French honey explained: why local honey varies by region and flower
Artisanal French honey is high quality and strictly controlled
French beekeepers typically use Dadant hives, which were invented by French-born American Charles Dadant
Sue Adams
Stroll around a French market at any time of year – but especially in early summer – and you are bound to see local honey for sale.
Artisanal French honey is an iconic product. It is high-quality, strictly controlled and is created from flower nectar collected by industrious bees in town and country.
Bees will leave the hive as soon as outside temperatures reach 15C, so for much of the year there are bees working hard somewhere in mainland France.
As bees move into the heart of the flower to gather nectar, they also brush against the plant’s anthers and, almost as a by-product, collect pollen on their hind legs. Nectar and pollen are both vital resources in the hive, as, in combination, they provide food for the colony.
Early in the year, pollen is essential as it is largely protein and so feeds the developing bees.
As spring arrives early in France, the population in hives increases dramatically between March and May. French hives are, as a consequence, larger than their UK counterparts.
French beekeepers typically use Dadant hives, which were invented by French-born American Charles Dadant, and which by early summer can each house over 60,000 bees.
As summer arrives this army of workers starts to collect and process more nectar than it does pollen to create honey to eat during the winter months. Humans, of course, intervene and take some of the honey for our own consumption.
This wonderful product varies in texture and flavour depending on the type of flower visited, the weather when the nectar was collected and even the local geography, making beekeeping and honey production an art as well as a science.
Such variation accounts for the wide range of honeys you can find on a beekeeper’s stall at a French market.
Acacia honey, which is made from nectar taken from the white racemes of robinia flowers, is perhaps the earliest honey of the year. It is pale, delicately flavoured and should not solidify. At the other end of the spectrum is chestnut honey (miel de châtaignier) – a thicker, darker honey with a strong flavour.
Between the two, depending on which part of France you are in, are honeys made from sunflowers, lavender, rosemary, heather and more, plus that great catch-all miel toutes fleurs, made from an unspecified mix of flowering plants.
Where your honey comes from
If you are curious about the provenance of the honey you find at a market stall, ask the beekeeper. They will usually be very happy to explain.
A bee will fly up to two kilometres from its hive in search of nectar, so often the beekeeper will intervene and move their hives to a trusted nectar source.
This practice of moving bees, or livestock, to seasonal feeding grounds is called transhumance and, in the department next to my own, Lot-et-Garonne, it takes place every year.
It is common to see temporary rows of hives in the plum orchards each spring. The plum blossom is prolific, but short-lived, and it is important that the flowers are all efficiently pollinated within a short window of time. The bees both ensure this pollination and, at the same time, gather nectar to take back to the hive.
As the hives begin to fill with honey, beekeepers extract, filter and condition it before bottling and labelling it ready for sale.
If you buy honey in your local market it will not only have the variety clearly displayed, but will also have the name and address of the beekeeper who produced it, so you know that you are buying honey made by bees who are managed by a local producer.
This is even true if you live in a city. Paris, for example, produces honey from hives on rooftops, parks and gardens. There are even hives on the roof of Notre-Dame Cathedral.
Bees have lived and worked there for many years and, after the catastrophic fire in April 2019, it was feared they had been destroyed. Miraculously, the bees survived and are still producing honey there today.
Furthermore, because pesticides are banned in Parisian parks and open spaces, the bees of Notre-Dame are often both more productive and healthier than their country cousins.
