The Year of the Bee, Honey and Hemp

Honey is my new obsession.

This craze began while I was sampling out creamy honeys at Market Hall in Rockridge, Oakland, where I’ve been helping customers during the holidays.

My honey habits tend to the local, especially California’s orange blossom honey. I mean, who doesn’t like to open a jar and feel like you’re in the middle of an orange orchard?

Come New Year, everyone seems to want spreadable honey for that cheese plate. I had the pleasure of discovering honeys from multiple countries…and you need to get honey, like olive oil, when you can since when it’s gone it’s gone till the next harvest.

• Italian wildflower honey
• Almond honey from Gabriel Perronneau (which is out of stock online at the moment)
• Spanish honey from Marques de Valdueza

Some interesting honey news back in the U.S.

It’s only January 2, 2019 (wow, I wrote the year correctly!) and already two news bites have crossed the transom.

First, while I have not jumped on the cannabis bandwagon, this elaborate partnership of a lemonade maker with a CBD (non-THC cannabis) producer caught my eye.

Honestly, I’m still not convinced as to why producing a ready-to-drink CBD beverage is more beneficial and will be more widely adopted than one that is tasty to which consumers can add their own dose, but one day I will be convinced. Maybe.

The tale is as follows:

Honeydrop Beverages, the leading producer of cold-pressed lemonades, is excited to announce a new partnership with Boulder, Colorado-based Evo Hemp to launch a line of Honeydrop Cold-Pressed CBD Lemonades. Made with 20 mg of premium U.S grown CBD sourced by Evo Hemp and a teaspoon of raw U.S. honey, the new CBD lemonades contain only 4 g of sugar per bottle and will be offered in three flavors: REVIVE (Matcha), RELAX (Lemon) and REHAB (Turmeric). The new line was conceived and crafted by Honeydrop’s SVP Mareill Kiernan, who is also a certified holistic natural foods chef and health coach.The products will initially be available in Southern California and the New York Tristate area via distributors Los Angeles Distributing and Doras Natural at an MSRP of $5.99. Nationwide shipping will also be available.

With the lemonade category expected to grow at 6 percent CAGR over the next few years and the CBD market projected to balloon to over $22 billion in sales by 2022, Honeydrop’s Cold-Pressed CBD Lemonades will provide retailers with a pioneering low-sugar product that contains only a few simple but functional ingredients like cold pressed lemons, matcha and turmeric root.

EvoHemp is even more exciting to me than the idea of CBD lemonade.

Hemp just got approved as a crop at the federal level

Evo Hemp announced that they have established a supply chain of USA-grown hemp in order to rebuild America’s agricultural system.

This company’s product line now consists of Organic Fruit & Nut Bars, Protein Bars, Shelled Hempseed, Hemp Protein, Hempseed Oil and CBD Tinctures and CBD Soft Gel Capsules. With the help of retail partners, they’ve been able to create countless opportunities for small family farmers, while providing consumers with delicious, USA-grown products.

Read: Growing hemp is about to be legal for the first time in nearly a century (CBD will finally no longer be in a legal gray area)

Beekeepers have also lots to learn about the possibilities of cross-pollinating a hemp farm with honey production

Hemp not only is used for CBD but the seeds are a great protein and the fibers are useful too for all kinds of fabric and building uses. The Rodale Inst. has more on hemp growing (and the Internet has many articles on the possibilities of growing pesticide-free.)

p.s. If you do start growing hemp, you might want to follow the lead of one farm I saw in Oregon. They posted a sign saying. “THIS IS NOT MARIJUANA. It is non-cannabis hemp.” Or something like that. You get the gist.

Seek out these Good Food Awards Honey Finalists

These finalists have been vetted for their production practices as well as good taste. All that hard honey tasting work has been done for you!

On another honey note, there is apparently there is a benefit to a honey producer to achieve “Safe Quality Food Certified” (SQF) certification because Oregon-based Glory Bee honey has it. This type of certification is more important for global distribution than in situations when you’re buying or selling from producers with whom you have close, personal relationships of course.