Honey Varietal Guide

[riverbee]

i stumbled across this information from the National Honey Board on varietal honeys and also the pdf file. (i liked the color pdf file). 
in general, gives information about the more common honey plants, color, taste, where grown, and suggests 'table use' of each of these, for marinades, baking, cooking, bbq, etc., and also gives some honey faqs on how to use honey in place of sugar, how honey should be stored, what to do with crystallized honey, and what forms of honey are available (short).

"Honey Varietals
The color, flavor, and even aroma of a particular variety of honey may differ depending on the nectar source of flowers visited by the honey bee. The colors may range from nearly colorless to dark brown, the flavor may vary from delectably mild to distinctively bold, and even the odor of the honey may be mildly reminiscent of the flower.
Varietal honeys may be best compared to varietal wine in terms of annual climactic changes.  Even the same flower blooming in the same location may produce slightly different nectar from year-to-year depending upon temperature and rainfall.

There are more than 300 unique types of honey available in the United States, each originating from a different floral source. Space doesn’t allow us to list all 300 varieties so we’ve listed some of the more common.  As a general rule, the flavor of lighter colored honeys is milder, and the flavor of darker colored honeys is stronger.

For more details on these and more floral sources, and to locate specific varietals of honey, try visiting Honey Locator."

the common honey plants covered are:

*alfalfa
*avocado
*basswood
*blueberry
*buckwheat
*clover (white dutch, red,sweet and white)
*cotton
*cranberry
*eucalyptus
*fireweed
*goldenrod
*macadamia
*mesquite
*orange blossom
*palmetto
*pumpkin
*raspberry
*sage
*sourwood
*star thistle
*sunflower
*tulip Poplar
*tupelo
*wildflower

Honey Varietals National Honey Board Website

Honey Varietal Guide PDF National Honey Board

we have a number of these plants, alfafa, basswood, buckwheat, clovers, goldenrod, pumpkin, wild raspberry and other wild berry plants, also thistle, sunflower, and of course the general wildflower.  we plant specific plants for the bees, like alfafa and buckwheat, sunflowers, pumpkins in our gardens and many other native pollinator plants that benefit pollinators and honey bees. it is hard to say with certainty sometimes what your honey is even if you think you know....LOL.  i generally combine my honey, but i do know what alfalfa, buckwheat, basswood, vetch and a few other honeys are by taste and color.  i may separate some of my supers out when i know these flows are on and the bees are collecting the nectar.  when we get a good flow of bee balm of any kind (and alfalfa), i like to get the comb honey frames in on these, especially bee balm. it produces a wonderful very light hint of mint flavored comb honey.

i love the flavors of different honey's from different regions, and when we travel, i buy honey from the local farmers markets to enjoy, and of course talking with the beekeepers who keep the bees that produce the honey!

please share what grows in your region, or maybe what you enjoy, or any other comments.  thanks!