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ALL ABOUT OUR SOUTH LONDON HONEY January 2023
We’re very excited to be adding a South London Honey to our range from February. Details about the honey are on our website as usual but we know many people often have questions about the sustainability of beekeeping and honey. So here’s some more information about the beekeeper, Annie, and her bees which we hope will answer any questions or concerns you may have.
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Annie is a Naked Larder customer and is passionate about sustainable beekeeping.
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“I have been studying and keeping honeybees for 15 years. But still nobody has been able to tell me why the honeybees make more stores for the winter than they need. Humans have been taking honey from the bees for thousands of years. You can even see this illustrated in the beautiful pictures on the walls of pyramids in Egypt!
This honey now for sale with Naked Larder is from Underhill Road in East Dulwich and contains nectar and pollen from the trees in the area, lime, horse chestnut and the flowers in the gardens but probably mainly trees. There will be traces of the pollen from the trees and flowers in the honey. The honey is extracted manually, with no heating or cooling. Nothing is added. It is drip filtered through a mesh sieve into a honey bucket where it sits for a week or so while air bubbles rise out and is then put into jars.
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The jars can be recycled as long as they have only had honey in. I never use jars that used to have pickle in as the vinegar leaves a scent. I love the smell of honey and the complex sweet flowery richness. There are food safety regulations which I adhere to in the extraction process and each jar is labelled with where the hive is and my name etc as per the regulations.
I am fully aware that some vegans have concerns about the use of honey and bee farmers. Where beekeeping is not done in s sustainable fashion I would share these views. However I am not a bee farmer. The bees are free to leave if they want as wild insects, but they don’t. If they do it can lead to problems in the city as we would have wild colonies in roof spaces, air bricks, compost heaps and so on. Ensuring that I leave plenty of honey for the bees for winter in the hive is absolutely essential and my bees are never fed sugar.
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I am also very aware that keeping honey bees and helping them thrive is not great for all the other 200 other variety of bees in UK. I only keep two hives in an apiary so the honeybees don't outnumber the other bees and am aware of the local population of hives so we keep honey bee numbers moderate. We need all the different kinds of bees to thrive, bumbles, mason etc. I have an allotment and garden and grow bee friendly plants and encourage everyone to do so.
I am on the committee of the London Beekeepers Association. You can find out more about their sustainable beekeeping practices here or on their website: www.lbka.org.uk
Thank you for your interest in my bees and honey.
Annie”
If you have any more questions about Annie’s honey please do get in touch.