Pure Wildflower Honey, Essex County Beekeepers Association, Topsfield, Massachussetts

This past October I went to the Topsfield fair in Topsfield, Massachusetts. It is an agricultural fair that begin in 1818 "to promote and improve the agricultural interests of farmers and others in Essex County." Nearly 200 years later it is going strong with lots to do and see. If you like fancy chickens, fuzzy sheep, large pumpkins, and pig races, to name a few attractions, it is the place to be! They also have a great website in case you want to know more about it.

Poultry at Topsfield Fair

Needless to say, the fair also has a Beekeeping and Honey Show which has the distinction of being the largest honey exhibit in any fair in North America (according to the Topsfield fair website). It is one of the oldest too, with the first exhibit taking place in 1844. Since 1928 the show has been operated and sponsored by the  Essex County Beekeepers Association. This beekeepers association is a regional organization of beekeepers large and small who are generally found in and around Essex county, a country in the northeastern corner of Massachusetts. They educate the public about bees and beekeeping, promote the art of apiculture, and produce bees, honey and related products. At the fair they had four observation hives (very cool) and beekeepers on hand to explain all things bee, honey and beekeeping. They also had lots of honey and honey related items on display and for sale. I came home with two jars of honey and some beeswax.

Essex County Beekeepers Association Honey Competition

The honey I bought was a raw, wildflower honey. In my experience you can't go wrong with wildflower honey. It generally is a interesting honey that can be quite complicated, with layers of flavors and aromas. Although both jars I have are wildflower, given the color of each I suspect that they were collected at different times of the year. I have a very light, clear jar and a reddish/amber jar, which I think were collected in spring and summer, respectively. The wildflower honey for this review is the darker, potentially summer honey. 

Given the amber color and the opacity, because of particulate matter, I thought this honey would be thick, but in fact it is medium-thin in consistency. In small quantities it has a lovely amber yellow glow. It is very smooth, not very sweet and has a very light, floral flavor, which is fresh with a hint of citrus or menthol. If honey was a morning, this would be a clear morning with a fresh, gentle breeze and a warm sun. It would be very tasty in a hot cup of black tea, in plain, thick yoghurt, or on hot buttered toast- pretty well anywhere where a light, floral honey might be needed.

Pure Wildflower Honey, Essex County Beekeepers Association

 

 

Raw Wildflower Honey, Golden Meadow (Reseska Apiaries), Holliston, MA

Holliston in Massachusetts (in red)

I got this local honey in a nearby grocery store. It is harvested and packaged by Reseska Apiaries out of Hollison, MA, just an hour or so from Boston. Reseska Apiaries is a family business that started on a very small scale in 1996. The operation expanded significantly in the first four years, and in 2000 the Reseskas had enough hives to make it a full time business. Andy Reseska is the founder and owner. He works alongside his wife, Addie, son Evan, and assistant apiarist, Nick Delaini.They currently manage several hundred colonies. They initially distributed their honey under the Golden Meadow and Boston Honey Company brands, but have since consolidated brands. Now all of their honey is packaged under the Boston Honey Company name.

Purple Loosestrife

Reseska Apiaries produce raw, unfiltered (and Kosher) honey harvested in Eastern Massachusetts (wildflower, clethra, Japanese knotweed, black locust, and basswood),  and Georgia (gallberry, tupelo and orange blossom).

In Massachusetts the honey is gathered from the revolutionary battle sites of Lincoln, the farms of Concord, public lands in Sudbury, and other sites in and around the greater Boston area.  It is truly steeped in New England history. Their operation in Georgia is also quite large with several hundred hives. Apart from collecting nectar from southern floral sources, the Georgian bees are brought up north in spring to pollinate apple trees in New England. Since the winters are easier and spring comes earlier in Georgia, the Georgian bees are in full swing for the early New England pollination season.

basswood

The Reseskas take great pride in their stewardship of their colonies and the self-sustained nature of their apiary. They raise their own queens, foster strong bee lineages, and generally take looking after their bees very seriously. If I were a honey bee, I'd like to be looked after by the Reseskas. They also take great pains in making sure their honey is of the highest quality. For instance, their monofloral honeys are done in small batches by hand. In addition to honey, they also produce comb honey, bee pollen, candles, lip balms and soap. Check out their website for all their products. You can also order from them online.

