Raw Honey

Only Comb Honey and some Soft-Set honey is raw honey

But beware: the unscrupulous beekeeper may feed sugar syrup or even foreign honey to bees during the active season which the bees will then put into the honeycombs.

Imported comb and section honey can carry diseases and potentially disastrous pests such as small hive beetle – always ask the origin of comb honey.

Comb Honey

Comb honey, from Irish bees foraging naturally on local flora is in limited supply and can be purchased only from our market stalls during the summer. Click here for details

Section honey

This is the very best comb honey. This is where the bees are persuaded to pack a beautiful square of comb honey into an individual wooden frame. It is very difficult to produce, especially nowadays as the bees hate to work that way and the weather seldom obliges:

  • Early (hawthorn/sycamore) available from June – but it’s rare and precious.
  • Main-crop comb-honey (clover/blackberry) available from July.
  • Ling heather comb-honey available from August.
Cut Comb Honey

This the same quality as Section Honey but is more reliably produced. It is cut directly from the frames and sold in tubs. Cut comb honey is in limited supply and is available only from our market stalls at Naas, Brooklodge or Castletown. Click here for details

Soft-Set Honey

After honey is extracted and coarse-strained by the beekeeper it quickly granulates to a rock hard consistency. If the honey has a water content of less than 18 degrees and crystallises with a smooth, fine grain it it suitable for what is known as Soft-Set Honey.

Our Soft-set honey is gently warmed to 30 degrees so it is mobile and is then bottled with no further treatment necessary. Bear in mind – human body temperature is 37 deg C – about the same as the middle of the honey bee colony. The slow warming rounds the edges of the microscopic honey crystals which prevents them from locking together into a rigid matrix. Instead it re-sets with a pleasantly soft, spreading consistency so it won’t run off your bread and up your arm. Perfect for children and messy eaters.

Because it is only coarse strained our Raw Soft Set honey may contain harmless fragments of beeswax, propolis or small hive-debris. Nothing life threatening!

 

Recent Posts