey was produced is a beautiful, fortified village that dates from 972 AD,  nestled at the top of the Luberon hills, in the Vaucluse department in the Provence-Alpes-Cote-d'Azur region in the southeast of France. It is east of Avignon and north of Aix en Provence. It sits opposite of Mont Ventoux and has a commanding view of the valley.

If you make your way up through the village, there is a stone staircase, and at the top is the 12th century village church (and a small park, apparently, that is ideal for a picnic). The views, if the tourism information is to be believed, are glorious.

Stone Stairs leading to the 12th Century Church

Bonnieux also also known for its bread museum, the Musée de la Boulangerie. It describes all there is to know about making artisan bread. Considering how well bread and honey go together, if you are in the area, it may be well worth a visit, after which you can take some Bonnieux honey and artisan bread, and picnic in the park next to the hill top church, while appreciating how wonderful it is to be alive in this small slice of heaven.

La Mas des Abeilles produced the rosemary honey that I have. It is located on the summet of the Luberon, near Bonnieux, and it is a family business. They select, package and export honey and honey products from the area, and have been doing so for over 30 years. They take great pride in their honey. It is produced in the artisanal fashion: harvested using the blowing method ('soufflage' in French), and cold extracted to retain the best honey flavor. No preservatives or anything artificial.

The rosemary honey I have has started to crystallize but it still has a top layer of liquid honey. it is a mellow golden, light amber color. It is a thin, runny honey but with some body. It is smooth, with an herby, slightly bitter flavor from beginning to end, and then there is a small burst of sweetness. If you've ever crushed a sprig of rosemary, it tastes like a sweet and subtle version of the smell. I associate rosemary with summer and this honey embodies hot summers for me.

Rosemary (Romarin) Honey

It isn't a complicated honey in that the flavor or tones change from beginning to end, but it is very high quality honey with a distinct flavor. I think it would be a good choice in cooking, especially if rosemary is in the recipe, and it would be nice in herbal tea or on toast.

Le Mas des Abeilles has a lovely website, if you are interested in this rosemary honey or other products they sell.