Goldenrod

I have their wildflower honey and according to their website, the sources for this honey include, among many other flowers, Buckthorn, Black Locust, Purple Loose strife, Goldenrod, Linden, Japanese Knotweed, and Basswood. Of note and of interest, most of these are considered invasive species in New England. Seeing that they produce a good quality honey makes me wonder if there might be some role for them other than as a species to uproot and destroy!

Japanese knotweed

I've had this honey for a while and it has started to crystallize. (Of interest, I learned from the Boston Honey Company website that honeys high in fructose are slower to crystallize than those high in glucose.) The wildflower honey is a rich orange/yellow color with red highlights. It is a medium to thin honey in its liquid form. It is complex in flavor, with a somewhat medicinal taste made up of hints of menthol, licorice, and floral sweetness. It is difficult to describe but a very interesting and tasty honey! Perfect right out of the jar or on hot buttered toast. It might also be interesting in a dark tea or paired with some mild cheeses.

Raw Wildflower Honey from Reseska Apiaries

Mandarin Italian Honey (Rigoni diAsiago), Calabria, Italy

Barbara, a friend of mine, gave me this honey, which is produced and distributed by Rigoni diAsiago, a family business run by the Rigoni family of Altopiano diAsiago, Italy.

Altopiano diAsiago, Italy

From the Rigoni diAsiago website, the business began over a hundred years ago with Nonna Elisa who, being widowed with nine children, began a beekeeping business with her two eldest sons after WWI. The business was successful and grew, and is still managed by Nonna Elisa's descendents. They have been innovators and trailblazers in the industry; they introduced monofloral honey in 1979 and went organic in the 1990s. To expand their product range, they added organic jams and hazelnut spreads. In addition they have expanded their markets to include the US, a variety of European countries, and recently, Japan. 

The business has come a long way since Nonna Elisa's time. The company owns large organic farm operations in Italy and Bulgaria, and employs 2,000 season fruit-pickers and 200 full timers. But the mission has not changed much: to provide products that are naturally flavorful and retain as much of the original nutritional properties as possible. To this end, they have gone high tech, with laboratories on site that run quality checks at each stage of production. For honey, this means verifying the pollen source of the monofloral honey as well as other aspects of its make up. They are also environmentally aware, using solar energy in their production plants and minimizing water usage by recycling steam.

Calabria, Italy

Rigoni diAsiago produce a range of organic Italian honey including wildflower, acacia, orange blossom, lime, pine, mandarin, chestnut, and forest. Not only is their honey certified organic, but it is also raw, meaning that it is cold pressed rather than heated. This process results in the honey retaining a superior flavor as well as many vitamins, minerals, etc. that are lost if heated.

The most recent addition to their honey line is  Mandarin honey. It is harvested in Calabria, a region in southern Italy (i.e.the toe of Italy). Most of the area is mountainous or hilly, but farmers in Calabria have been growing crops along the lower slopes for centuries. Most notable among these crops are olives, grapes and citrus fruit.

One travel site referred to Calabria as the Caribbean of Europe, complete with stunning beaches, impressive landscapes and an abundance of charm and history. It you are looking for hillside towns, ancient Greek temples and Byzantine churches in a pastoral setting, look no further!

Calabria Citrus

The mandarin orchards that produce this honey are grown on plantations using organic growing methods. Twenty-six bee colonies collect the honey in two thousand hives scattered throughout the orchards, and the honey is harvested from April until May.

The honey is thick. It rolls onto a toothpick in cloudy, sateen sheets of milky yellow, not unlike pulled taffy. It is an incredibly smooth and creamy with only a burst of sweetness at the end. I was expecting the bitterness of citrus that I have tasted in lime honey, but it isn't there. Instead there is a subtle orange blossom perfume, but it is very delicate and fleeting. Given the opaque quality of the honey, I also expected a texture of fine crystals, but it isn't there either. It is as smooth as silk. It lingers momentarily, and then quickly melts.

mandarin honey

This honey is a fine quality honey that could be used in tea, on toast or hot cereal, or in baking. It has an unusual thickness and delicate flavor, however, so might be best eaten straight out of the jar so as to maximize the appreciation of its uniqueness.

