Honeys - Hameau de Valbonne

• Chestnut honey

Typical of our valleys, a nourishing tree for both its fruit and its wood, the chestnut is also generous to many animals. The traditional trunk hive has long been home to our bees, but it's also a great purveyor of pollen and nectar just before the summer droughts. Chestnut honey is dark amber in color, with a pronounced, slightly bitter taste that goes perfectly with cheese, be it Pélardon or Roquefort, but it also works wonders on toast or in gingerbread.

• Spring honey

At the end of winter, the white heather flowers, and for the bees it's the first harvest. If the hives are large enough and the weather is right, they can even store honey in the supers. Then come the spring blooms: blackthorns, wild cherries, acacias, lime trees and a host of small flowers. In some years, oak trees may be invaded by aphids, which produce a little honeydew. Irregular in its composition, and even more so in the quantities produced, spring honey from our region is often quite dark, crystallizes quickly and has a powerful, musky taste with notes of caramel and licorice.

• Propolis

A true multi-purpose substance, propolis is used for everything in the hive: plugging holes to prevent draughts, reducing hive entrances, coating the inside of the hive and alveoli to sanitize them, immobilizing and mummifying invaders such as beetles (beetles fond of honey), etc.

It's made from a little wax and a lot of resins rich in essential oils harvested from buds, as well as bee secretions and polen. For us, it's a powerful antibiotic, antifungal and healing remedy, and can be used to treat a wide range of ailments.