# Maple honey?



## Scott J. (Feb 6, 2007)

In Washington State, the color of maple honey is about the same as clover honey that the Midwest gets. To me it has a medicinal flavor to it. This is from the big leaf maples, so your silver, and sugar maples may be different.


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## Observed (Jun 24, 2008)

Next spring I'm thinking of feeding my bees maple sap. There is always some that doesn't make it to the evaporators.


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## bee crazy (Oct 6, 2005)

Sheri, we had that same experience last year. I was making early splits and had a deep frame of honey left over. I brought it in with me as we were out of honey for ourselves. It was quite dark but had a sweet smell. When we extracted it ,it tasted just like Mrs. Buttersworth's syrup. Needless to say the wife claimed it and didn't share it with anyone. I looked for some this spring but didn't find it. I guess it needs to find you.


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## JohnK and Sheri (Nov 28, 2004)

I am going to send some off to one of the packer labs and see if they can identify it through pollen analysis. 
I am afraid we should have pulled more of it when we first found it, now much of it has been eaten by the bees, although we did find a little. Next year we will be on the lookout!
Sheri


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## LusciousHoney (Jan 8, 2008)

Sheri,
I forwarded the sample on to Al Baldwin for his opinion. He was on vacation last week. Once I hear back from him I will let you know.

Sidenote.... I belong to a couple soap making forums and have become the the "go to" person when questions of beeswax/honey come up. At one point a woman mentioned that her favorite honeys were orange blossom and bamboo. Well, I hadn't heard of bamboo honey so I searched the web for descriptions. The description sounded JUST like your honey. Although, I highly doubt that there is a huge bamboo field in the middle of Wisconsin...
Petra


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## JohnK and Sheri (Nov 28, 2004)

Hi Petra
Yeah, I was wondering what Al would think.
Meanwhile I will keep my eyes open for any bamboo fields that might have popped up around here.
Sheri


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## honeyman46408 (Feb 14, 2003)

This is what some refer to as bamboo and if it is it blooms in Aug around here and it makes DARK honey
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Japanese_knotweed


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## LusciousHoney (Jan 8, 2008)

Interesting link.. Thanks for the info! Based on the flowering time, I doubt Sheri needs to look for that "bamboo" grove.
I have to admit, I have this mix of emotions... "how cool" vs "EEK! invasive species", same as with purple loosestrife. The last thing I would want to do is encourage proliferation of this invasive species, but it makes really yummy honey!


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## Oldbee (Sep 25, 2006)

Ooops! You beat me to it honeyman46408.

Oh well; and this too. http://dnr.wi.gov/invasives/fact/japanese_knotweed.htm

I don't know much about ornamental home garden plants but I think some kind of 'bamboo' can grow in WI. but doesn't survive the winter. I think the true bamboo is a member of the grass family.


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## MapMan (May 24, 2007)

Maybe the honey has high amounts of Willow in it - I think it bloomed more profusely than it usually does because of the weird spring weather this year, and I think Willow is much darker than Maple.

As a side note, Basswood _just_ started blooming this morning here - it is a full two weeks late. At least it isn't raining on the blooms like the Black Locust this year - no crop of that light, fine-flavored honey. Crossing my fingers, and I'm hoping that the Basswood fills out the remainder of the spring supers - I've got the third mediums on many of the hives - pulling some off this week. 

Be interested in what you find out on honey type, Sheri-

MM


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## LusciousHoney (Jan 8, 2008)

Hey Sheri,
Did you ever figure out what the honey was???
Petra


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## JohnK and Sheri (Nov 28, 2004)

Hi Petra,
No, not figured out yet. I sent a sample to Mark at Sioux and he says their lab maybe able to do a pollen analysis, here's hoping! Everyone there was on vacation leading up to their busy time and now they will probably be _too_ busy to deal with it. I am hoping they can come up with something definitive.
Meanwhile, I have a lot of 9 drums of a blend of this with clover, it still has that distinct taste and creamy consistency. I have some bottled and labeled "Spring Special". It is favored over clover by about 2 to 1 by customers. 
We are using it as our table honey this year.
Sure wish I knew what it was!!! I take it Al had no idea?

