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Hey y’all, Susan Stewart here, owner of Local Nashville Honey, your friendly neighborhood honey store right here in Donelson and Nashville! We get asked all the time how our clover honey gets made, and it’s a question I absolutely love answering. It’s a fascinating process, and it all starts with our amazing Nashville honeybees.
Now, you might think all honey is created equal, but that’s just not the case. Just like wine, honey takes on the flavor of the flowers the bees visit. Here in Nashville, we’re blessed with an abundance of beautiful clover fields, and that’s what gives our clover honey its signature light, sweet, and delicate taste. It’s the taste of a Nashville summer!
So, how does it go from those pretty white clover blossoms to the golden goodness in our jars? Well, it’s a team effort, let me tell you. Thousands of worker bees, all females, are out there buzzing around, collecting nectar. Think of them as tiny delivery trucks, each one making countless trips back and forth to the hive.
When a worker bee finds a patch of clover, she uses her long tongue, called a proboscis, to sip up the nectar. This nectar is stored in a special “honey sac” in her stomach. Back at the hive, she regurgitates the nectar and passes it along to other worker bees. This process is repeated several times, and it’s actually a really important step. During this transfer, enzymes in the bees’ saliva break down the complex sugars in the nectar into simpler sugars, like glucose and fructose. This is what makes honey easier to digest than regular sugar.
Once the nectar has been properly processed, the bees deposit it into honeycomb cells. These are the hexagonal wax structures you see inside a beehive. At this point, the honey is still pretty watery. So, the bees fan their wings to create airflow within the hive. This helps evaporate the excess water and thicken the honey. It’s like a tiny bee-powered dehumidifier!
When the honey reaches the perfect consistency – usually around 18% moisture – the bees seal the honeycomb cell with a thin layer of beeswax. This is their way of saying, “This honey is ready!” It’s like nature’s perfect little storage container.
Now, this is where we come in. Our beekeepers carefully harvest the honeycombs, making sure to leave plenty for the bees to sustain themselves through the winter. We then extract the honey from the combs using a gentle process that doesn’t harm the bees or compromise the quality of the honey. We’re committed to sustainable beekeeping practices, because happy bees make delicious honey!
Finally, the honey is filtered to remove any bits of wax or pollen, and then it’s bottled and ready for you to enjoy! From blossom to bottle, it’s a remarkable journey, and we’re so proud to bring you this taste of Nashville.
So, next time you’re enjoying a drizzle of our clover honey on your toast, remember the amazing journey it took, from the hardworking bees in our local clover fields to your table. And come on down to Local Nashville Honey in Donelson! We’d love to chat more about bees, honey, and all things sweet. We’ve even got honey tastings! Y’all come see us!
