It Begins with Sustainability
We believe in the preservation of pollinators. This begins with healthy bees and protecting the natural resources around them on our Lake Chelan, Washington location.
This is the apple orchard above Eden’s Honey apiary (photos). Our happy bees collect from surrounding wildflowers and apple blossoms. Washington State receives adequate rain fall to keep Lake Chelan's environment flourishing.
Beekeeper Deb understands sound nutrition practices and feeds her bees probiotics, nutrition patties and even mushroom extract. In return, her bees not only pollinate the numerous apple orchards and area ornamental flowers, but they produce a beautiful and delicious light golden honey for all to enjoy.
Flow® Hives
Our hives are Flow® Hives. Beekeeper Deb inspects the Flow boxes at certain points throughout the month/year. She nurtures the hives with organic farming practices all year long. Here are our thriving "Adam" and "Eve" hives (photos). To learn more about our hives, watch our videos.
Higher Quality
The Flow method of harvesting allows for the honey to be removed directly from the comb without processing - no heating, no centrifuging, no blending, no filtering...it’s totally raw. With just the turn of the Flow Key and pure, fresh honey flows right out of the hive and into our larger jars. We usually do this method for special requests of a larger batch.
To learn more about Flow® Hives, please click here.
Purity
Eden's Honey is 100% natural and pure. We do not add or extract anything from the honey itself. We do gently strain our raw honey to remove larger honeycomb components. A majority of small scale beekeepers need to strain out those huge pieces of wax. Letting the honey drip through a sieve under no pressure does no harm.
Extracting Small Batches
We supply our vendors as soon as we extract our small batches of Eden's Honey from our hives. Our honey seasons are short in Chelan, Washington. So, we craft our raw honey in small batches to accommodate the season and guarantee freshness. Our general peak season runs between April to September depending on the weather.
Raw honey is unique. Because each season different flowers may or may not produce that same amount of nectar as in previous year.
It is not unusual to have one batch of honey that is very light in color and another very dark. Flavor and color will vary.
To find out where to buy our products, please click here.
The Meaning of Crystalized Honey
Don't be afraid of crystalized honey! The solid grainy texture may make you nervous. But, this is completely normal. By understanding why honey crystallizes, may help you find unique ways of using it. Photo of Eden's Honey (left): Crystallized honey forming at the bottom of the jar.
Why honey crystallizes?
Honey is made up of about 70 percent sugar and less than 20 percent water. Crystallization is dependent on the ratio of the two principal sugars found inside: fructose and glucose. With far more sugar than the water can dissolve, honey is in a constant flux of states. When the glucose molecules separate from the water, they begin to form a crystal. Once one crystal has formed, crystals will continue to build on each other and grow. So the more glucose in the honey, the more it tends to crystallize. Crystallized honey is actually a good sign that honey hasn’t been diluted or adulterated in any way - raw and natural. A few additional factors that cause honey to crystallize include the presence of pollen and cooler temperatures. And, even if you bought a jar that was completely liquid to begin with, some form of crystallization will happen over time.
Be creative with crystallized honey
How about applying crystallized honey to your favorite meals or refreshments? It could be stirred into hot tea or coffee. And, even used in freshly brewed tea to make iced sweet tea and to sweeten smoothies. You could find some delicious honey recipes by clicking here. To learn how to re-liquify honey, continue reading below in "Storing Raw Honey." So, next time, try spreading crystallized honey on your toast or similar...it will add a nice crunch.
* References/Resources for this page:
Curious how honey bees survive through winter?
Read the article by Hadley, Debbie. "How Honey Bees Keep Warm in Winter." ThoughtCo.