Author: Suzannah Duggan

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Honey Summer Harvest – Life on The Farm

The Summer Harvest is underway...

Welcome to our Honey Summer Harvest ‘Life on The Farm’. The summer harvest season is bustling, and it’s the perfect time to enjoy our finest honey yield of the year, aptly named ‘Summer Honey’. At the end of June, we meticulously gathered fresh combs directly from the hive, and we must say, the flavour profile of this batch surpasses expectations! The texture is luxuriously smooth, and the aroma is nothing short of enchanting, creating an unforgettable sensory delight. With this exquisite British honey in hand, you might be curious about our extraction process. Understanding the origins and processing of your food is crucial—it embodies the true spirit of local produce. Let us guide you through our meticulous extraction process, from farm to jar!

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‘Uncapping’. The beeswax seal on the honeycomb must be cut away. Use tools like an uncapping knife or roller for this task.

‘Extraction’. Place the uncapped frames in a honey extractor, which spins to pull honey out using centrifugal force. Adjust speed and time based on the honey’s thickness. 

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‘Filtration’. The honey is filtered to eliminate wax bits and bee remnants. Use a filter with the right micron size for pristine honey.

‘Settling’. Allow the honey to rest, letting air bubbles and impurities float to the surface. This takes approximately 1-2 days. 

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‘Jarring’. Once settled, pour the honey into jars. Delicious! 

We pride ourselves in jarring our produce to the highest standard, adhering to strenuous health and safety regulations.  This is a snapshot of what we can do, we have an even bigger honey room next door!

How are we enjoying our honey harvest?

We are loving gooey overnight oats topped with juicy raspberries & strawberries! Our golden 100% British natural Summer Honey is the perfect companion for a refreshing morning breakfast during warmer months. Cold oats provide a delightful and nutritious start to your day, brimming with essential nutrients. Our secret? Sourcing high-quality local ingredients. Our rich honey pairs beautifully with dark chocolate and fresh fruits, enhancing the flavour profile. We recommend Manor Farm Fruits for their exceptionally sweet and succulent produce! 🍓

Meet our baby cows!

Yes, you heard us right! We aren’t just all about the bees, we are a family run farm with all sorts of animals living with us. Meet our baby cows. These young bovines are incredibly sociable and affectionate, akin to the experience of being licked by a playful kitten 🐈 

These charming animals bring joy to our daily lives with their curious antics and playful nature, constantly engaging in delightful mischief. This summer has blessed us with an abundant honey harvest, and the farm is as vibrant and lively as ever, bustling with the energy of growth and activity. Life on the farm is a whirlwind of tasks, from caring for these wonderful creatures to tending to our crops and managing our bee hives! Stay tuned for more updates and stories about our charming baby cows and their adventures on the farm! 🚜

It's Sandwich Friday!

Our family tradition here on the farm brings everyone together for a delightful lunch every Friday. Grandpa makes his weekly trip to the local store to gather sandwiches for the gang. With multiple generations living on the farm, our family lunch time is a bustling, busy-bee occasion. This year, even our dedicated staff has embraced this tradition, sharing in the camaraderie. Our staff presented a delectable Summer Honey & Smoked Salmon Sourdough sandwich, elevated with a sprinkle of black pepper and a splash of lemon.🍋🍯

With thanks to ASDA store for their ‘Exceptional Mild & Delicate Scottish Smoked Salmon’ making this sandwich Friday extra indulgent. These flavours combine to create a symphony of taste that’s simply irresistible. Would you add local honey to your sandwich?? 

Sandwich recipe:

  • ASDA store for their ‘Exceptional Mild & Delicate Scottish Smoked Salmon’
  • Sourdough bread, (we used a vintage cheddar flavour)
  • Salt & black Pepper
  • A squirt of lemon
  • Baby leaf salad
  • a drizzling of Holt Hall’s Summer Honey 

Thanks for reading!

You can follow along with our farm life journey via our social media channels here, we are on Instagram & Facebook! Drop us a follow to keep up to date 

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June Sunrise & Hive checks…

We’ve been incredibly busy-ee, buzzing around the farm over the last few months. With the warm weather in full swing, this period marks the peak season for harvesting our exquisite honey. Spring rewarded us with an abundant harvest, and we experienced a brief June gap, which provided us a well-deserved pause to gear up for some exciting transformations at the farm. During this time, we revamped our website to reflect our new branding. We aimed for a light and refreshing aesthetic to beautifully showcase our delightful light honey. After much effort, our makeover is complete! We invite you to explore our online store and enjoy our elegant new website. Take a moment to browse and see if something catches your eye!

British honey, Honey, Natural honey, raw honey, uk honey, unpasteurised honey, Holt Hall Apiary, Tamworth, Summer Runny Honey 1kg, Staffordshire

We’ve been incredibly busy-ee, buzzing around the farm over the last few months. With the warm weather in full swing, this period marks the peak season for harvesting our exquisite honey. Spring rewarded us with an abundant harvest, and we experienced a brief June gap, which provided us a well-deserved pause to gear up for some exciting transformations at the farm. During this time, we revamped our website to reflect our new branding. We aimed for a light and refreshing aesthetic to beautifully showcase our delightful light honey. After much effort, our makeover is complete! We invite you to explore our online store and enjoy our elegant new website. Take a moment to browse and see if something catches your eye!

Next onto the farm, we have welcomed Suzannah to our team. Suzannah, a landscape and nature photographer, has joined us to enhance our website and manage our social media channels. Her mission is to beautifully showcase the exquisite honey we produce and tell the captivating story of our family-run farm. We want people to connect with the origins of their honey and understand the unique narrative of our farm, complete with all the quirks that accompany family farm life.

Suzannah shares our passion for honey and is a fervent supporter of local produce as well as health and wellbeing. Her love for nature and photography aligns perfectly with our vision. We are thrilled to see how she brings our story to life, highlighting the values and dedication that drive us. Suzannah will craft engaging content that not only highlights our products but also the essence of our farm’s traditions and the joy of working together as a family.

Meet our delightful duo, Alice and Abbey, the charming sister donkeys of our farm! These affectionate creatures are neighbours to our buzzing bees, and their soothing brays bring a touch of nostalgia to our daily farm life. Known for their gentle and loving nature, Alice and Abbey are a favourite among visitors, but gaining their trust requires patience and a pocket full of ginger biscuits. They are most vocal in the morning when they kindly let us know they are ready for breakfast! Interesting fact: Donkeys are known for their intelligence and strong sense of loyalty, making them wonderful companions on the farm. Their presence not only enriches the farm experience but also brings joy to everyone around.

Our farm bees are buzzing with activity, diligently gathering nectar from the vibrant summer blooms to make our 100% natural British summer honey. Their numbers are increasing as we’ve successfully made new nucleus hives and transitioned some into a full hives. Establishing a new hive is manageable and rewarding, especially when seeing frames brimming with nectar, eggs, and young larvae. These tiny larvae will evolve into industrious workers as summer progresses! There’s ample honeycomb available for the bees to expand into their new abode. Bees naturally tend to move upwards, so once this hive has filled up, we’ll introduce supers to grant them more room to flourish during the warm summer months.