HEATHER HONEY (Northumberland Honey Co.) 340g

Heather honey is the most powerful honey that can be produced in the UK. The most comparable honey to Manuka being of a similar thixotrophic nature. Heather Honey is produced by the bees of Northumberland Honey Co during their annual migration to the Heather moors in August and September. Here the predominant heather flower is Ling heather which produces the most superior quality Heather honey.

Storing and Using Heather Honey

Heather honey is cold processed retaining the raw and natural properties of the honey. Heather honey naturally has a higher water content that all other honey, and this water content is what makes all honey liable to ferment. With heather the risk of fermentation is greater, it is just a fact of honey life!

Therefore we recommend to keep the honey cool, and in a dry place. Even at room temperature honey can ferment, so the best thing to do is use the honey when as fresh as possible. After all, when the honey is in the jar it is ready to eat, it doesn’t get better with age like a fine wine!

Heather Honey vs Manuka Honey

Manuka Honey and the marketing board responsible for this have done an exceptional job. There is however evidence that Heather honey may be as good as the highly prized Manuka Honey. Albeit there is less research into Heather Honey. It all comes down to anti-bacterial properties of which both Manuka and Heather Honey have in spades. The difficulty when purchasing Manuka honey is that there are so many different grades, what you do know when you buy Northumberland, Scottish or Welsh Heather Honey is that you are buying a sustainble and natural product. With the overriding factor to look out for being that the honey has not been heat treated, this cold extraction process retains all the benefits of the enzymes and anti-bacterial properties that you would be taking the honey for.

Beekeeping Practices:

Beekeeping at Northumberland Honey Co is focused on sustainability. We use organic treatment methods for the control of bee pests and work tirelessly on bee breeding to select from the best of our colonies to improve the future breeding and genetics of our honeybees.

In the past few years this has significantly reduced overwintering losses and seriously improved the survivability of our honey bees. With a constant expansion of our bee numbers rather than losses.

We are also members of the Bee Farmers Association, and are SALSA approved. We take on apprentice beekeepers to train for a career in beekeeping, ensuring skills are passed onto the next generation. All helping to safeguard the future of the honey bee.

Provenence:

Our bees are kept in the heart of Hadrian's wall, each jar is individually numbered, with traceability back to the very beehives that produced the honey and the location.

We produce honey in the Tyne Valley / Hadrian's wall area of Northumberland, and Cumbria. With both Northumberland and Cumbrian varieties of honey. As a small team of beekeepers our focus is on top quality bee husbandry, survivability of the honey bees we keep and producing quality honey. Taking this honey on a precious journey from the bees to you with the upmost care.