Spring Honey-- Check

-posted by Isaac

The last of the extracted supers are heading back to the bee yards.

Spring honey's all done for another year.
This should have been finished up about ten days ago, but we get distracted sometimes.

This year was just excellent. High quality, wonderfully delicate, beautiful white honey.
And a lot of it.

Among other things, we took some Spring honey to the Pickaway County Fair.

And we cleaned up:

 

Jayne thought it was silly to put this on here, but I don't mind tooting our own horn.
I also don't mind telling you a few trade secrets... if you're interested in winning honey contests and all the glory that entails.
Here are a few things you need to know:
First, it helps to know the judge.
Second, it helps to pay off the judge.
Third, and most important, it definitely helps to be the only entrant in a category. This one is critical.
C'mon Crawfords, Snokes, Kellers, Jim and Cindy... where are you?

We started pulling spring honey about June 10th. As I said, it was a great crop. We should have nearly enough to get us through the markets for another year. As you know, we don't wholesale this (Sorry Whole Foods customers).

On most occasions, rolling another load into the honey house, the kids had to have samples.

I learned something this year. In the past I have attributed the bulk of the spring honey to the black locust flow:

A little locust bloom, but not much.

But this year the locust bloom was very spotty. Not nearly enough to make a big honey crop.

Where did all this honey come from? It tastes almost exactly the same as spring honey in past years.

Ah, here we go:

The bush honeysuckle bloomed out this spring like I've never seen.

And the bees just went to town.

Of course the russian olive probably has some influence also:

For about a week, this invasive shrub is a favorite of mine. When they're in full bloom, the air just turns to sugar. There's a half mile stretch near Deer Creek Lake that I run by, close my eyes and float through a ball of cotton candy.

Then I open my eyes and dodge cars.

The spring honey is translucent white, beautiful as ever. Come on out to the markets this July 5th. If there's anything left after the fireworks, spend that flag waving money with us! You can try all three seasons:

One from this year, fresh off the hives, two from last.

Of course there's more than just honey...

See you there!