About Our Honey - Why Buy Portuguese Heritage Raw Honey ?

All Raw Honey is not the same !!! Its also about the taste and the"terroir". We've tried to bring you the very best that Portugal has to offer. (and that's the best of the best). We personally know all the beekeepers who work with us, taste the honey and pick the best of each type you can find. 

Here are some of the other reasons why Portuguese Raw Heritage Honey is so special.

A 2000 Year Old Continuous Tradition

Honey and Bees (as abelhas) are deeply embedded in the culture, The beekeepers (os apicultores) of the  Algarve region have been observing the same practices for a very, very long time, often carrying on old family traditions. The only concessions to modernity are, wooden bee hives, stainless steel vats,a few minor pieces of equipment and electricity. The honey is unfiltered/ coarse filtered and cold extracted via low velocity centrifuge. Beekeeping was certainly practiced here in Roman times and there is evidence of humans foraging wild honey in the Iberian peninsula over 8,000 years ago. Human's have been co-operating with bees in a magical symbiosis for at least as long as we've been agriculturists. 

 Bee Kind - Benign Beekeeping Practices.

The beehives are still moved year round to allow the bees to feed off the nectar of the diverse range of flowering plants and trees; from Wild Lavender, Eucalyptus, Orange Blossom to the very rare Thyme Carob and Arbutus, not to mention, fruits and wildflowers of all kinds. Because of the mild local climate the bees are able to forage all year round. Our bees are never fed sugar or overworked and do not need to be over-wintered. There is a very active apiculture tradition here and good beekeeping practices and bee welfare are taken very seriously. In the North and Centre of Portugal winters are harder and bees are sometimes fed but mostly the beekeepers we work with tend to leave the honey for the bees.

The Hesperides, A Garden of Eden. - Ecology and Biodiversity

In antiquity, the Greeks referred to the garden of Hesperides, a garden of Eden, an orchard of the Great Goddess Hera, tended by the "nymphs of the west", "the daughter of evening", Strabo, called this land Tartessos, which is now thought to be southern Portugal. Home of the "golden apple", (now thought to be the humble orange, then unknown to the Greeks).The land here, especially in the Serra de Monchique is a haven of biodiversity, with rare flowers and a range of plants from Pure Tropical on the lower slopes to Moorland covered in Gorse, many species of Heather, alpine flowers, wild orchids and even Rhododendrons on the high ground.

This pristine land, this biodiverse paradise with its mineral rich water and least polluted air in all Europe produces a range of peerless honeys that are not only  Antibiotic, Pesticide and GMO Free but some of the purest and best in the world. Remember honey is also about 18% water, so the purity of the water which makes its way into flower nectars also affects the quality and taste. We don't make idle claims either as we also test our honey for pollen content, HMf and the presence of hive treatment residues.

Heritage Honey is Artisan Made and Fair Traded

We personally source raw honey directly from local small and medium sized beekeepers. So we provenance and guarantee quality and connection to source,

At present Wild about Honey represents 5-8 independent traditional beekeepers most of whom have more than 20 years of bee-keeping experience. We aim to offer you the very best raw honey that Portugal has to offer. You can either buy raw honey here on this website or buy raw honey through our network of independent stockists. 

Deep Green Ecology 

We wanted Wild About Honey to reflect our own principles and ideas about true sustainability, ecology, food and community so we make sure that we Fair Trade with local beekeepers, paying them more than supermarkets or industry and instantly without making them wait, so that they make a proper living from their craft and do not get squeezed in order to supply cheap food to large retailers. By Fair trading we all share in the true costs and the benefits of a real sustainable economy.

A NON STANDARD SEASONAL PRODUCT

As a truly natural, unprocessed food, artisan made raw honey is not a standardized product and will vary constantly in shade, taste, colour and texture depending on the climate / micro-climate and skill of the bee-keeper. We can't guarantee that every pot you buy will be the same as the last, the only thing we can guarantee is that the honey you buy from us will always be of an exceptional quality and the best that we can find. If we can't find an exceptional honey of each type, we simply wont sell it. 

Heritage Honey is 100% RAW

Raw mono-floral Honey isn't like conventional honey. When honey is raw it contains not only the sugars Glucose and Fructose, making it a readily available source of instant energy but also all of the natural antioxidants, enzymes, pollen, propolis, amino-acids, trace minerals, vitamins and antibacterial properties which make it such an anciently revered healing substance throughout history. One of the critical things about Raw honey is its probiotic quality. Being rich in enzymes honey is easy to digest and some incredible studies show that it has a minimal effect on your blood sugar level and has a low glycemic index, it can aid with weight loss, is excellent for wound healing and has many other therapeutic qualities. Check the Why Raw Honey ? page for much more about the medicinal and beneficial qualities of raw honey.The Most Important thing to understand about Raw Honey is that although it contains sugars it does not behave like sugar in the body.