Only comb-honey or soft-set honey is truly raw honey.

All honey for sale in jars has been processed in some way because bees can’t be trained to put it into jars.

My honey is not pasteurised, it receives minimum treatment and is only strained through a fine cloth which pollen passes through easily.

This is what I do:

• The bees put honey into honeycomb and it is removed once per year by the beekeeper. That’s me.
• The honey is spun from the combs and coarse-strained, to remove large debris.
• When it needs to be bottled it is slowly warmed to 40 degrees Centigrade or until sufficiently fluid to pass through a fine cloth. This removes small debris but allows the pollen through.
• It is then further warmed to 45 degrees to melt any remaining crystals.
• This temperature does not damage any of the enzymes or delicate aromatics in honey.
• The honey is not pasteurised, it doesn’t need to be because the moisture content is never more than 18 percent (checked with a refractometer). This is well within the legal limit of 20% and prevents the growth of bacteria or yeasts naturally.

After this, it is bottled and sold locally.