Local Devon Honey

We are delighted to be able to offer Greendale customers some truly local honey; Exeter Beekeepers’ Association (EBKA) has established a Branch Apiary on Greendale Land, and their delicious honey is now on sale at our Farm Shop and on our website. With 160 members, the EBKA is operated on a voluntary basis, with mutual support, training and shared expertise an important part of their work (members are automatically included in the Devon Beekeepers’ Association and the British Beekeepers’ Association). August is a busy time for the beekeepers, as they finish the honey removal and start to prepare for the colder months ahead, but they’d be the first to agree that their workload is pretty light when compared with the bees’ hard labour; a honey bee makes just one twelfth of a teaspoon in its lifetime, and one pound of honey (about 450g) requires nectar from up to two million flowers. It’s truly precious stuff!

On paper, honey is an uninteresting-sounding blend of sugar, trace enzymes, amino acids, minerals and vitamins, produced by bees in order to feed themselves when food supplies are scarce. However, just one taste makes it easy to understand why mankind has been seeking out honey - and then farming it - for more than 10,000 years. As well as its sweetness, honey also has a long shelf-life and (some claim) medicinal properties. It’s no surprise that we love honey here in the UK; in a typical year, the nation makes its way through an estimated 30,000 tonnes of this delectable amber liquid, much of it imported.

TRY THESE RECIPES...

Salmon Fillets in Devon Honey, Lemon and Thyme Marinade.

Cranachan Recipe