Blackberry honey will be scarce this coming fall!

Extreme drought conditions in the Pacific Northwest last year left a parched look to the hillsides and some trees and grass. That giant sucking sound that was heard in the fall was discounted by the natives as just another rainy season beginning. Most of the flora rebounded quickly and rehydrated. However the blackberry vines and brambles suffered the most. Some of the established canes died completely. It is true that there will still be lots of blackberries along the lanes, pathways and most freeways in Washington, Oregon, Alaska and Northern California.

This year the blackberries may not recover to their pre-drought production. This may not be of concern to landowners that fight the spreading blackberry vines, but to the beekeeper this drought will have a serious effect on his honey crop. Blackberry honey is the most abundant gourmet honey worldwide. Blackberry honey is sought after and purchased by honey connoisseurs and great chefs in almost every nation on the planet. Ninety three percent of wild blackberry honey comes from the Pacific Northwest.

The strange bee anomaly of absconding has beekeepers asking for federal aid to ward off a catastrophe of poor honey harvest this year. For some strange reason half of the beehives did not survive the winter. Unless immediate measures are implemented to replace the hives that died, there will be a poor wild blackberry crop not to mention a devastating year for every crop that needs bees as a pollinator.Next time you see a field with beehives, thank your local beekeeper for a bountiful crop of all melons, fruits, most vegetables and nuts.

The good news is that we have our beehives ready and plan to harvest one of the most concentrated wild blackberry counties in Washington State. Our sources of fireweed honey and raspberry honey are in these same counties.

If you have never tasted wild blackberry honey… well this paper is not designed to portray taste very well… the flavor is unlike any honey you have tasted before, it has body, a full robust flavor that lingers in the mouth, a wonderful aroma…it is so good I recommend you try it! Wild blackberry Honey.

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Star Thistle Honey. America is defining its choice for their favorite honey. Editors give star thistle honey five star reviews.

The price: “If you need to ask, don’t buy.”

Taste: “Star thistle honey is golden ambrosia.”

San Francisco Magazine awarded Star Thistle Honey as “One of the 125 Best Things to Eat in the San Francisco Bay Area.”

“Star thistle honey has notes of cinnamon and a long, sweet finish.”

“The only thing needed with star thistle honey is baroque music.”

“Just eat it out of the jar!”

“Star thistle honey should be hidden from the unsophisticated…”

“Do not camouflage the marvelous star thistle honey with any other ingredient…”

“Star thistle honey should be sipped from a silver spoon.”

“For the sake of star thistle honey it should not mixed, combined or eaten with anything other than sultry background music.”

The reports continue to come in from chefs and honey tasters from all across the nation. Star thistle honey is our favorite. You be the judge try this fabulous gourmet honey.

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Tupelo honey blooms start in North Florida about the second week in April. The largest populations of White gourmet tupelo honey gum trees in the world are concentrated along the Chipola River and the Apalachicola River where the swamps meet the dirt roads.

These verdant tupelo gum tree canopies turn white with small white ball blooms to attract honey bees to one of the most sought after nectar flows in America. When the tupelo honey flower blooms begin to fall into the water below the beekeeper races to strip the honey supers (boxes of honey) from the hive before the bees mix another honey with the tupelo honey.

Raising bees on small piers above the river water increases the degree of difficulty over regular land honey harvest by a degree of 10. Special housing is needed to place the newly filled honey supers while waiting to be extracted. The hive beetle and wax moth can ruin the tupelo honey if not protected.

The assiduous colony of 60,000 plus bees per hive will fly over two million air miles to the tupelo honey blossoms to gather tupelo nectar that will be evaporated to just one pound of gourmet tupelo honey.

This exclusive gourmet tupelo honey is worth every harvesting difficulty as the tupelo honey experience is a culinary destination experienced by few. Tupelo honey is said to taste like the aroma of a flower bouquet. Difficult to imagine, but very easy to taste!

Tupelo honey production shrinks each year, throw in bad weather conditions and there is a tupelo honey shortage. Buy your gourmet tupelo honey early.

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Raspberry honey and Whatcom County are one word. When it comes to commercial quantities of gourmet raspberry honey, the golden nectar can be found all over the world but the capital remains Whatcom County, Washington. Even Skagit County to the south that has loads of raspberries does not have the conditions to equal the raspberry honey output of its northern neighbor.

Gourmet raspberry honey has its Pacific Northwest beginnings in the first and second week of May. Raspberries bloom the first of May with the bees descending upon the white spring raspberry flowers. The raspberry honey nectar is a large nectar flow that is brought in by the bees in a very short period of time. Like all nectar, raspberry honey nectar is first evaporated to get the water content below 19%. The bees aerate the nectar after it is in the comb to reduce the water content. After the nectar is properly evaporated, it is then moved to fill every cell and then capped. Only after the wax cap is put on each of the evaporated cell in the honey comb, can the nectar be called raspberry honey.

Every honey source determines the characteristics of the liquid honey. Raspberry honey has the unique characteristic of crystallizing (turning to a solid crystalline, sometimes called sugaring) in a short period of time after the honey comb has been capped. The beekeeper who sells jarred honey avoids raspberry honey because the visual appeal of liquid verses solid honey outsells solid every time. THIS DOES NOT MEAN that raspberry honey should not be included in your lists of gourmet honey! Raspberry has a milder taste than blackberry honey and is used in creamed honey because it is lighter in color.

Even if your raspberry honey turns solid on you, just place the glass jar of honey in a warm pan of water until the honey re-liquefies. If the heating of the water is kept below 125° the beneficial live enzymes will not be harmed in this raw honey.

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Tupelo Honey Festival reservations should be made NOW!

Tupelo is a honey made from a gum tree available in commercial volume in only one place in the world, North Florida, in and around the swamps and sloughs of the Apalachicola River Basin.

For over 100 years beekeepers have been harvesting tupelo honey from the drainages of the Apalachicola and Chipola rivers. Tupelo Honey Festival celebrates this long heritage, local endeavors and acknowledges that tupelo honey is one of the world’s finest honeys that does not crystallize, is sweeter than all honeys, (by lab verification) and sought after by gourmet honey tasters the world over. National attention focused on tupelo honey when Peter Fonda starred in the movie “Ulee’s Gold” that centered on a beekeeper of tupelo honey in the Wewa area. The Tupelo Honey Festival will feature this film’s highlights and you may buy the DVD on site.

The Tupelo Honey Festival may be a dying celebration, even though the demand for tupelo honey outstrips the supply, human encroachment, real estate developments, pesticides, dredging and river manipulations may permanently kill this only naturally wild stand of the tupelo trees that are in high enough concentrations to produce monofloral tupelo honey.

There is hope for this American cottage industry that gives effervescent pleasure to the world, attend the Tupelo Honey Festival, support the beekeepers, BUY TUPELO HONEY, email your congressman, and tell a friend about this lovely era of American history that needs to be preserved!

Combine Tupelo Honey Festival with a photographic tour of the near “Dead Lakes”, a national treasure for photographers.

The Annual Tupelo Honey Festival is held in Lake Alice Park, Wewahitchka, Florida, the 3rd Saturday in May each. Enjoy a Tupelo Honey Festival holiday where the children play, the cool breeze rustles through the canopy cathedral of Spanish moss draped Oaks.

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