Recently, someone mentioned that honey from trees is much slower to granulate than honey from other sources. I had never heard this before and it intrigued me. I was fascinated because my own honey never granulates—at least I’ve never seen it granulate—and I have some that is over seven years old. I know my honey […] Read more
Carrot honey is indeed unusual—unusual because domesticated carrots, Daucus carota, are a biennial crop that develop their famous taproots during the first summer of growth. When you want to grow a carrot, you buy a seed, plant it, harvest the carrot two or three months later, and never see a carrot flower. So how do […] Read more
Okay, here’s an admission: I used to moonlight as a secret shopper. I received a monthly list of fast food restaurants, items to buy, and forms to fill out. I went to these establishments and bought the food, checked the restrooms, looked under the tables, and counted my change. I returned an item to the […] Read more
Foodies are familiar with the term “terroir” especially as it relates to wine, coffee, tea, olive oil, and even cheese. The term comes from the French and literally means “land.” The idea here is that the special physical characteristics of the place where an agricultural item is grown affect the way it tastes. These unique […] Read more
Tamarisk, also known as saltcedar, is one of those plants beloved by beekeepers and reviled by nearly everyone else. Governments and conservation groups spend untold dollars digging, pulling, and poisoning it, as well as searching for predators and diseases that might wipe it out. But still it persists and I doubt we will ever be […] Read more
Since I wrote about bigleaf maple honey, several people have asked if other maple species produce honey. I dug around a bit and found that most maples are excellent producers of both nectar and pollen. However, they bloom very early in the spring–generally from February to April–and most of the time the weather is just […] Read more
Early each spring I’m on the lookout for a frame of bigleaf maple honey. It blooms before the honey supers are in place, so I rifle through the brood boxes, looking for that special treat. In anticipation of this event, I often put an empty frame at the edge of a few brood boxes the […] Read more