MEET ME IN THE BACKYARD HONEY
Backyards are getting sweeter. Beehives are popping up on lawns and on roofs in cities and suburbs all over.
One of the compelling aspects of beekeeping is the relationship bees have with their keepers. There’s a certain romance in beekeeping. Like any good relationship, if there is to be honey, they must enjoy each other.
Why the growing trend in bee love? Bees bring people joy. Tending them is a soothing past time. It connects you—body, soul, and spirit—to nature on a daily basis. And, it offers delicious rewards. Homegrown honey is a special treat to eat.
Bee colonies have massive numbers of resident bees, up to more than 60,000 in high season. They make and store as much honey as possible to keep as many colony members alive as possible over the winter. If bees are happy and given the chance, they overproduce, and beekeepers get to harvest the sweet surplus.
Honey-making is a fascinating animal-artistry. We all know that bees collect pollen, but after that’s done, it gets more intriguing. The bees then work to transform it into nectar, then honey. It’s an evaporation and chemical process. The bees set up the pollen to dehydrate in stages, reducing water content to 80% to form nectar, then down to 20% to form honey. Next, they only have to release special enzymes into the honey base to invert its natural sugars before you can harvest the full-on delicious honey. It’s a beautiful process to consider and to watch.
Photo: Courtesy of Philips Design
You could go full tilt and dress up in the netted hat and sting-proof overalls if you want to look retro, but now you can tend to your bees in an uber-cool Urban Beehive while wearing whatever couture suits you. This hive looks like a giant drop of honey as it clings to your window. The transparent bubble let’s you see your bees from inside your house as they work away inside theirs'. The hive has an outside portion that holds a little flower garden, like a window box for the bees to enjoy. It even has a built-in smoke actuator for when you want your bees to chill out, allowing you to collect their honey painlessly. No muss. No fuss.
Each back yard is its own honey terroir, the same as it would be if you were growing wine grapes. The specifics of your soil and microclimate determine not only what varieties of flowers will thrive there, but what flavors their pollen will impart to the honey from your hives. Varietal honeys are each special in their own extraordinary ways, just as varietal wines are. Each has it’s own flavor and fragrance notes.
J. Friend & Co., is great source for both varietal and artisanal honeys, all made from exotic blossom varieties local to their backyards and wilds, including delights such as, Beechwood & Honeydew, Kamahi, and a limited release of Northern Rata. Unless your backyard happens to be in New Zealand’s gorgeous golden bay region, on South Island, and you happen to grow a stand of the sporadically blossoming Northern Rata trees, you’ll probably need to get your taste of creamy white briny Northern Rata, mail-order.
Some other varietals we love especially are:
1) Maple Blossom Honey: Dark amber
2) Thyme Blossom Honey: Pale, spicy
3) Thousand Flower Honey: Pale, abundantly floral
4) Chestnut Blossom Honey: Dark amber, deep rich, smoky
5) Lime Blossom Honey: Mild, spicy
6) Lavender Honey: Soft, aromatic flavor; distinct but subtle taste.
7) Manuka Honey: Earthy, oily, herbaceous, and florid; rich and complex
8) Tupelo Honey: Buttery, mellow
9) Wild Blueberry Honey: Dark with a purple tint, overflowing with the taste of sweet blueberry juice
10) Sumac Honey: Golden with a bitter taste that turns sweet as the honey matures
Artisanal honeys are created by creative mixologists, blending unique combinations and proportions of varietal honey to produce honeys as complex as vintage Bordeaux. To learn more about them, check out “The Honey Connoisseur: Selecting, Tasting, and Pairing Honey, With a Guide to More Than 30 Varietals
If you are fortunate enough to grow two or more flower types, you can try your own hand at blending. If not, you can experiment to find the ones that bring you the most joy by sampling artisanal honeys, like these from some of our favorites purveyors:
1) Abella Honey
5) Bee Raw
6) Mtn Honey
8) Ames Farm
10) J. Friend & Co.
Read more: The Great Hidden Secret of Artisan and Varietal Honeys - The Daily Green
Honey is great licked off a finger or a spoon without any further complication, but it’s also a wonderful ingredient, playing beautifully with a range of sweet and savory foods and drinks. Honey is proportionally sweeter than sugar. And it has a more distinct flavor profile, depending on its blossom types. When baking with honey, lower the oven temperature by 25 degrees. Here are three new honey recipes to try:
Honey and Rhubarb Muffins
Recipe: J. Friend & Co.
