My name is Rob Green, and I believe that you'll find that my honey is the best tasting you can find anywhere. I say this because that's what everyone is saying when they taste Bluffwood Creek honey.
I'm an Advanced Master Gardener and past president of the Master
Gardeners Association in Hendricks County, Indiana and started keeping bees, in part, to help with pollination.
I am the founding director of the Indiana Beekeeping School, Inc,
a 501(c)(3) non-profit corporation in Indiana whose purpose is to train
beekeepers – and we trained 90 new beekeepers in January 2006, 65 in 2008, 98 in
2009, 92 in 2010, 52 in 2011, and 52 in 2012.
Bees are incredibly necessary to the agricultural economy, and
most wild honeybees have died out from parasites and disease. With state
budget cuts, and the DNR no longer restricting bees coming in from hive-beetle
infested areas, I'm very concerned about the future of beekeeping in Indiana. I started
selling my honey to my friends... and my friends told others... who told
others. And my single hive had become around 40! The hives are currently located
at my
farm in rural Hendricks County surrounded by farmland, clover meadows and
wildflowers. Each little worker honeybee works like crazy creating honey. One
bee makes about 1/12 of a teaspoon of honey in her lifetime!
Every spring I say, "that past winter was the worst winter we've ever had"
because of dead hives. 2011 worse than 2010. In 2009-2010 we lost more than
80% of the hives. Heavy re-investment had been necessary to replenish the colonies lost in
that winter. Like past years, the winter of 2010-2011 looked promising. Many hives
were doing well in January. But in early March, after a devastatingly cold
January and February, it became apparent that only 8 hives survived. And by
April 1, 2011 the survivor count was even lower. But we'd restocked with new
colonies purchased that month.
Why did the bees die? Cold weather was not the only reason. The summer of
2010, a USDA
survey of our colonies indicated low but significant levels of Nosema Cerana, a micro
sporidian fungal parasite that has all beekeepers really worried. Nosema, along
with the two dozen identified viruses that come for free from the bloodsucking
mites, is the toxic connection that appears to be the root cause of Colony
Collapse Disorder.
While almost all beekeepers with more than a hive or two use chemical mite
treatments and antibiotic treatments, we do not. And while we use only natural
remedies and techniques, it means our risk for die outs are as bad or worse
than the other beekeepers. On the positive side, our honey is far and away
better tasting.
In August 2011, the USDA again sampled our bees. They studied the bees with
electron microscopes and could identify the viruses – now more than two dozen
and all injected by the varroa mite bites. And the USDA study also identifies
Nosema cerana as distinguished from Nosema apis, both bloodborn parasites
called microsporidians, the former being much more toxic than the latter. (The
USDA does not distinguish between the two types, for beekeepers outside of
this survey, so I'm fortunate to be in it).
The results of the survey came near Christmas Day, way too late to do anything
about it. The survey indicated that as of August 2011, I had only a few
virus types, and low numbers of infection. I also had very low levels of
Nosema cerana. So I was encouraged and remained optimistic throughout the
winter.
The winter turned out incredibly mild and short. Apple trees were in blossom
before the end of March. My bees were inspected in March and the happy news
was ... we only lost 1/3 of the hives, a big improvement over the past two
years. In fact, on the last market day of March 2012, we had our honey once
again on the table at the market, and available for purchase from our website.
From the original count of survivors, at least one is queenless and another
one subsequently died, but the news is actually good, and actually
encouraging.
What's the big deal about pure, raw honey? First of all, most store brand
honey contains imported honey. It can contain honey from Argentina (cited for
dumping tainted honey below cost in the U.S. market and it often contains
Nitrofurans). Chinese honey, for a while illegal but still appearing in the
USA and Canada in huge quantities, sometimes under the label "organic honey",
was banned entirely from Canada and the whole European community because of
measurable levels of chloramphenicol – an illegal substance that causes
aplastic anemia, a form of cancer. In fact, published reports in 2011
indicated that a third of all the honey for sale in the grocery stores was
Chinese in origin. Even worse, some of our most trusted honey companies are
admitting to finding tainted honey in the distribution system, and instead of
turning the brokers in to the authorities, they just push it back into the
distribution channels where some other company will buy it without checking
and offer it for sale to the public.
Most store brand honey (if it truly originates from the USA or
Canada*) is presumed safe (and that is one awfully big presumption), however it has been heated, and
therefore has lost most of its flavor. This is actually done on purpose
because of the low grade and poorly flavored honey they use in store brands.
