Heather Harvest

The vibrant purple ling heather found on the Long Mynd in Shropshire is very important to us and not only because it’s used to make our London Honey Company Mead. The heather doesn’t blossom until the late summer months when it marks the end of the season for the London Honey Company bees. This makes Shropshire a very important final stop before it’s all down to bottling and orders for Christmas back in Bermondsey! December is already creeping up on us far too fast. 

A thick gelatinous honey with toffee flavours and bitter notes, it's special stuff. So rich it even defies the Newtonian laws of how liquids normally behave! According to the boffins it's thixotropic, which means it gets less viscous as it is stirred - drop that into conversation over the breakfast table, that'll impress!

What does this aromatic honey go down well with? Some enjoy it with a large slab of pecorino. Others with yoghurt and fruit, or a home made granola! But I think my personal favourite is just in its most simplistic form, straight off the spoon in a time of weakness!

But why not try this recipe to treat the other half on a Sunday afternoon, we should thank Theo Fraser from ‘The deli downstairs’ in the East End for it, he is an old friend of the company and kindly contributed the recipe to Steve’s book,  ‘The Urban Beekeeper- A year of bees in the city’, p 205 for more detail and cooking instructions. 

Baklava French Toast Recipe

5 tbsp honey

1 tbsp water

zest of half an orange

a handful of pistachios and walnuts, chopped

a pinch of ground cinnamon

2 slices of good bread

1 egg

1 tbsp of milk

2 drops of good vanilla extract

a pinch of salt

butter, for frying

To serve:

a small square of honey on the comb (preferably ours)

orange zest 

mascarpone

The heather harvest this year has brought in about 500kg of honey, which may seem a lot but is down on our previous crop from last year. The honey cropping up in Shropshire was a full team operation with Steve, Nick, Hannah, David the game keeper, and even Steve's nephew was called upon to lift honey boxes as back up. However, no hard work is finished in Shropshire without a trip to Steve’s sisters house where he and the team were rewarded with a big pot of homemade chilli and a damson crumble!