Our bee-licious spring wildflower honey comes in a 2 lbs., BPA-free squeeze bottle. The flip top cap prevents dripping after pouring honey from the bottle. This is a great size to use for refilling the 12 oz. Honey Bears or for those wanting a bigger size bottle of honey.
Our Wildflower Honey's Flavor
When you taste our raw unfilitered wildflower honey you will discover that it has a complex sweet flavor that comes from all the various floral sources the bees visit during the spring flow. It has a thicker consistency (body) and provides healthy benefits for you and your family because it contains more pollen and polyphenols from the various plants the bees visit in the springtime. This is a good honey to buy if you're having issues with allergies. The color of the honey is between a dark to medium amber.
What were the Floral Sources?
There were 3 main floral sources the bees where collecting nectar from this year to make our wildflower honey. They were Tulip Poplar(tree), Strawberry (plant), and Wild Blackberry (plant). The rich medium amber color, aroma and taste came predomiently from the Tulip Poplar tree.
Additionally, our bees worked other floral species that were in bloom present in the foothill region of North Carolina during Spring such as Sumac, Persimmon, White Clover, Chestnut, along with many other plant species, so nectar and pollen from many of those sources will be mixed in with the honey to enhance the taste, color, and aromoa of the honey.
While no beekeeper can control which floral sources their bees visit, the major floral sources indicated here comes from where I believe most of the nectar came from. This is based on what was in bloom at the time the bees were collecting and storing up the nectar in their hives.
How we process our honey?
When we process our honey you are getting raw, unfilitered natural honey that is not...
- Heated
- Honey should never be heated over 104° F. Heating honey over 104° F for a prolonged amount of time usually associated with pasteurization will kill all the beneficial enzymes added in the honey by the bees. Honey that is sold in big box and grocery stores often pasteurize honey at 160-170°.
- Filtered
- We strain our honey to remove larger chunks of wax or debris that can get into the honey during the extraction process. We do not filter our honey, so it's possible that particles of fine wax and pollen are present in the honey. This fine wax and pollen called, "honey foam", will form a ring around the top of the bottle and is an indicator the honey you're buying is raw. Honey sold in major grocery and big box stores is often heated and pumped through fine micron filters to remove all pollen and wax, which eliminates this "honey foam" from the bottle.
- Had antibiotics introduced to the bees. We do feed probotics, which are scientifically proven to help keep the bees strong and healthy but never are any antibiotics fed to the bees, so our honey will not have antibiotics present in it.
- Had synthetic miticides used for treating varroa mites. We only use organic acids when treating our bees to help control varroa mites. These organic acids pose no health risks to the bees, the environment, the honey and to you. These organic acids already exist in nature and many foods that we already eat including honey itself.
How to store honey long-term?
The best way to store our bee-licious honey long term is to freeze it. It prevents the honey from crystallizing (turning to sugar) and preserves the enzyme activity the bees have added to the honey.
How do I liquefy my crystallized honey?
Many people have told me that my honey has "gone bad" because it has crystallized and turned back to sugar. While honey can darken and lose its flavor over time, turning back to sugar is a natural occurrence for all honeys. Some more so than others, especially those honeys with more pollen content in it. But don't worry you can easily liquefy your crystalllized honey.
Gently warm it in a hot water bath of 104° F, which is the minimum temperature to liquefy granulated honey. Never try to liquefy crystallized honey in a microwave. Doing so will kill the natural beneficial enzymes add to the honey by the bees.
So, how "Local" is Local?
When I'm asked if my honey is "local" I tell them yes, it is. But what does local honey mean? According to the USDA, it says that anything produced within 400 miles of your location is considered "local". While the USDA defines "local" as to anything produced within 400 miles of your location, I believe local has a different meaning. Here's why.
One of the benefits of honey is it can help with seasonal allergies so, for those who are searching for local honey, are doing so to help lessen the impact seasonal allergies have on them. By consuming local honey they acclimate themselves with the local pollens from plant sources that are more common to their area. In this case, the types of plants growing in your area compared to where the honey was made plays a bigger role in what's considered local than plants that are 400 miles away from you.
