Our Honey Products!
Pure, raw honey!
Our honey is not pasteurized - we don't even use a heated knife to extract our honey. We never heat our honey over natural hive temperatures, and we only filter it minimally to remove wax particles. We strain the honey through a 400-600 micron mesh, which allows the pollen to filter through into the bottled honey. The honey that you purchase from your local grocery store could have been ultra-filtered and pasteurized, which removes the healthful benefits. This honey may be bottled in the United States, but originated from a foreign country without honey-extracting/storage ethics, or possibly is adulterated with additional ingredients, such as high fructose corn syrup.
Hyper-local Honey
We produce hyper-local honey, which is nectar that is a limited batch, and gathered by our bees in specific geographic areas in central Iowa. Each honey has been produced by the bees in micro-climates, and the taste of the honey varies each year based on conditions in the environment controlled by Mother Nature herself, within a 3-mile radius of the apiary. These honeys allow you to taste the local flora of each beeyard, which is unique to that particular neighborhood. We label our honey based on the the geographic area that the nectar was collected by our bees: Urban Des Moines, rural Indianola and rural Runnells, and the primary nectar source.
Read more here about our apiaries in Des Moines, Indianola and Runnells!
Honey in General!
WILDFLOWER HONEY
Our Wildflower Honey is what’s known as polyfloral, meaning many types of nectar were collected by the bees to make it. It could contain any combination of Midwest wildflowers, Black Locust tree nectar, Linden tree nectar, clover, alfalfa, soybean depending on what is blooming during the season at that specific apiary, and collected at the whimsy of the bees.
ACACIA HONEY
Our acacia honey is not monofloral - beekeepers cannot explicitly state that the ONLY nectar is from the Black Locust tree. We track the bloom-period of the trees; the PRIMARY nectar source is the Black Locust tree, with small amounts of secondary nectar sources, such as clover or wildflowers. With vanilla notes and a luminous pale hue, our premium acacia honey touches the palate with delicate perfection.
BASSWOOD/LINDEN HONEY
Our basswood/linden honey is not monofloral - beekeepers cannot explicitly state that the ONLY nectar is from the Basswood/Linden tree. We track the bloom-period of the trees; the PRIMARY nectar source is the Basswood/Linden tree, with small amounts of secondary nectar sources, such as clover or wildflowers. The honey made from the nectar of these trees is prized for its unique taste and aroma, and because an annual linden honey crop can’t be guaranteed, it’s even more valuable. Basswood/linden honey is said to have natural antibacterial properties, which can actively fight off inflammation and respiratory infections and have a detoxifying effect that supports a healthy liver. The flavor is medium sweet and pleasantly fruity, with a hint of citrus or mint at the end.
2024 Honey Varietals
We often get asked how we can offer and know the varietal of honey. As a beekeeper, it is important to know the honey-producing trees and plants that are available within a three mile radius of your apiary, as well as understand the bloom period of each of those trees and plants. While our honey is never mono-floral, as it is impossible to state the bees only visited one species of flower, the varietal name indicates the primary nectar source the bees were foraging on at the time of surplus honey production. Our liquid honey is never flavored or infused with additional ingredients. (Please note that we do prepare a creamed honey in which we add freeze-dried fruit or cinnamon powder to the concoction.)
Many beekeepers do not tract the bloom period of honey-producing plants, and the deposit of nectar in the honey supers by the bees, the honey is mixed and typically just called wildflower honey. We DO track the bloom period of our honey-producing trees and plants - tracking and extracting varietal honey is more labor intensive; but, we love the experience and the ability to offer our customers the opportunity to enjoy several types of honey.
Our recommendation is if you find a varietal that you love, buy enough to supply yourself for the upcoming year. Our varietals, especially the black locust, linden and Des Moines wildflower honey, sell out very quickly. We have found our customers get disappointed when they found a honey they love, and have to wait months to restock their supply. Since our harvest is focused during late July, early August, it will be months before the honey is available again.
Our 2024 harvest produced seven different varietals, based on the apiary that the honey was extracted from.
Des Moines Wildflower:
Our most robust wildflower honey, and many folks' favorite honey! We have agastache and tall ironweed native plants on our property, which provide the robust taste profile.
Des Moines Linden/Basswood:
Basswood/linden honey is said to have natural antibacterial properties, which can actively fight off inflammation and respiratory infections and have a detoxifying effect that supports a healthy liver. The flavor is medium sweet and pleasantly fruity, with a hint of citrus or mint at the end.
Des Moines Black Locust:
With vanilla notes and a luminous pale hue, our premium acacia honey touches the palate with delicate perfection.
Indianola Wildflower:
Fairly mild and sweet - land is on CRP!
Runnells West Wildflower:
Mild, nice and sweet, with a clover influence – just a lovely wildflower nectar.
Runnells North Wildflower:
More robust wildflower with an alfalfa influence. The landowner planted native agastache, so this honey is similar to the Des Moines wildflower.
Blank Park Zoo Wildflower:
A mild wildflower with a Black Locust influence.
Comb Honey
The honey production this year was hardest hit in our honeycomb offerings. The bees absolutely refused to produce Ross Round comb honey - and we tried everything to influence our bees. We have a limited inventory of cut comb honey. The honeycomb is available in several different sizes - we added half-size cut comb containers to our inventory - we will be offering 4x4 squares and 2x4 rectangles of cut comb this year.
Comb honey is so impressive, and absolutely beautiful to look at! It is the most raw form of honey, and the manner in which honey was consumed prior to the invention of the extractor. It is gorgeous to look at and just as delicious to eat. Honestly, if you have never tried it, well, you are missing out!
Honeycomb typically sells out quickly - and with our limited inventory, you don't want to miss out!
Go to the About Comb Honey page to learn so much more!
Our Containers
We have converted our business to glassware. Glass is environmentally friendly, and healthier for our customers. Honey has an indefinite shelf-life; after reading that plastic bottles that are BPA-free can potentially have leaching of chemicals into food products, we elected to use glassware for our products. We recommend that you utilize a honey dipper for dispensing your honey from the glassware.
Raw honey will also eventually crystallize - the timing depends on the glucose in the honey. The glassware provides the opportunity to heat your honey over a low heat to liquefy the honey.
Upon request, we can bottle our honey in either 1 pound, 2 pound plastic queen-line bottles or in a 3 or 5 pound plastic container. If you are shipping honey, the plastic container reduces the shipping cost. In addition, when purchasing our volume discount WHOPPER mason jars, we offer one free plastic bottle on your first purchase of a mason jar. Future plastic dispensers will be charged at $1.00/plastic container.
Be an Environmental Steward
If you return a honey glass container to us, we will discount a future purchase by 25 cents! If the bottle is a half-gallon mason jar or a 2-pound queenline jar, we will discount a future purchase by 50 cents! If returning a mason jar, please ensure to include the jar ring - we use new lids, so no need to return the lid. We sterilize the containers with cleaning agents approved for use in commercial food-preparation.
Note: We no longer take back the elderberry bottles. This was a tough decision because we desire to be environmental stewards, but the bottles are difficult to clean, and we wanted to ensure we were protecting our customers.