Creamed Set Honey

The yellow oil seed rape fields that patchwork across the landscape are a distinctive feature of the countryside. The flowers are very attractive to bees and produce huge amounts of nectar. Rape sown in the autumn will flower in April and May and will often be the first major source of flowers for bees in the spring. Rape can also be sown in the spring and will flower in June/July. Rape honey is unusual for the speed in which it granulates or goes solid. All honey will do this eventually, but rape honey can even set in the honeycomb before we can extract it if we are not careful.
All our honey will contain traces of pollen from the flowers visited by the bees. Many people believe that eating rape honey regularly through the winter can help with pollen allergies in the spring.

We have to act very quickly to extract the honey from the comb before it goes solid. It is then left to granulate in food grade sealed buckets until we need it to go into jars.

To get it ready to put in jars the honey buckets are then gently warmed for 2 days in a thermostatically controlled cabinet, the honey is creamed and stirred and then bottled. Treating it this way ensures the honey stays soft and spreadable in the jar.