We are so lucky in the west of Ireland to be able to produce so many different types of raw Irish honey. From early in the season the first type of honey we can produce and collect is natural tree honey where the bees are foraging and pollinating all the different trees, the furze bush, sycamore, pussy willow, horse chestnut, dandelion, whitethorn, apple blossom to name but a few. If we have a surplus of honey in the hive at this time of the year, we can extract some of this early Irish raw honey for ourselves or for the market. There is a totally different flavour of this honey compared to the later main crop honey from the clover and blackberry which is our main crop.
As soon as we notice the purple colour of the Heather appearing on the hills and bogs around us we have to remove all the super boxes of main crop honey and put on new boxes to collect the best honey you will ever taste the Irish Heather Honey. If we did not take off the boxes of main crop honey then we would not be able to extract the honey in our extractors as the Heather Honey needs to be pressed out of the wax frames as it is so dense it does not extract in the normal way.
Irish Honey Study
This Irish Honey is worth its weight in gold and a recent study by researches in DCU University who carried out a 2-year study of Irish Heather Honey and found it has a similar level of Antioxidants as Manuka ( a 15 euro jar of Irish heather Honey is equal to the 70 to 90 euro jar of Manuka Honey see article below.
This Honey is taken off as soon as we see the Ivy Honey going into the hive as this is a totally different flavoured honey to any other. Beekeepers normally left this surplus of raw diverse Ivy honey for the winter food for the bees but the Irish consumer has been looking to buy this medicinal Ivy Honey so we take off a small amount of this delicious Irish Ivy Honey for sale.