# Buckwheat or goldenrod?



## waynesgarden (Jan 3, 2009)

Can't remember. It's been about 35 years since I had bees in a buckwheat field. But I am noticing a new smell which might be asters as they are in strong bloom this week.

Wayne


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## brooksbeefarm (Apr 13, 2008)

I've never noticed a strong smell in buckwheat honey? To me Aster honey has a sweet cotton candy smell, but that's just me.:scratch:


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## Roland (Dec 14, 2008)

As a kid working the extracting room, I thought it smelled(in the supers) like sheep manure, but maybe I don't know sh*t.

crazy Roland


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## angel (Jul 23, 2013)

Yes, its strong. As I filmed this standing next to the bloom, it smelled like a barn. I've worked on a sheep farm for 20+ years also.


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## zhiv9 (Aug 3, 2012)

Yes you can smell it in the yard when they are curing it and smell it in the field when the flowers are producing nectar in the morning. It is my favourite honey and it fetches a premium here at $3+ per pound wholesale. Lots of people in this area grew up on it. People seem to love it or hate it.


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## BMAC (Jun 23, 2009)

Yes people do love or hate it. I tell folks that at the market and you always have to have a few that need to buck the system and after sampling say well I am kind of on the fence with this honey. Look at it in the comb. Buckwheat looks like used motor oil out of a gas engine with about 2500 miles on it.


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## sqkcrk (Dec 10, 2005)

My-smokepole said:


> Does buckwheat have a strong smell. I know goldenrod does bit haven't had it before and I do have a buck wheat field about a mile+ down the road in bloom
> David


Strong taste is a subjective description, so it's hard to tell what you consider strong. Bitter? Slightly bitter? What about the color. Buckwheat is distinctly dark brown, almost black. Since there aren't as many nectar yielding buckwheats grown these days it is most likely goldenrod.


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## Ian (Jan 16, 2003)

you know when buckwheat comes into the honey house... lol

you know when buckwheat starts flowing into the beeyard! One of my workers asked me why that one yard stunk so much...ha ha ha, it was the buckwheat flowing in and the bees drying it down!


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## sylus p (Mar 16, 2008)

Not sure if you had Japanese Knotweed/Bamboo nearby but that will also yield a sort of buckwheatish tasting and smelling and looking honey. 

Personally I like Goldenrod without the assiness of knotweed mixed in. BTW "assiness", its a technical term used by the professional honey graders so no censorship please. 

Anyhow, that stuff tricked me for a few years into thinking it was buckwheat. And I guess its fine tasting, if you dont mind bad tasting honey.

But you might just have buckweat there too, which to me, tastes pretty similar.


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