The Distinct Flavors of Honey

As a small, local bee keeping operation, each batch of honey that we harvest has a distinct flavor. Honey takes on unique colors and flavor characteristics depending on what flowers the bees collect nectar from to make the honey.

So the type of honey depends on what flowers are blooming near the hives. To make things even more interesting, bees can travel up to 2-3 miles to collect nectar. This means that the honey in one hive could be completely different than the hive right next to it!

So far this year, we have harvested four different types or batches of honey.

Image - This is an official chart used to classify the different colors of honey.

Nutty Wildflower Honey

This batch is an early-spring wildflower blend from one of our most productive honey-making hives, the House of the Rising Sun hive, during the early months of late February to late March. Our Nutty Wildflower Honey is a "light amber" color with a smooth taste and hints of nutty notes. It is a great honey to put in teas and other drinks, or simply spread on buttered toast.

Photo- The House of the Rising Sun hive has been one of our top honey-producing bee hives.

In mid-February we placed all of our bee hives in local Almond orchards to help pollinate the Almond bloom. The bee hives go into this bloom period with a small amount of bees in the hives, just having come out of winter. By the end of Almond bloom, the bee hives are booming with bees. Typically they don't start producing surplus honey though until April in our area, but this was not the case with the House of the Rising Sun hive. This hive was a swarm that we caught last year at Black Beards in Fresno, and has been an incredible bee hive. By early April, after Almond bloom, the bees in this hive had already made about 60 pounds of surplus honey!

This honey is a blend of a little bit of Almond honey and mostly neighborhood wildflowers from houses nearby one of the Almond orchards in Clovis that had trees, plants and shrubs starting to come into bloom during early spring.

The Nutty Wildflower Honey is currently available for purchase at The Collective 103 in Old Town Clovis, in 8 oz, 1 lb and 2 lb glass jars.

Orange Blossom Honey

After Almond bloom, I asked one of the growers where 8 of our bee hives were in Clovis, if we could keep the hives there during April so the bees could make Orange Blossom Honey from a citrus grove right next to the Almond orchard that was about to bloom. This is a common type of honey in our area, because there are so many citrus groves around here. And citrus is an excellent source of nectar for bee hives to make honey!

Photo- A bee hive “frame” being filled up with delicious honey during citrus bloom.

Our Orange Blossom honey is “white" colored. It is a very sweet honey, which makes it a great choice for just about any use - teas, drinks, spreads, etc. One of our household favorites is putting the Orange Blossom honey in oatmeal. I actually just had oatmeal with Orange Blossom honey this morning with my daughters before going to work, and everyone loved it! We'll just say the bowls were all empty.

The Orange Blossom Honey is currently available for purchase at The Collective 103 in Old Town Clovis, in 8 oz, 1 lb and 2 lb glass jars.

Spring Wildflower Honey

This batch of honey is one of our favorites, made mostly from Mustard wildflowers which is a common wildflower during March and April in our area. Our Spring Wildflower Honey is a "extra light amber" colored honey that is less sweet, making it a great pick for those who don't like honey that is too sweet. It is also an excellent honey to use for baking.

Photos- Mustard wildflower can be seen all over the valley in spring time (top); one of our hives booming with bees near a plentiful supply of pollen and nectar from Mustard wildflowers (bottom).

After Almond bloom, we moved 5 of our hives back to our main bee yard in Clovis, which was surrounded by Mustard wildflowers, an excellent source of pollen and nectar for making honey and healthy hives. Within a few weeks, these 5 hives had produced a good batch of surplus honey from these wildflowers.

The Spring Wildflower Honey is currently available for purchase at The Collective 103 in Old Town Clovis, in 8 oz, 1 lb and 2 lb glass jars.

Floral Wildflower Honey

Once we moved all of our hives back to our main bee yard in Clovis, we let the bees continue to make surplus honey in late spring. By this time around mid-May to early June, all the Mustard wildflowers had died off from the rising temperatures. But like I said earlier, bees can travel up to 2-3 miles to find nectar. They likely made this honey from flowers in the yards of nearby rural homes, such as roses and other flowering plants.

Photo- We use a large electric honey extractor that spins around and pulls the honey from the bee hive frames. After bringing the frames home, of course, without any bees on them!

Our Floral Wildflower Honey is a "extra light amber" colored honey. It has a slight floral taste and a delicious sweetness that pairs well on bread and to give a sweet flavor to teas or other drinks.

The Floral Wildflower Honey is currently only available for purchase online in 8oz plastic jars. We will ship it directly to you. Click HERE to buy a jar today!

What's one of your favorite types of local honey? And how do you like to use it?

Currently our bees are busy making summer wildflower honey. We are hoping to host a honey tasting event some time in the fall, where people can come taste all of the different types of honey that we harvested this year. You can follow us on Facebook or Instagram for announcements about this event in the next couple months.

Blessings,

Jeff