I got a present from my bee keeper friend Michel today. He knows I like honeycomb so he gave me some “miel en brèche” as it is known in French.
It was up to me to cut it avoiding the metal strips running through it which serve as guides for the bees to build the comb on.
I think I managed quite well, for a beginner.
Morning coffee with fresh bread and honeycomb.
I thoroughly scraped around the frame so I would not waste any of the honey and then I put it outside for the bees to clear up the rest.
However, so far, they do not seem interested in my leftovers but this bumble bee is not going to pass over some easy pickings.
Earlier this morning I had read Emily’s post, “All about the hunny”, in Adventures in Beeland’s Blog, explaining that she and Emma had difficulty extracting their honey. I wonder if this could be a solution in areas where the honey was difficult to extract. However, I am not a bee keeper (not yet). I also love honeycomb and if some pieces of the comb mix in, it does not bother me, in fact I like it. I always remember honeycomb being something extra special and it was a particular favourite of my grandfather. I wonder whether this is an unusual taste or not?
Just as an update – some honey bees did come.
And the odd honey bee deserted the Nepeta underneath to sample the honey.
a french garden 
Hi Amelia, the honey looks quite dark. We harvested JP’s hives on Sunday and the honey from that was also dark. Caramely. It definitely wasn’t the normal yellow sunflower honey. One theory is clover. I wonder if Michel has any ideas?
Must admit I’m not a fan of honeycomb – an acquired taste as my father would say. A Marmite thing maybe?
Bon Appetit.
Dallas
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Interesting. The honey is not all sunflower like the one I saw extracted on Sunday. Michel reckons it is about 50% sunflower and 50% forest and other flowers. Amelia
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Brings back fun memories of boyhood when the usual source of honey was in a comb. Thanks for the memory.
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Another fan of honeycomb, at least I’m not alone! Amelia
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Ooooo! Amelia, that looks wonderful dark hunny!
And, like you, fresh bread, or hot toast and real honeycomb is one of the best things in life…
no wonder Humans started to keep bees…
now I have just got to go and have some dark, rich Forest honey on some white baguette….
we’ve tea in t’pot to have with it….
I’ll cook after!!
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Your making me hungry! Amelia
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I think I’ve only had it once and loved it too… lucky you! 🙂
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So there are many more people who like it! Amelia
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What a lovely present, I do not think I have ever tasted it Amelia, sounds wonderful in French too.
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Now you can try it. The wax is not at all hard and melts in your mouth. Try with hot toast and butter. Amelia
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An acquired taste but my dad used to keep bees so I got used to honeycomb in with the honey.
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It did not take me long to acquire it but that might say a lot about my appetite! Amelia
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I’ve never had it but I do like honey.
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I’m sure given your inquisitive nature you’ll give it a fair try and enjoy it. Amelia
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Wow, do you ever have a great friend!
I too like honeycomb as do a couple people I know but many think it tastes of wax – they’re right of course, but that doesn’t mean it’s not wonderful!
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There are more honeycomb lovers out there than I thought. Amelia
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I like honeycomb too and you can certainly buy jars of honey with pieces in it. Nice present! Dave
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The perfect present for you Amelia. I don’t think I’ve ever eaten honeycomb but I did once attend a honey tasting which was fun! An hour and a half to taste and be tutored about 7 honeys
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I’d love to go to a honey tasting session and I took not of what was done in the buona forchetta blog. However, I disagree with some of the tastes. Michel gave me Tillia honey and all I could say is that I would call it Ambrosia – I had never tasted anything so good. If I had to compare with another flavour I would have said light lemon was in it. Also I was given very dark chestnut honey by a bee keeper in Surrey and it was a wonderful deep sweet, caramelly flavor. I have only had one bad honey that I bought years ago in a market place in France and it had such a strange after taste I threw it away. I rather fancy becoming a honey connoisseur! Amelia
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You can read about it here http://buonaforchetta.wordpress.com/2011/05/29/the-fine-art-of-tasting-miele/
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I love honeycomb honey. I haven’t had any for years but it was always such a treat when we got it.
