Buy Local Honey

If you want to support your local economy and ensure you are buying a quality product produced by someone who cares about the environment, then buy honey directly from your local small scale apiarist. In France, look for the wording on the label which says 'Récolté et mis en pot en France' ('Harvested and potted in France'). Reject honey that says 'Miel d'origine UE' ('Honey from the EU') or worse, 'Miel d'origine hors UE' ('Honey from outside the EU').

 

Chestnut honey and forest honey, from two different Loire Valley apiarists.

Why buy local honey? Beekeepers themselves will sometimes spout a load of nonsense about how you are helping endangered pollinators and biodiversity, but this is rarely true [see my post about 'The Trouble With Honey Bees]. What you are doing though is contributing to a circular, short distance economy, helping it to be resilient, durable and if necessary, reactive. 

 

Buckwheat honey.

You will also be getting a much more interesting range of flavour profiles than anything in the supermarket, which is nearly always blended on an industrial scale, not single source. You will quickly learn how to tell honey produced in the spring (pale, floral, very sweet) from honey produced in the autumn (dark, fruity, with a touch of bitterness to balance the sweetness). Then you can learn the differences between linden (Fr. tilleul), robinia (Fr. acacia), sunflower (Fr. tournesol), buckwheat (Fr. sarrasin), chestnut (Fr. chataigner), heather (Fr. bruyère), canola (Fr. colza) and buckthorn (Fr. bourdaine). I've even had carrot honey from one apiarist!

 

 Linden honey.

Cheap honey is always adulterated with syrup. If it is imported it has been through several hands, all with the opportunity of cutting it to make more profit. It has been transported long distances and has thus contributed to air pollution and greenhouse gases. 

 

A swarm of honey bees in a bush.

I recommend visiting your local apiarist and buying direct from their shed. Ask if they will show you around -- usually they are delighted to show you how they work and to talk about honey bees. And now that you know them, you will have someone to call when one day a swarm of bees takes up residence in your peach tree (or whatever, in your garden...). Your apiarist friend will come and collect them, and thank you for calling them.

 

Bernard the apiarist, showing Joy and me inside a hive.

If you can't make it to your beekeeper's shed, buy from them at your village market. You can still have a chat about the bees, their work and the honey, and they'll still come and gather up the swarm in your garden if you ask them.

My personal preference is for the dark strong autumnal honeys like chestnut. I'm not overly impressed by 'acacia', which is the most popular honey in France. But at least in France there is an expectation that you take food seriously and treat it respectfully, hence people knowing what the different varieties of honey are like, just as they know what the different varieties of strawberries or apples are like. Honey is not just honey in France.