Photo: Courtesy of J. Friend & Co.
INGREDIENTS
1 free range egg
2 Tablespoons rice bran oil
¼ cup sugar
1 tablespoon J. Friend & Co White Clover Honey
1 cup buttermilk
¼ cup sour cream
1 tsp vanilla extract
2 cups self rising flour
¼ tsp baking powder
1 tsp ground cinnamon
5 stalks rhubarb chopped into small chunks
¼ cup raw sugar
METHOD
Preheat the oven to 200º Celsius. Line a 12 hole capacity muffin tin with muffin cases. Place the egg in a bowl and whisk. Add the oil, sugar, honey, buttermilk, sour cream and vanilla and continue whisking until combined.
Sift the flour, baking soda and cinnamon into a bowl. Add the Rhubarb pieces and stir through until coated in the flour mix. Next, add the wet ingredients and stir until just combined.
Spoon the batter into the muffin cases until ¾ full. Sprinkle the tops with the raw sugar and bake for 25 minutes or until golden brown and cooked through.
Delicious!
Honey Ice Cubes
Recipe: Various
Mix together:
1/2 cup honey
2 cups very hot water
2 Tablespoons or more lemon juice
Pour mixture in an ice-cube tray and freeze. For extra joy, place a blossom in each cube compartment, like lavender sprigs, for lavender honey ice cubes, or a blossoming thyme sprigs for thyme honey ice cubes.
Honey ice cubes are beautiful additions to ice teas, lemonades, and cocktails. Try them as rocks for vodka with a wedge of lemon. Or plop them into your pilsner for a summer British shandy.
Photo: Courtesy of Wandering Empress
My Little Honey Lamb
Recipe: Shira White
Ingredients:
Six small loin lamb chops
Marinade & glaze
½ cup of thyme blossom honey
2 Tbsp Meyer lemon juice
2 Tbsp chopped thyme leaves
1 Tsp finely chopped garlic
1 Tbsp extra virgin olive oil, plus extra to brush on grill
Salt & pepper
Fleur de Sel (to finish)
Thyme sprigs
Preparation
Mix all marinade ingredients together and pour over chops, tossing to coat. Set aside to marinate for at least one hour or overnight (in the fridge).
Brush grill or grill pan with olive oil. Preheat grill or pan to sizzling hot. Let excess marinade drip off chops before laying them on the hot grill surface. Grill for a couple of minutes on each side, until cooked rare. Remove from grill pan to a platter, cover to keep warm, and let them rest for 5 minutes while you prepare the glaze. Heat remaining marinade in a saucepan and simmer until reduced to a thick syrup. Drizzle syrup over lamb chops, sprinkle with fleur de sel, and scatter some thyme sprigs around the platter. Serves 2 sweethearts.
Honey Thyme Ice Cream
By Molly O’Neill
Yields: 4 servings
Ingredients
1 cup whole milk
2 cups heavy cream
6 large sprigs fresh thyme
4 egg yolks
3/4 cup honey
Instructions
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In a small saucepan, combine milk, cream, and thyme. Bring to a simmer. Remove immediately from heat and let stand, covered, for 20 minutes. Strain out the thyme and return the steeped mixture to the saucepan.
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Whisk the egg yolks together in a bowl. Slowly pour in about ¼ cup of the cream mixture, whisking constantly. Whisk in the rest of the mixture and the honey.
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Return to the saucepan and cook over low heat (I used medium-low on my electric stove), stirring constantly with a wooden spoon. Bring the mixture up to 175º, at which point it will be thick enough to coat the back of the spoon. Draw your finger across the back of the spoon. If the line stays, the custard is done. Do not let it simmer.
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Cool completely. If you like, you can create an ice bath by placing ice cubes and a bit of cold water in a large bowl, placing a slightly smaller bowl inside, and pouring the ice cream into the smaller bowl. Once cool, cover and refrigerate until cold (several hours).
- Once chilled, churn in an ice cream maker according to the manufacturer’s instructions.
Original Recipe found here, courtesy of the New York Times.
Whether you tend bees or simply enjoy a honeyed treat there, your backyard can be a great place to meet your honey this summer.
If you are tempted for yet more beautiful sweetness, check out our Sweet Art post. If you're curious about the wonderful world of bees, check out our More Than Honey post about the beautiful and fascinating documentary.
