Randy wrote:
>At least in my area (in which we don't often get strong honey flows), I can often scrape out four different honey flavors from a single comb.

Gene wrote:
>When asked???? I tell folks that given I keep bees in large cattle pastures about the best name I would call my honey is 'wildflower'.

I typically extract once in late summer / early fall (maybe that will change someday), after the bees have been collecting everything from the earliest spring blooming snowdrops to the later season goldenrod and knotweed.  Our honey is always darker and “earthier” than what you see on the shelves, probably because of the preponderance of goldenrod and knotweed in it, given the timing of my harvest.  Personally, I like the deeper flavor, much as I prefer the darker grades of maple syrup that Erin’s uncle produces in his sugar house.  People go wild over it and ascribe all kinds of flavors to it.  To each their own.  The one pretty universal opinion is that it has more flavor than what is found on the store shelves, which I would expect.  Like Gene, I just call it ‘wildflower’ honey, which is both true and about as detailed as I can get, but, like Gene, I don’t put it on the label.  While I can’t say that I’ve identified different flavors, like Randy can, I do see several different colored light-to-dark streams of honey in the bottom of the holding tank in which the uncapped frames sit before going into the extractor.  Very pretty.  Next season, I’ll try sampling from the different streams to see, if I can detect a difference in flavor.  That would be cool.

Bill
Claremont, NH US

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