By heating cheap imported honey from China and South America (which has been
described as tasting like it was strained through dirty gym socks) they can
knock out most of the objectionable taste. They then blend it with the minimum
amount of a domestic honey needed to impart an acceptable flavor. It can still
contain organisms including "foulbrood" spores. It is for this reason that
when a hive is in trouble, we must never, ever feed the bees honey from a
store. There's too much risk of infecting the hive... Look at the label
closely... If
it just says PACKED in USA, or USDA GRADE A or CANADA No 1, there's an
excellent chance that it came in barrels from somewhere else. And by the
way, labels lie too. A honey vendor in Alberta, Canada was charged by the
government for mixing the most impure, rankest Chinese honey tainted with a
cancer causing drug in his bottle of Pure Alberta Organic Honey. So a label
that says "Product of USA" is not to be relied upon.
*What do we mean by truly originates in Canada or the USA? According
the to American Honey Producers Association in 2006, Chinese honey which now
also contains CIPRO (another banned substance) is showing up at Dollar Stores,
Discount Marts and Warehouse Clubs labeled as Product of USA. The fact is,
you cannot even trust the labeled country of origin. China now microfilters
their honey so there's no trace of pollen in it, that might identify the
country of origin. Europe, who already blocks the import of Chinese honey
(more successfully than the U.S. does) now refuses to allow honey without
pollen in it.
Companies including Sara Lee and Smuckers have found themselves in possession
of cheap bakery grade honey containing cancer causing chloremphenicol. We
documented this news in the state Beekeeping Journal.
If that's not bad enough, some American honey packers have been accused of
diluting honey
with up to 5% high fructose corn syrup – a sweetener that is used in many
products from soft drinks to ketchup which has been linked to childhood
obesity – cannot be detected. This cheap corn sweetener costs pennies a pound
and is believed by some to be widespread in Amercian honey today.
And what's the deal about Raw Honey? Well, first of all, let's get it
straight. "Raw" states nothing about the purity of the honey. A beekeeper can
be using pesticides in his hives for mites, antibiotics too, even illegal
substances, and still call his honey "Raw" if it's never been heated.
So, if you want raw honey, ask the following questions:
1. Have you ever used miticides, even organic ones, in your hives? If the
answer is yes, have you replaced 100% of your beeswax since the last dosage.
2. Have you ever used antibiotics? If the answer is yes, find out when and which one.
It will likely be, that antibiotics had been used as a preventive measure,
something every schoolchild knows is a bad idea.
3. Have you fed your bees High Fructose Corn Syrup as bee feed?
And to belabor the point just a little bit longer, why is there a definition
issue with the word "raw" as in Raw Honey? Among some local honey
producers, they claim raw honey is raw because it wasn't "flash heated."
When pressed, they'll admit to warming or otherwise heating their honey. Let's
be real here. Raw meat is not raw if it's been gently heated or slow roasted.
The definition of raw honey is honey that has had no heating applied to it,
flash, slow or otherwise.
So a fourth question to ask is:
4. Do you heat your honey in any way, at any time during or after the
extraction process?
And finally, because many beekeepers are now selling honey from other
producers, this means they can't be sure of anything anymore. Honey is a
commodity, and you have no idea how many hands it's passed through. If the
label on the honey jar says "packed by..." ask question number 5
5. Is this honey produced 100% by your own bees?
Is this important? It sure is. There was a time that all honey tasted better than it does now. It was all locally produced, or at least, product of USA
or Canada. While we can't make unsubstantiated claims, honey is different from region to region and particularly, country to country. Because it contains microscopic amounts of pollen, some believe that local honey can help with allergies. There's also been published material that suggests that honey contains a whole lot more than carbohydrates (plain ol' sugar). One thing for sure... our honey is local, unprocessed, and completely natural. Today, many beekeepers are out of business. Only diehard lovers of honeybees continue to produce local honey.
You can see a new photo below. This was taken in July 2007. Four honey
entries won four blue ribbons, one purple champion ribbon, and one lavender
reserve champion ribbon. My honey in my arms (labeled after judging) is
liquid, comb, pollen and cinnamon creamed.
Here's a challenge for you. Do a taste comparison. Taste a small amount of store brand honey and then taste Bluffwood Creek honey. If you don't immediately think that our honey tastes better, send it back for a refund!
