Hordle april may 22

New Forest Artisans: Honey
By Suzanne Ashworth
One of the most unique noticeable features of the New Forest’s heathland is the great swathes
of heather. Their changing hues colour the landscape and mark each passing year.
There are three species in the forest – common heather, bell heather and cross-leaved heath
heather. All three are rich in nectar and pollen, enabling producers to gather honey with a
distinctly dark and delicious fragrance and taste. Permits are issued for hives to be placed in
certain areas of heather each year in the New Forest.
The earliest known proof of humans gathering
and using honey can be seen in Spanish cave
paintings dating back 8000 years. Carefully
sealed honey can keep for thousands of years.
In the New Forest there were small banked
enclosures for hives to protect them from
damage from passing stock. These “bee
gardens” were in small entrenched areas about
5m square topped with hedges and were to be
found in area such as Beaulieu, Brockenhurst
and Bull Hill. At this time the honey was
gathered in “skeps”, which were beehive
baskets.
take an hour to fill from the nectar of up to
1000 flowers! Back in the hive the bees ingest
and regurgitate the honey for about 20 minutes
until it is ready to store. They also constantly
flutter their wings to circulate the air and
evaporate water from the honey. Only when it
is reduced to about 18% of its original state has
it reached its saturation point and will no longer
ferment. The bees then store in capped cells
within the hive.
Bees are the world’s most important
pollinators, ensuring the pollination of one third
of food crops and 80% of all flowers.
Honey is a sweet, viscous food substance made
by bees from floral nectar, which is the sugary
secretions of plants. It is stored in honeycombs
and can be gathered from bee colonies in the
wild or from hives of domesticated bees. Honey
is classified by its floral source, hence the
distinctive nature of New Forest honey. It is
essentially pure sugar!
Each individual hive will produce about 65lb of
honey each year – many commercial honeys
are blended A single colony of bees needs to
collect around 50kg of pollen and 150kg of
nectar each year, just to survive, before any
surplus honey can be harvested by the
beekeeper. Polyfloral honey is produced from
many wildflowers and has a varied flavour.
Honey contains both fructose and glucose and
each tablespoon provides about 46 kilocalories.
Throughout history and across the world, honey
has been used for medicinal purposes – treating
wounds and burns, as an antibiotic and for
coughs. If honey becomes cloudy during
storage and starts to crystallise it can be stood
in a bowl of hot water to restore its clarity. Set
honey is a good sign that its real honey, and
many seek set honey, as it is delicious on toast!
Modern medicine also promotes honey as
better than other sources of sugar for heart
health and because of its plant compounds. It is
known to reduce blood sugar levels and blood
pressure, regulating the heartbeat and prevent
the death of healthy cells. It is not to be given
to under ones, however, due to a small risk of
botulism. Many hayfever sufferers find that ….
Bees collect nectar and honeydew to support
their metabolism and muscles used during
foraging trips, or to store as a long-term food
supply. It is astonishing that each bee can store
up to 40mg of honey in its honey stomach,
which can be half its total body weight and can
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