Making delicious golden mead is easy

Many people think of mead as something of historical interest, but good mead is delicious and surprisingly easy to make. Hugh & Fiona Osborne are on a mission to bring mead back to smallholders and small farmers

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If we offer someone a glass of mead, even people raised in the country, we usually get a reply filled with trepidation. Something along the lines of "Ummm...sure...I suppose...why not? I mean I've never tried it". It seems a pity to us that such an amazing drink is now enjoyed so rarely. Mead does take time and a quantity of good quality honey to make but smallholders are the best people to make and enjoy this vanishing treat.

AMAZING HONEY

The process of bees producing honey is a fascinating one. A bee will collect nectar from plants and use its natural enzymes and proteins to convert the complex sugars in the nectar into the simple sugars of honey. The bees then warm the hive causing water to evaporate from the honey until it is stable for storage and finally “cap” the honey sealing it as a food supply for winter and times when nectar is less abundant. Bees will fly over 50,000 miles to produce a pound of honey, along the way increasing crop and fruit yields by pollination by up to 30% and producing fantastic beeswax useful for hand creams, furniture polish and more. There are many good reasons to keep bees, and honey can be thought of as a bonus, but a strong hive can produce 25 pounds of honey per year and many smallholders keep multiple hives.

ALL HONEY IS NOT EQUAL