Artisan honey comes from the same bees in the same hives at the same location. The difference in these honeys are because each week the bees are finding different sources of nectar depending on the nectar flow of each flower and each shrub and tree.
Nature is never constant, and the summer season of plant development is more like waves rolling in on a beach or clouds rolling across the sky. Every week and every day produce completely different results in the nectar flow and subsequently different flavors and nutrient content in the honey. Rather than looking at a calendar for our compass we might look at each morning of each day to find out what our bees are up to.
That is why honey has different tastes and color throughout the honey season.
Honeys from the end of May to the middle of July are the “Wildflower” honeys, which are amazingly sweet and explode softly on the tongue in the flavors of more than 20 differnt sugars. You can actually taste the wild rose, blueberry, currant, raspberry, cranberry and other blooming flavors that do not produce berries.
Then there is the almost clear, August fireweed honey. I call it, “Angel Wings”. It is soft and light tasting, with a rich sweetness in every spoonful.
The darkest honey comes from the season way after the flowers have gone in October, which I prefer to think of as “Boreal Forest Honey”, this honey has a very rich flavor of Birch, Willow, cottonwood, alder and Spruce and has completely different medicinal usages, similar to Chaga or pine needle tea. The taste can be similar to a rich birch syrup we use on pancakes in the morning.
To get Artisan Honey you simply harvest the honey stores after the peak of each different nectar flow usually at about ten-day intervals. Now this seems simple, but it is very labor intensive to pull off the capped honeycomb, transport it from the apiary in the forest to the honey barn in Anchorage, spin it into jars, then return the empty frames to the hives and finally clean up the mess. Fortunately, with honey, finger licking is allowed.
We have a special opportunity here in Alaska with our bees to provide you with an amazing and organic honey. Taking the extra time and effort to harvest the different nectar flows throughout the summer is an effort worthwhile, I think. The results of the taste tests by our friends and family have been startling. We can not only see, but we can taste and feel the daily changes in our summer’s flora and fauna. It seems to bring us much closer to the natural word we love. Artisan Honey is more than a name, it’s the next level in the world of local honey magic.
Thank you, Jon & Olga