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I always thought of it as something special too. I’m glad you like it as well. Amelia
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That is a great gift! I don’t extract honey anymore, but rather cut it out, crush the whole mess and strain it.
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Don’t you like eating it as honeycomb or is it a storage problem? I can imagine bottles of honey are easier to store. Amelia
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A little of both. I didn’t grow up where people eat honeycomb so I never have. And I find it easier to store in jars.
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What a treat. I love honey comb. All we can get here are tiny squares of honey in the comb in a plastic box, at great cost and imported from New Zealand. When in Paris, we always have a session of honey degustation at the market stalls, and come back with a small selection. This year’s included a Miel de Carottes,( I didn’t know honeybees visited carrot flowers – I guess you’d have to be growing a crop for seed?) It’s a really dark thick honey which I’m tucking into now, having just finished a local early season pale willow honey. They’re all so different aren’t they? But I’ll look out for the Tilia next time,
BW, Julian
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I was intrigued by the carrot honey and did a search. It is very rare and (as you guessed) in the Loiret a company grows carrots for seed and that is the source of the honey.
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How interesting…. I just followed it up as well, and I can’t find a website which ties in with the label on the jar – Moulin Vasles, yevre le chatel, but I did find another place, which needless to say was a lot cheaper than our Parisian jar! Still, thanks for getting me to think a bit more about how just unusual carrot honey is! Actually I’ve spent more time looking for on line honeycomb in the UK. With not much luck. And anyway, would you really trust ebay as a source of honey? Much better to have your entire frame delivered. Lucky you!
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Finally… I’ve just dug out our remaining jar, and it is ‘miel de Tilleul’, which sounds like it’s the lime/linden honey you mentioned, so we’ve another treat in store.
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I’ll be interested in how you find it as Michel’s was really remarkable. No need to be a connoisseur to notice.
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I’ve never had honeycomb but I do use bees wax in lots of home made cosmetics. Wish I had the space to keep bees 🙂
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You will get lots of entertainment and fun next year when your bee hotel starts to fill up. Amelia
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Wonderful photos. There are a few reasons for not choosing the honeycomb cutting method. One is that we had used foundation sheets in the middle of the frame for them to build on. This is pure wax and not so good to eat. Was Michel’s comb foundationless?
Another reason for using an extractor to spin the honey out is that the frames of wax honeycomb cells are valuable for bees/beekeepers the next year, it speeds up the process of creating honey if the bees have empty cells all ready to fill.
The honeycomb does look absolutely beautiful though, what a lovely present.
I feel a bit mean saying this but it’s not strictly good practice to leave honey out in the open for bees to feed on, because it can spread disease if bees eat honey made by other bees. For that reason it’s recommended to feed bumblebees a sugar solution if they need perking up rather than some honey.
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I know it is recommended to feed bumble bees sugar and water and I do this. I must admit it was at the extraction demonstration that they said they put the honeycomb out for their bees to clear. Perhaps that would mean it would be the same bees that made the comb? But I take your point.
Michel uses foundationless frames for his honeycomb. This frame had some vertical wires (three, I think) that could be pulled out before cutting. He also makes frames for himself with two horizontal wires to give them a start. He mainly extracts it for bottling as he does sell it. Amelia
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Some beekeepers do it, but it’s not necessarily a good idea for the disease reason and also potentially it can cause robbing. It would be ok if they only had one hive but with multiple hives you can’t tell which bees will turn up. Michel’s method sounds really good.
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They are doing such a great job. Clever bees.
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It is quite a lot of honey for us to get through, too! Amelia
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Lucky you so much honey! It looks delicious, although my favourite bit is the bumble bee getting some easy pickings!
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I am very lucky and there is less incentive for me to go DIY 🙂
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