Let's spread the news

[thorn]

I looked at the Cottage Delight honey being sold for £4 for 260g in the RHS shop at Harlow Carr on Saturday. It was a "blend of EU and non-EU honey". I expected better from the RHS.
I've put this on my Facebook page and it's getting a few shares. I've also put about blended honey, at both Harlow Carr and in supermarkets, in a thread in the off topic section of a hifi forum I frequent, and members are starting to post that they're checking the honey in their pantry.
Let's get the word out about this muck. If you use social media, or if you're a member of any Internet forum which allows off topic posts, start a thread about it and see if we can make shoppers more aware of where the honey they buy comes from.

 

[bingevader]

Easy now.
It's not necessarily "muck".
One year, we had an early extraction in the spring and then one in the summer and then blended the two together.
The resulting honey was delicious.
Not all non-EU honey is bad.
We sell single source fairtrade honey which is also delicious.
As has been mentioned in another thread, a far better approach would be to extol the virtues of local honey and give a positive aspect, rather than knocking anything else and suggesting honey is bad.

 

[Newbeeneil]

One of the problems of small producers supplying local honey to a national company is the systems they have set up for their suppliers.
One of my apiaries is 100m from a NT garden that sells blended EU honey in pretty pots.
I was very keen to offer my honey but when I looked at the hoops I would have to jump through it really wasn't worth it for the sales.

 

[Poly Hive]

I suspect that quite a lot of non eu honey will be Canadian. And of that a fair bit will be clover. Whether or not it's still true the farmers there used to work quarters. Every year one of the quarters was rested with clover and the honey came out by rail, tanker loads of it. Gales has a fair it of it in the mix I believe.

Painting with a big brush is not always wise.

PH

 

[Murox]

One of the problems of small producers supplying local honey to a national company is the systems they have set up for their suppliers.
One of my apiaries is 100m from a NT garden that sells blended EU honey in pretty pots.
I was very keen to offer my honey but when I looked at the hoops I would have to jump through it really wasn't worth it for the sales.

That rather proves the idiotic inflexibility of a purely monetised extreme capitalistic approach to business - so much for the "buy british" governmental rhetoric.

 

[Beefriendly]

I looked at the Cottage Delight honey being sold for £4 for 260g in the RHS shop at Harlow Carr on Saturday. It was a "blend of EU and non-EU honey". I expected better from the RHS.
I've put this on my Facebook page and it's getting a few shares. I've also put about blended honey, at both Harlow Carr and in supermarkets, in a thread in the off topic section of a hifi forum I frequent, and members are starting to post that they're checking the honey in their pantry.
Let's get the word out about this muck. If you use social media, or if you're a member of any Internet forum which allows off topic posts, start a thread about it and see if we can make shoppers more aware of where the honey they buy comes from.

Its a new trend for them. They used to sell local Harrogate honey as I knew the beekeeper who supplied them. Sadly it seems he doesn't anymore.

 

[beeno]

I looked at the Cottage Delight honey being sold for £4 for 260g in the RHS shop at Harlow Carr on Saturday. It was a "blend of EU and non-EU honey". I expected better from the RHS.
I've put this on my Facebook page and it's getting a few shares. I've also put about blended honey, at both Harlow Carr and in supermarkets, in a thread in the off topic section of a hifi forum I frequent, and members are starting to post that they're checking the honey in their pantry.
Let's get the word out about this muck. If you use social media, or if you're a member of any Internet forum which allows off topic posts, start a thread about it and see if we can make shoppers more aware of where the honey they buy comes from.

Well, done Thorn. It must be done.

 

[beeno]

Easy now.
It's not necessarily "muck".
One year, we had an early extraction in the spring and then one in the summer and then blended the two together.
The resulting honey was delicious.
That would be a blended English honey much the same as if you only extracted in August. That is not the issue.

 

[beeno]

Easy now.
"Not all non-EU honey is bad".
Agreed. I would be very happy to buy Canadian clover honey as I am sure many consumers would. But if I thought it was non-EU from say China I would not. The problem is in the labelling.
"We sell single source fairtrade honey which is also delicious." Fairtrade itself does not cut it with me and of course it must taste good whatever it is.

