This Year’s Honey Harvest Down But Sweeter

This year’s honey harvest is jarred and ready for purchase.

Herel’s Half Acre Farms Beekeeper Jeff Herel has been in the honey business for over 50 years. He said the taste and quantity of honey depends on the weather.

“This year happened to be an off year,” Herel said. “We had a lot of cold weather and rain, which washed out the nectar. So, it decreased our overall honey production by about 35 percent.”

Herel said the tulip popular tree is the second highest nectar producing flower in the state. This year, blooms were scarce, so bees turned to clover flowers for nectar. Herel said the clover nectar has made this year’s harvest sweeter than usual.

“There was not a lot of tulip popular bloom, and whatever nectar was produced, much of it was washed away,” Herel said. “So, the honey this year is actually much sweeter this year than last year. The bees predominately worked on clover. Clover tends to be a sweeter and lighter honey.”

Herel’s Farm has hundreds of bee colonies. Each hive can produce about 60 pounds of honey each season. You can find their honey on sale at the Cookeville Farmer’s Market every Saturday.

“We have got a licensed honey processing facility,” Herel said. “The permits issued by the Tennessee Department of Agriculture. We are inspected by the state, and we are also registered with the Food and Drug Administration. We are also registered with Pick Tennessee.”

The majority of the honey flow ends on June 30th. Herel said preparing the honey for consumption takes about one month. In Tennessee, honey is only harvested once a year after the honey flow ends.