Stephen's Pickering Honey: A Yorkshire Garden Harvest
There are a handful of jars left of this honey, and I have to admit, I'm feeling conflicted about it.
On the one hand I'm anxious - because each honey we offer is completely different, reflecting one specific place and point in time when the weather, flowers and the hive’s needs all influenced the nectars that make every one of our British raw honeys unique. Once it's gone I know I'll never taste it again. On the other hand I'm excited because I'm one of the few people in the world who got to enjoy it at all and that makes me very lucky!
This particular honey came from bees kept by Stephen in his rural garden near Pickering, North Yorkshire. And it's special.
Meet Stephen
Stephen is a vet by day, specialising in large animals up in Yorkshire - the kind of work that has you out at all hours dealing with cows, horses, and sheep across the Moors and Dales. He took up beekeeping over 15 years ago when a friend gave him a swarm.
I love that just a friend saying "here, have some bees" can end up 15 years later with 8 hives dotted around his garden, under trees and on garden walls (low ones!)
The hives that produced this honey sit with a lovely view over parkland and woods - the old hunting grounds of Pickering Castle. You can imagine the bees working their way through woodland edge wildflowers, garden blooms, and whatever was flowering in that ancient parkland throughout the summer.
The Snowdrop Visit
I photographed Stephen sitting next to his hives earlier this year when the snowdrops were out. It looks quite brave in the photos - sitting right there among the hives - but it's not quite as daring as it appears. The bees were mainly tucked up inside, waiting for warmer days! If you can be outside without a jumper on then it’s warm enough for bees to fly.
Tasting Notes: Lemon Lozenge
This honey has a lovely citrus flavour note - long lasting, almost like a lemon lozenge. It's clean and bright, with that characteristic lingering quality that makes you want another spoonful.
It’s hard to know where the citrus notes and it’s flavour comes from as bees fly for up to 3 miles and will visit over a million flowers to make enough honey to fill our jar – no wonder every honey is different!
The honey was taken off in August and Stephen says that the main flowers around him then were sycamore, brambles, clover, lime trees and willow herb. It’s probably the lime trees that give it that citrus note. But whatever the exact botanical mix, the bees produced just 263 jars of it!
Why Each Honey Is Unrepeatable
Here's the thing people don't always realise about honey: even if Stephen's bees visit exactly the same spot next year, the honey will taste different.
Every harvest is completely unique to that exact location, that exact summer, those exact flowers. It's a snapshot of a place and a moment in time, preserved in a jar.
Once it's gone, no beekeeper - not even Stephen himself - can recreate it. Next year's harvest from those same hives will be its own thing entirely, with its own character and story.
That's what makes each honey both precious and bittersweet to sell. I want people to taste it, but I also know that when the last jar goes, that particular flavour disappears from the world.
How To Enjoy It
With those citrus, lemon-lozenge notes, Stephen's honey plays beautifully with anything sharp or creamy:
- Stir it through Greek yoghurt with toasted almonds for breakfast
- Add it to hot water with fresh ginger when you need something warming
- Drizzle it over a sharp, crumbly cheese (Lancashire or Wensleydale would be perfect)
- Use it in a salad dressing with lemon juice and good olive oil
Or just have it on toast and let those citrus notes sing.
The Last Handful
So yes, there are just a handful left, and part of me wants to keep one hidden away for myself. But that would rather defeat the point, wouldn't it?
Honey is meant to be enjoyed, shared, tasted with someone over breakfast or given as a gift with the story attached. It's meant to connect people to a place - to Stephen's garden, to those North Yorkshire hunting grounds, to one particular summer when the conditions were just right.
If you'd like to be one of the few people in the world to taste this honey, you can find it on our website. And when it's gone, we'll move on to the next harvest, the next story, the next unrepeatable moment captured by bees.
That's the nature of working with honey. Always changing, always unique, never boring!