Where does our honey come from?

Our customers often ask me, "Where does your honey come from?" so I thought I'd answer that question on a short blog post.

All of our honey originates just north of Greenville, SC. Our hives are placed in several locations in order to maximize harvest and sustainability. We do not mix our honey with anything. Whatever the environment provides is what is collected by our honeybee.

Red maple blossom

The Upstate of South Carolina provides an abundance of nectar and pollen suppliers beginning with the red maple. Usually the weather is not warm enough for honeybees to fly during the red maple bloom, but the last two seasons have been a different story and our girls have been busy early in the year.

Honeybee foraging on Blackberry blossom

After the red maple bloom honeybees will forage on blackberry and tulip poplar blooms. These are our major nectar producers providing an abundant excess of honey for our bees. If you haven't tasted the nectar from a tulip poplar, I'd encourage you to look up during late April to find these bright yellow and orange blossoms and sample the nectar much like you would a honeysuckle bloom. It's nectar is a super sweet, thick syrup that puddles at the bottom of the bowl-shaped blossom. The tulip poplar nectar is also what provides the amber color to honey produced in this area.

Late nectar sources include sumac, buckwheat, alfalfa, and a few others minor contributors such as apple trees and muscadine vines.  In extreme drought conditions, beekeepers may find a small amount of kudzu honey, a real rarity!

Though there are many challenges, this region is perfect for beekeeping as a hobby

Tulip poplar blossom

Next time you try Ends of the Earth Apiary honey you can be assured it is 100% local to the Upstate of South Carolina and 100% pure without any extreme processing to impact the benefits of all-natural South Carolina honey.

Ends of the Earth Apiary