Heather honey – sweet heather on bread

Biene auf Heidekraut

The Heidjer were known across the country for their heathland bee-keeping. The very intense, aromatic heather honey is only harvested at the end of the season, i.e. in August and September, and only when the weather is appropriate and the heather flowers are well developed. The bees are transported for this purpose to the large Nature Reserve of Lüneburg Heath. The jelly-like heather honey is reminiscent of the flowering air of Calluna vulgaris (heather) and is difficult to centrifuge from the honeycombs because of its consistency. For this reason a special release device is dipped into the honeycombs to remove it.

Before the bees are taken onto the heathland, many apiaries have already done most of their work and the honey is already "in the barrel", because flower and forest honey are produced by the bees between May and July. These include, for example, the very popular rapeseed honey, summer honey, lime honey or forest honey and flower honey. But even more specific varieties are available depending on the Location.