Our set honey has been creamed - which means stirred a lot - no cream added !! For best results in the UK, keep it at room temperature or if you find it has gone a little too hard, keep it somewhere warmer for while until soft.
During its' life, a honey bee has several different roles that it carries out in the hive. The worker bees are the females - they are the ones who eventually become the nectar and pollen gatherers ( foragers ). Forager bees visit many flower species, the nectar of which is equally varied.
Despite the variance in nectar, beekeepers will recognise when there is an abundance of blossom of one type, in flower and near one of the apiaries. For instance, around the north Cotswolds, there is a predominance of Hawthorne flowers in May and blackberry flowers in late June and July. We are also lucky to have fields of oil-seed rape in April and borage ( known as star flower ) in July / August.
These nectars can be harvested separately and stored. In the autumn and winter, we are busy deciding which batches will go into our set honey. Some of the honey doesn't crystallize readily, so we reserve it for the runny honey. To obtain the smooth, creamy set texture, we warm the honey at around hive temperature until it is all liquid. Setting is commenced at around 13 Celsius, we usually add some previously set honey to the batch, which helps things along quickly.