MM, if this is Willow I hope we can bring it in every year, it is _yummy_.
On the honey front, not too much Basswood up here, as usual the past few years. We were just getting a little goldenrod/aster starting to produce, keeping our fingers crossed we don't get rained out again, seems a recurring theme this year. Here's hoping it stays dry another couple weeks, maybe we will be able to keep the lights on. This will be our worst honey production year in memory unless we get a _very_ good fall crop, not looking too likely. Ah, the joys of agriculture.
How's it going down south?
Sheri


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## LusciousHoney (Jan 8, 2008)

Al's reply was "it's good honey". of course, he says that for everything!


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## MapMan (May 24, 2007)

JohnK and Sheri said:


> MM, if this is Willow I hope we can bring it in every year, it is _yummy_.
> On the honey front, not too much Basswood up here, as usual the past few years. We were just getting a little goldenrod/aster starting to produce, keeping our fingers crossed we don't get rained out again, seems a recurring theme this year. Here's hoping it stays dry another couple weeks, maybe we will be able to keep the lights on. This will be our worst honey production year in memory unless we get a _very_ good fall crop, not looking too likely. Ah, the joys of agriculture.
> How's it going down south?
> Sheri


Sheri: Save some of your "Spring Special" blend for me to taste. No, I don't need a full drum...

Basswood was kind of a bust here this year. It was hit 'n miss, with some full supers, then another yard with nothing. Because Basswood is really a honey aficionado type of thing, you either like it or you don't... So, I ran it through the extractor first, and kept it separate. Then, I ran some more supers of the Basswood through the extractor, and mixed it with the recent summer flow. It was kind of funny - when I gave it as a taste test to those who absolutely hated Basswood on its own merit, they preferred the blend to what they normally buy - the summer honey. Perhaps because the Basswood is strong on aftertaste, and the summer honey is a "tip of the tongue" tasting honey, the blend combined the best of the two.

We got the rains early on, so black locust washed out - totally. Clover has been very strong this year; really tall and bushy. It is still blooming, and the golden rod is very profuse. So, overall, a good producing year. You folks up there got hit with rain far more than we did, later than we did, and it has been dry for the past three weeks here. Actually, even though crops are okay, we can use about an inch or two of rain. 

MM


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## JohnK and Sheri (Nov 28, 2004)

MapMan said:


> Sheri: Save some of your "Spring Special" blend for me to taste. No, I don't need a full drum...we can use about an inch or two of rain. MM


Oh come one, a drum would last you so much longer, it *is* really good honey.
And yes, it is a bit dry here also. We seemed to be getting 1/8" of rain every day for a while there, not enough to do any good for the crops but washing out the nectar. I wouldn't mind a good rain storm if it would all come at one time and then stay dry for two weeks. Wouldn't it be nice if we could order weather to suit?
Sheri


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## Michael Palmer (Dec 29, 2006)

MapMan said:


> Maybe the honey has high amounts of Willow in it - I think it bloomed more profusely than it usually does because of the weird spring weather this year


You may be correct on this. I had a weird weather year a few years ago. Had a great flow between Maple nd Dandelion...in swampy areas. The bees were working a Willow very heavily at that time, but not the first blooming pussy willow, but a later one...Salix bebbiana.


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## JohnK and Sheri (Nov 28, 2004)

The mystery might be solved. We had a honey packer with a big inventory of samples type this honey and they say it is mint honey. The packer buys this type from Canada where mint is grown commercially. Surprised us because you wouldn't think there were enough wild mint to flavor the honey, maybe there was someone growing it commercially here too. We are going to be asking around to see if this was so. 
Sheri


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## Chef Isaac (Jul 26, 2004)

sounds like maple honey. Does it have a medicinal taste to it? 

Petra: What soap forum do you belong to?


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