"...a far better approach would be to extol the virtues of local honey and give a positive aspect, rather than knocking anything else and suggesting honey is bad."
That maintains the status quo beautifully. Better labelling required.

 

[beeno]

One of the problems of small producers supplying local honey to a national company is the systems they have set up for their suppliers.
One of my apiaries is 100m from a NT garden that sells blended EU honey in pretty pots.
I was very keen to offer my honey but when I looked at the hoops I would have to jump through it really wasn't worth it for the sales.

Maybe it is time to start an English Honey co-operative as one cannot buy English honey in the shops!

 

[Erichalfbee]

Maybe it is time to start an English Honey co-operative as one cannot buy English honey in the shops!

My local Sainsbury’s sells English honey

 

[madasafish]

My local Sainsbury’s sells English honey

As do Asda
http://www.mysupermarket.co.uk/Shopping/FindProducts.aspx?Query=english honey

and almost every supermarket
http://www.mysupermarket.co.uk/morr...SDA_Extra_Special_English_Set_Honey_340g.html

 

[thorn]

As do Asda
http://www.mysupermarket.co.uk/Shopping/FindProducts.aspx?Query=english honey

And both also sell the blend, I presume. I know my local Waitrose does. If we point out the provenance, at least the supermarkets' customers may think before buying. And if they do reject the blend, that will help the British producers.

 

[Newbeeneil]

Maybe it is time to start an English Honey co-operative as one cannot buy English honey in the shops!

I investigated the possibility of setting up a website where people could contact local, small producers within say a 5 mile radius of the customer's postcode.
The producers would register the location of their apiaries and website would put the two parties together.
It floundered on the fact that I haven't the time to sort the admin, the data and the fact that I'm not sure beekeeper would want to share the location of hives. (I wasn't anticipating the customer seeing the actual location)
Anyway if anyone thinks they have the time and motivation it might get more local English honey to the customer.

 

[enrico]

I only think you can comment on what they sell if you offer an alternative and they reject it. If no one offers them local English honey then they can't sell it.
I sell all I produce at the gate with no problem so I wouldn't be offering them mine for example!
E

 

[Poly Hive]

Playing devils advocate here.

What about the right of people to make a choice? What about the people who like honey but at this time cannot afford to pay for local honey at triple the price of the supermarkets own label?

I like the taste of Gales and buy it now and again. That's my choice and frankly I want to keep that option.

Reading this thread with words like muck being thrown around is a little disturbing TBH.

I salute the enthusiasm: but we live in the real world people.

PH

 

[jenkinsbrynmair]

My local Sainsbury’s sells English honey

Then it's about time we started a campaign to get that foreign muck off our shelves

 

[Anduril]

Playing devils advocate here.

What about the right of people to make a choice? What about the people who like honey but at this time cannot afford to pay for local honey at triple the price of the supermarkets own label?

I like the taste of Gales and buy it now and again. That's my choice and frankly I want to keep that option.

Reading this thread with words like muck being thrown around is a little disturbing TBH.

I salute the enthusiasm: but we live in the real world people.

PH

A honey producing company in Cardiff, tried to sell Gloucester honey in Cardiff, it was rejected for not being local. The shops have a choice of what they want to sell. Most of my customers want local and the businesses I sell through want local. To start a co-operative I believe is a totally different ball game and I am sure I read somewhere as hobby beekeepers we were not allowed to sell through the big companies, I could be wrong.
One of my apiaries has a fair amount of clover in the surrounding fields and some years it tastes like supermarket honey. Also we cannot supply the amount of honey that these shops want to sell, they would be after a regular supply all year round. Supermarkets want a quick turnover of goods, at our prices it would be slow. Personally I prefer to have a local base and allow the big boys like Gales and Rowse to have their market. Brecon I believe have a Co-operative, where they extract and sell the honey.

 

[yeogi75]

what about an emblem like the red tractor for the farming trade can we have a green bee to show its home produced

 

[For want of a better word]

what about an emblem like the red tractor for the farming trade can we have a green bee to show its home produced

Nobody knows what the little red tractor means!

Supermarkets buy from packagers...and the packagers want one ton of honey per transaction, and at the cheapest price they can acquire it!

Can not see the 2 hive owners having that much to spare!

Yeghes da