We name our honey after the main flower in bloom when the bees are bringing in the nectar. Sometimes this might be a single source, such as when the main canola bloom is on, or it may be a mixture of nectars, especially in the early season when many blossoming plants are all in bloom at the same time. When a particular flow is over, as can be seen by the absence of blooms on that source, we remove the honey supers and extract that honey so it does not get mixed with the next honey flow. A typical season might include: an early season (June) honey that contains honey made from the nectar of willow flowers, dandelion, plum blossom, apple blossom and hawthorn blossom; an early alfalfa pull that may also contain yellow sweet clover, a canola pull (usually our heaviest pull), a late alfalfa pull and sometimes a late wildflower pull of alfalfa, goldenrod, and other late summer blooming plants.

Our honey is “raw” meaning that it is not processed in any way that would affect the taste, colour or beneficial health properties of it. Much of the honey in stores is pasteurized meaning that it is heated to over 100 degrees Fahrenheit. While this allows the honey to be ultra-filtered to remove any wax or other particles so that it can remain liquid it can also affect the taste and beneficial health aspects of the honey.

When our honey boxes (called supers) are removed from the hives they are placed in the warm room of the Honey House. the temperature is kept at 35 degrees Celsius, the same temperature that it is inside the hive, so that it is easier to remove from the comb when put into the extractor, which is a centrifuge that spins the honey and removes it from the cells of the honey comb. The honey must also have a moisture content below 18 % so that it will not ferment. The bees will not seal the honey in the comb cells until they have dried it to this degree. Our warm room also has a dehumidifier to remove any water content in excess of 18% in any uncapped cells. From the extractor the honey is strained twice to remove particles of wax or other foreign matter that might be in it. We then store it in 30 pound pails with lids until we are able to put it in smaller containers for sale.