This year has been record breaking (well, my record) and I’m pulling a second harvest from my little neighborhood apiary. I’m struck again how the nectar and pollen that bees collect serves as sort of a record of what plants came and went over the months. Below are two frames pulled during this harvest. The darker one is from early/mid summer, while the lighter one is very recent. The important part is, of course, that they are both delicious. Although, these will all go into the same bottling resulting in a blend that defines our local summer as a whole, I couldn’t help but have a taste and try to guess.
The darker frame has a pleasant undertone of wood but finishes with something almost grape-like. The lighter frame has a clean sharpness to it and floral notes. I couldn’t wager what precise flower species resulted in this, but we did have an unusual burst of kudzu flowering during the dry spell we briefly went through.