Devon Moors & Coast honey · 1lb £1075 jars from the summer harvestReserve & collect
Bassitt's Bee Juice, made by bees

Pure honey from our bees in our garden

From the garden ·

The last of the spring honey

We've a handful of jars left from our first spring harvest. It's a pale, creamy set honey, and quite a different thing from the darker, runny summer honey that came after it.

Two jars of pale, creamy set honey with gold lids on a tablecloth printed with grey bees.
Set spring honey, from the first harvest of the year.

Tucked at the back of the cupboard we've found a small number of jars from this year's first spring harvest. They're £10 a jar, the same as our summer honey, and once they're gone, that's it until next spring. If you'd like one, email James and we'll put it aside for you to collect.

Spring honey: pale, creamy and set

Spring honey is made from the first big flush of flowers after winter. Around Newton Abbot that means hedgerow and orchard blossom: blackthorn, apple, hawthorn and sycamore, dandelions on every verge, and the bright yellow fields of oilseed rape on the farmland around us.

Much of that nectar is high in glucose, so the honey sets quickly into a smooth, pale cream. It's not been whipped or had anything added. It's just what spring honey does on its own (why honey sets explains the science). The flavour is gentle and sweet, with a soft floral note, and it spreads on hot toast without running off the edge. It's also the one to stir into tea or porridge if you like your honey mild.

Summer honey: darker and runny

A jar of clear, deep amber runny honey on a windowsill, lit from behind, with trees and grey clouds outside.
Our summer honey, Devon Moors & Coast, glowing on the windowsill.

The honey we took off later in the year is a different character altogether. By then the blossom has gone and the bees are working bramble along the hedges, clover in the grass, lime trees in the parks, and all the summer flowers in the gardens round about. The forage calendar shows how the flowers hand over from one to the next.

That mix gives a deeper amber honey with a richer, rounder taste. It's lower in glucose, so it stays runny for much longer. It's the honey for drizzling over yoghurt, cheese or a warm slice of something. This is our Devon Moors & Coast, which you can reserve here or pick up from the cart at Home Farm Café.

Same bees, different seasons

Both honeys come from our own bees. The difference is the time of year, and what was in flower when the bees went out. That's one of our favourite things about keeping bees: no two harvests taste quite the same, and each jar is a little record of what was blooming in the hedges and gardens around Newton Abbot that month.

If you've only ever had one of them, it's worth trying the other while the spring jars last.