We often describe Bee Wild’ honey as raw, wildcrafted, natural, and unfiltered. We don’t claim being “organic,” as this status is meaningless in the United States, as there is no recognized certifying body for organic honey. Here’s the URL for our article describing what the terminology we use and how we gather honey: http://beewild.buzz/varietal-artisan-honey/
What Happened to the Sourwood Trees
Many beekeepers who claim being organic do not follow the natural cycle of beekeeping. They grow organic crops, like clover, and place their bees near the crops. In this way, they artificially induce the bees to eat the clover, instead of the bees foraging for food.
Because our bees eat whatever is seasonal and local, our beekeeper works in harmony with nature. So, our honey flavors also are seasonal, depending on what flowers, trees, and shrubs are flowering at any point in time. An example of this is we were able to get a second Wildflower Honey batch last year (2012).
Rain Effected Sourwood Honey Crop
This year it’s been very rainy in Northern Georgia. As a result, the Sourwood flowers were knocked off the trees, before the bees had a chance to feed on their nectar. How does that effect our Sourwood Honey crop? The fact is we won’t have 2013 Sourwood Honey, because there was no Sourwood nectar for the bees to feed on.
Of course, we are very disappointed since North Georgia Sourwood Honey is the “champagne” of honeys. But, even more than that, our beekeeper must feed the bees to keep them strong and thriving. Typically, brewer’s yeast and beat/cane sugar are used for supplemental feeding. See, http://www.beesource.com/resources/usda/supplemental-feeding-of-honey-bee-colonies/.
We share this development as an example of what organic/wild-crafted farmers go through to work with nature — temperature, rainfall, wind, parasites all effect production. That is why we continually advocate for you to buy organic/wild-crafted, local, seasonal foods at farmer’s markets and organic/wild-crafted grocery stores. Supporting natural farmers goes a long way to continuing the trend of them producing real, nutritious food.
