Honey has, on occasion, been referred to as the nectar of the Gods.
This naturally nutritious food was looked upon with high regard at Powassan’s first Honey Fest, where 20 area beekeepers let the public sample their locally produced honey, and showcase some of the many products derived from bees, from lip balms to candles.
Six-year-old Ari Johnson and her sisters enjoyed tasting this healthy, natural food.
“I like it. It’s sweet, and it feels sticky. It’s yellow and I can see through it.”
Mom Alexandra brought her family to learn more about bees and their role in nature, as an add-on to a visit to a local bee farm a few years ago.
“We like to promote and support producers of our natural resources. I hope they will learn more about the biology, so therefore the animal aspect is something they can relate to. Why not show them the circle of life with something they can relate to? Anything that can arouse the senses obviously will connect those brain cells, so I like that it is hands on.”
Just like maple syrup, there are different flavours to honey, depending on the time of year.
“The fall flowers are a little stronger and darker than the spring or summer flowers, which is probably a little more milder tasting honey, a little more flavourful. I would say it is a nicer honey, but then again, it is a personal choice which is the best tasting,” explained Peter Dickey, a fourth-generation beekeeper and owner of Dickey Bee Honey in Cookstown.
He was one of three honourary judges tasked with finding the perfect honey during the taste testing competition at Honey Fest.
The judging categories were many.
“The aroma, the flavour, the filling line, the clarity of the honey as in no crystallization or foreign material. The moisture content is very important. It has to be very low in moisture. The condition of the container itself needs to be pristine which means no markings, and no dented caps,” said Dickey.
The honey that had all the winning elements was the one provided by North Bay beekeeper Sue Childs-Furlong. She started with just two hives in 2017, adding two more this year. She estimates she now has about 40,000 bees.
“I’ve got special bees I guess,” laughed Childs-Furlong when asked what made her honey the over-all winner.
“I managed to collect about 60 pounds of honey this year, primarily from the first two hives. A fair amount was left in the hives for the winter. I think it was a pretty good supply of honey for my first year. It was a really good summer, lots of sun, lots of heat. And apparently bees really love that and they’ve done a good job. It really is an interesting hobby.”
This was also the first year for runner-up Craig Steward of Trout Creek.
“I’m actually very, very happy. I was just informed that I should present my honey in the All-Ontario regionals it was so good,” said Steward.
“We now have four hives, we started with three. I’m actually thinking of expanding to six in total. I’ve really enjoyed it. I love learning.”
Dickey agrees that this summer was very good for bees.
“We had a fairly dry summer, much better than last year when it was wet all summer. So we did get a fairly good honey crop, and the bees look healthy going into winter right now.”
But it was a different situation in the spring when many beekeepers were devastated to find a significant number of their bees did not make it through the winter.
“Some beekeepers lost up to 85 percent of their colonies. It seems to be a little bit worse up north possibly because of the weather. The neonicotinoids aren’t helping us. I didn’t have those problems this year thank goodness, but I’ve had my problems previously.”
Studies have shown that neonicotinoids, an agricultural insecticide, are one of the factors linked to colony collapse and declining bee populations.
Long time local producer, Stefan Board owner of Board’s Northern Nectars in Restoule, says after what he calls the “catastrophic events” over the past few years in southern Ontario, western Canada and the northern United States due to the use of herbicides and pesticides, people are making changes which appear to slowly be working.
“The bees are now rebounding. This year actually I saw so many different types of indigenous bees. The indigenous bees that were affected as well have rebounded. In the early part of the year I didn’t see hardly any, but in the middle of the summer they started to come back,” said Board.
“And I actually saw in our area, indigenous bees that I have never, ever seen before. So I think the bees are moving too, to more environmentally friendly areas. In our area we have very small pockets of farming, so we’re not affected by the same sorts of things that were affecting southern Ontario and out west.”
Kathie Hogan events coordinator at 250 Clarke in Powassan, who organized the event, says the honey tasting was what hooked people.
“People love honey. There isn’t anybody who doesn’t love honey. So we get them through the door, and then we have an opportunity to talk about raising bees, and the importance of bees to us locally as a population. And also to the plants and the flowers and the trees that they help pollinate.”
Hogan became a beekeeper herself by chance, when they were left to her.
Deciding there may be others needing to learn more about raising bees, she started a bee club.
“We have monthly meetings in this building here at 250 Clarke Street in Powassan. We have 130 beekeepers that drive for an hour in some cases, and they come for education. The whole face of beekeeping has changed. Now it includes more women and young people. Everybody is excited about bees. They want to save the planet, and this is one way to do it. It is an interesting hobby and it is a very steep learning curve that people don’t mind engaging in, and there’s always something new.”
Some little known facts from Golden Blossom Honey include knowing that a worker bee will make 1/12 of a teaspoon of honey in its entire life.
And a hive of bees must fly 55,000 miles to produce a pound of honey, requiring visits to 2 million flowers to produce that one pound.
