August 2026 Apiary Update

Happy August everyone!  Are you staying cool?  I thought I'd touch on the labeling and what all of those words mean when you are looking at a bottle of honey.  It can be confusing, but hopefully this will help answer some questions and provide some clarity.

When you see a specific plant or tree listed as the name of the honey that means that 51% of the nectar brought in by the bees for that honey was from that source.  How do you do that?  Well, you can move your hives (like with orange blossom or mangrove) into the area that you desire.  The bees feast while the plant is in bloom, then you move the hives and remove the capped honey.  Extract it, spin it, bottle it, and you are done!  When it's Saw Palmetto you know that the bees were taking in that nectar while the palms were blooming, and then the honey was removed and bottled.  

When a bottle says Wildflower that means that there is no predominate plant source for the nectar, so it's a veritable Heinz 57 of what they've collected.  Now, this means that no two Wildflower honeys will be the same.  Small producers like ourselves will bottle after each flow, so even the spring batch from year to year will taste differently.  Larger producers will keep all of their honey and blend it together to have a more consistent flavor.  

When you see Raw listed on the bottle, it means the honey was never heated.  Heating will kill the enzymes that makes honey so good for you, so you should never allow it to get hotter than 100 degrees F.  If you see the honey has crystalized (started becoming solid on the bottom of the jar), that is proof that it's never been heated, and is actually a good sign.  Simply bring a pot of water to a simmer - it only needs a 3-4 inches of water in the bottom - and remove from the heat.  Then, place your honey bottle in the pot and the warmth will bring the honey back together into a liquid form.  NEVER put your honey jar into the microwave!

When you see Unfiltered on the label it means that the honey was simply strained during the extracting process.  During extraction you will have bee parts and wax cappings intermingled with the honey.  By draining the honey into a simple strainer before it fills the bucket you can remove those particles that most people find distasteful.  

Organic is the word that drives me bonkers on a label.  Unless the hives are in the middle of a national preserve it is extremely unlikely that it's truly organic.  Bees can fly up to 5 miles in any direction, so unless the hives are in the middle of a HUGE organic farm you have no clue what they are getting into.  It's not like they are filing a flight plan for your review!  With that said, be careful about putting too much stock into seeing the word organic on a label.