 You can buy this honey online or find it in the US at Whole Foods Supermarkets.

Raw Jamaica Plain honey, The Benevolent Bee, Jamaica Plain, MA

I was treated to some very local honey recently. I want to stress how local it was- just across the street from where I work in Jamaica Plain, a neighborhood of Boston, MA. I was surprised to find apiarists tending bees and collecting honey in what is decidedly an urban setting, with the 39 MBTA Bus coming by every 15 minutes and the Heath Street T station a short walk away. It just goes to show that if you have a mind to, you can be a beekeeper just about anywhere.

Stephanie and Emile's backyard hives

Stephanie and Emile are the urban apiarists of my Jamaica Plain honey. They (and their growing family) live in a two family walk-up surrounded by a small yard. In the yard are three hives, one of which they built themselves. Work friends and I dropped by one lunch break on a warm November afternoon to get a tour.

Stephanie showed us around, explained what we were seeing, and talked with us about her passion for bees and honey. In addition to collecting honey from their bees they also collect for an apiarist in the Metro-West region whose business is focused more on his pollination service. Their honey is raw, unpasteurized, and unprocessed. They filter only minimally to maximize retaining all the enzymes, vitamins and minerals in their honey. They harvest twice a year, in summer and in fall, and the honey is dramatically different (as you can imagine) depending on the season because the floral sources are so different.

Stephanie with one of her backyard hives

However, it is hard to say what the floral sources actually are. Jamaica Plain is home to a large portion of the Emerald Necklace, a series of connecting parks designed and built by Frederick Law Olmsted in the 19th century. If fact, Jamaica Pond, part of the Emerald Necklace, is a stone's throw away from Stephanie and Emile house. It is a kettle pond- which, according to wiki is a "shallow, sediment-filled body of water formed by retreating glaciers or draining flood waters." It has walking paths, wooden benches looking out over the pond, geese in fall and spring, and a variety of mature trees. Is whatever is growing around Jamaica Pond the source of the honey? Could be, but bees have a range of a few miles and within the catchment area of Stephanie and Emile's bees there are other parks that may tempt them to go farther afield: Olmsted Park, Franklin Park and the Arnold Arboretum, to name the larger ones. Probably safest to say that their honey is "Jamaica Plain whatever" honey.

A Sampling of Benevolent Bee Products

Apart from honey Stephanie and Emile also manufacture (by hand) beeswax candles, balms, salves and soaps, and offer courses for, and assistance to, new beekeepers. They sell their honey and other products under "The Benevolent Bee" label (they also do all of their own labels and packaging!). They have a lovely website with lots of information and photos. You can buy directly from their website, through Etsy, and/or at local farmers' markets and craft venues.

The Benevolent Bee Honey, Jamaica Plain, MA

The honey I have was harvested in  August 2013. It is a mellow yellow, more of a lemony yellow than sunflower yellow, slightly cloudy (indicative of all the particulate matter that hasn't been filtered out- a good sign of minimally processed honey) honey of medium to thin consistency. It is a very smooth honey that isn't too sweet. It has a delicate herby (eucalyptus?) flavor with citrus undertones that ends with a subtle fresh, almost minty after taste. It has the perfect consistency for drizzling on thick plain yoghurt or on hot buttered toast.

A big thank you to Stephanie for inviting us into her home and sharing her passion and expertise of all things bees and honey!

Arizona Rangeland Honey, Tucson, Arizona

I got this Arizona Rangeland Honey from my friend Louise. It is distributed by Golden Rule Honey, a company run by Laurie and Dean out of Leominster, MA. They are beekeepers on a mission to educate about bees and beekeeping, and they advocate for treatment-free beekeeping and honey. Treatment-free bees are not treated with chemicals, organic acids, essential oils or sugar dusting, medicated with antibiotics, or fed with sugar, high fructose corn syrup, pollen substitutes or artificial foods. They've written a book, called "The Complete Idiot's Guide to Beekeeping," which you can buy on their website if you'd like to learn more about treatment-free beekeeping and why they are so passionate about going treatment-free.

