Founded by Husband and Wife duo – Viktor and Lucy – V&L Honeymakers artisan honey is premium honey produced from their 700+ hives dotted around the beautiful Oxfordshire Cotswolds – an outstanding area for honey production thanks to its rich soil and abundance of nectar.
Harvested straight from the honeycomb without any processing, and with no added sugars and no heating, the honey reflects the mind-blowing richness of the nectar and pollen from nearby orchards, hedgerows, fields and meadows. As such, and no two seasons are ever quite the same.
Like many beekeepers, V&L Honeymakers don’t own their own farms. Many landowners are happy to have bees hives on their land in exchange for the pollination benefits that the bees provide. In the spring and summer, the bees go foraging, gathering nectar and pollen from the nearby orchards, hedgerows, fields and meadows. They return to their hives in the evening carrying their precious cargo which they turn into golden liquid honey.
Later on in the season, when the hives have become laden with honey, and only when there is enough to share, the V&L Honeymakers beekeepers harvest some of it.
Creating the purest honey from the finest bees has long been the art of the V&L Honeymakers beekeeper, so during the extraction process, they scratch off the outer beeswax cappings from the honeycomb cells, spin the frames, and let the honey flow gently through one screen to remove the wax cappings. They then softly warm the honey so they can filter it once, to remove the bits of wax, or the odd wing or sting left behind.
The V&L Honeymakers don’t add water or homogenized flavours to their honey, they don’t use pressurised filters, nor is the honey ever harshly overheated. Their honey has no added sugar, and they do not use any antibiotics or additives at any point during the production process. Thanks to these artisan honey making techniques, each jar of V&L Honeymakers artisan honey retains all its natural goodness.
Right now, we just can’t get enough of the V&L Honeymakers artisan Cotswold Summer Honey. It’s pleasantly mild with a floral sweetness that makes it a delicious finishing touch to freshly baked bread or warm porridge. This years’ Summer Honey was made from the nectars of many different summer flowers, principally bramble, broad beans and honeysuckle.
V&L Honeymakers Cotswold Summer Honey 340g
Pack of 3 x 340g Jars – £24.99 (includes shipping)
Available from the V&L Honeymakers website thehoneymakers.co.uk, and a number of lovely local shops.
