Our bees have been in a bit of a honey flow lull, so I was surprised to see serious activity around the hives Sunday despite drippy weather.  A quick jaunt through the woods, though, turned up the culprit --- Sourwood.  Tiny white bells scattered on the forest floor were the only indicator that the trees were in bloom.

We don't plan to harvest any honey this year, but if we did it might be worth trying to taste some sourwood honey.  Slow Food USA has an entire page about the honey, including this tantilizing quote:

Most honey is made by bees. But sourwood is made by bees and angels. 

The page also answers a question I've always wondered about --- how can beekeepers sell you "clover honey" or "sourwood honey" when bees are constantly checking out alternative food sources?  Honestly, I can't see myself ever jumping through the hoops necessary to get pure sourwood honey, but you never know....

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About us: Anna Hess and Mark Hamilton spent over a decade living self-sufficiently in the mountains of Virginia before moving north to start over from scratch in the foothills of Ohio. They've experimented with permaculture, no-till gardening, trailersteading, home-based microbusinesses and much more, writing about their adventures in both blogs and books.



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