Keweeenaw Gold Late Harvest Honey
An ode to land ethics from a local beekeeper, Co-op owner, friend, and poet:
This Autumn, we received a very unexpected and seldom seen honey harvest.
Usually, the gathering of Fall season nectar and pollen is pretty much over, and our bees gather honey to completely fill their supers and be ready for winter. Cold nights, often very windy, limit the bees activities and they are more defensive of their hives as they prepare for the long winter.
This Fall, we had something unusual and unexpected happen! The weather was extremely mild, and the second bloom of goldenrod provided an extraordinary flow of nectar, along with asters, sweet clover and other wild flowers. The bees seemed ecstatic! They were gathering nectar, propolis, and during the warm nights, could be heard reducing the nectar into honey.
Honey made with these late blooms crystallizes by itself. It has a light and delicate flavor, that is lost and completely compromised if the honey is heated at all, and so we have bottled it, using a wide mouth jar, so that you can spread it on toast, oatmeal, bagels… or your face!
In over thirty years of beekeeping, I’ve only seen this happen on one other occasion. I think it’s worth celebrating. It’s a wonderful gift, and it’s on sale to give you the opportunity to pause and reflect on the value of our forests and fields, water, and winds. Too often open spaces not under cultivation, active mechanical harvesting, or other activity are thought of as having no particular value, until placed into contrived activity by those “managing” land. “Gotta make the land pay…” is a phrase I’ve heard way too often. Land does ‘pay’—and it pays well! As the lungs and liver of our environment, and with products we scarcely know, and insects we seldom recognize.
We have filtered nothing except ‘bee parts’ from this honey, so expect to see small specks of pollen, propolis and wax within each jar.
Once again, we’re a certified organic farm, hoping that a path toward more ‘non-toxic’ farming will grow throughout Michigan, particularly in the Upper Peninsula. We are NOT Michigan’s virtual vacant lot, and our land is worth protecting.
Thanks,
Sue Raker, Cloverland Apiary
Keweenaw Gold Late Harvest Honey is available now at the Marquette Food Co-op!
