Following the popularity of last year’s University honey, we’re delighted to announce that the honey will be on sale again this year. To whet your appetite, we explain how the ‘liquid gold’ gets here.
The honey comes from beehives located on land owned by the University. There are around 60 bee colonies in total, each housing tens of thousands of honeybees, helping to increase biodiversity and pollination. The beehives are managed on the University’s behalf by a professional bee farmer, Parks Apiaries, with hives located at Bunny Park – arable farmland south of Nottingham used for a variety of University research – and King’s Meadow Campus in Lenton.
The different landscape settings are reflected in the flavour and colour of the two varieties. Honeybees at Bunny Park collect nectar from crops such as oil seed rape and field bean, but also from trees such as horse chestnut, lime and hawthorn. The King’s Meadow honey is predominantly multi-floral, with bees foraging in the nearby King’s Meadow local nature reserve, University Park and the city centre, and potentially on farmland by the University’s Riverside Sports Complex – as honeybees can travel up to several miles in search of food.
Once extracted, the honey is bottled in its raw state. It’s simply filtered through a nylon mesh and keeps its valuable enzymes with pollens, thus fortifying the honey.
New season University honey will be on sale at two pop-up stalls:
- 11am-3pm, Wednesday 5 December 2018: The Barn, Sutton Bonington (at SB Farmers’ Market)
- 12pm-2pm, Thursday 6 December 2018: Main entrance foyer, King’s Meadow Campus
…and in the following campus outlets from late November, while stocks last!
- Spar shop, The Exchange, Jubilee Campus
- Hipps cafe, Medical School
- Spar shop, Portland Building, University Park
- Portland Clothing Co, Portland Building, University Park
- Hendersans, Portland Building, University Park
- Trent cafe, Trent Building, University Park
The limited edition University honey is priced at £5.50 (please note that sales at the pop-up events are cash only).
Proceeds from honey sales will contribute to the University’s Environment Initiative Fund, which provides grants to student or staff-led sustainability projects.
To find out more about encouraging wild bees into your garden, to help address concerns about declining bee populations and the impact on crop pollination and food security, take a look at The Wildlife Trust’s tips.
Posted on Friday 23rd November 2018