Needless to say, all honeys distributed by Golden Rule Honey are from treatment-free beekeeping producers, and my Arizona Rangelenad Honey is no different. It is the product of Dee Lusby's bees who forage in remote, open desert rangeland in southern Arizona.

Arizona Rangeland

Dee Lusby is also an active and vocal advocate for treetment-free beekeeping. In her quest to support healthy and productive bees using non-chemical methods she, along with her partner Ed, an experienced and fourth-generation beekeeper, identified that comb cell diameter may play an important role in keeping disease and mite problems in check. They examined the role of natural cell diameter on colony vigor for Southern Arizona and identified an optimal cell diameter for their region. The ResistantBees.com website has more information on Dee Lusby's work. They now use this optimal natural cell diameter for their bee colonies and claim that it resulted in a significant reduction of disease and mite infestation, while increasing colony productivity. The Lusbys are now expanding their work to identify optimal natural cell diameters for all latitudes.


But back to my rangeland honey. I'm a city girl and was not too sure what "rangeland" is- so I looked it up. In a nutshell, rangelands are lands that, for a variety of reasons (topography, aridness, soil type, etc.) are not suitable for cultivation but provide forage for grazing animals. Think of the open desert spaces where ranchers move their herds through in westerns and I think you have the right idea.

Examples of wild desert flowers

If, however, you think desert means desolate, you'd be wrong. Many wildflowers are native to this environment- and these are the source of rangeland honey. Because these blossoms vary by season and local conditions, each batch of rangeland honey is unique.  

My rangeland honey has already crystallized, which isn't surprising since it has the reputation of being a fast crystallizer. It is a mellow, cloudy, pale yellow color. Even though it looks like it is solidly crystallized, it is in fact, still very liquid, albeit thick, with crunchy granules of varying size.

Arizona Rangeland Honey

The granular texture is unique and gives off burst of sweetness as the granules dissolve. I've read that this honey has a buttery, caramel undertone, but I would describe it more as a subtle taste of green tea, with a final, fleeting, hint of smoke. The layered flavors are delicate. The robust flavor is of crunchy honey sweetness. Given that the texture of this honey is so unique, and the texture would be lost in a hot beverage or in baking, I think this honey is best eaten right out of the jar, or on hot buttered toast.

Wildflower Honey, Swan's Maine Beekeeper, Albion, Maine

I got this honey for the holidays. It is packaged (and likely harvested) in Maine by Swan's Honey, which is now owned by Lincoln and Karen Sennett. The Sennetts own a family farm in Maine that has been in their family for over 100 years, and kept bees to pollinate their crops (blueberries mostly). In 2002 the Sennetts bought Swan's Honey so that the 70-year old Maine company would continue. Since buying Swan's Honey, they've expanded their bee operation and now harvest, package and market Swan honey as well as produce and sell candles and balm. In addition, they are active in the beekeeping community, teach beekeeping, and provide pollination services to other farmers, some as far away as Florida (for the orange and other crops). Local honey production is generally blueberry and clover.

The raw and unfiltered wildflower honey that I have has a reputation of being authentic to the area. Clara wrote a brief online comment about it that says it has the same flavor as honey she remembers eating that her grandmother harvested.

It is an opaque soft, light yellow color. It is very, very creamy and looks as if it has been whipped, with the consistency of melted marshmallows.It has a very smooth flavor as it gradually melts in your mouth. It doesn't have a complicated taste, but a solid, cool, honey (slightly floral) sweetness throughout with the same after taste. Given the consistency and the robust, consistent flavor it would be perfect on buttered toast, in tea, in baking, in hot cereal or just eating right out of the jar. Yum.

I saw a few online sites that sell it, if you aren't in Maine and interested. Just search for Swan's Maine Beekeeper Raw & Unfiltered Wildflower Honey and the sites will pop up.