A Sweet Present

Miel en brèche

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.

1-Cut up

I think I managed quite well, for a beginner.

1-Bread and honey

Morning coffee with fresh bread and honeycomb.

Empty honey frame

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.

Bumble on frame

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?

1-bee on breche

 

 Just as an update – some honey bees did come.

1-bumble on breche

And the odd honey bee deserted the Nepeta underneath to sample the honey.

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39 thoughts on “A Sweet Present

  1. 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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  2. 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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  3. 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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    1. 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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  4. 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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      1. 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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  5. 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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    1. 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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      1. 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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