When it comes to honey, Montagu is blessed. Availability however was under threat because of the drought which lasted many years. Enjoying one of the wettest winters Montagu has seen in many years, things are looking up for honey producers and consumers.
Honey is one of the few food substances that cannot spoil. In fact it has been said that a jar of honey was found in a tomb in Egypt. Being thousands of years old, it was still edible.
Serious honey consumers will emphasise the need to buy natural and raw honey, that is if you are chasing the many health benefits. All other honey is irradiated because they mix it with local and imported honey to achieve lower prices.
Benefits from natural and raw honey include:
Antiviral & AntiBacterial
Promotes Digestive Health
Rich in Antioxidants
Can Help Lower Blood Pressure
Relief from allergies (if you purchase the honey in the same area you are living in)
Improve Cholesterol
Honey Is “Less Bad” Than Sugar for Diabetics
Help Suppress Coughs in Children
There are several honey makers and distributors in Montagu, I would like to introduce you to a few:
Sharon Ludick
As a beekeeper, it has been my passion to work with bees, not just a job. We work and maintain our own hives and harvest the honey ourselves, we only remove honey when it has been fully capped by the bees. That means that it is ripe, and the bees consider they have completed their job. We uncap the honey, then place the honey frames in a centrifuge, spinning it manually. The extruded honey goes through one super-fine sieve and is then bottled in 500g jars.
We live on a farm, 10 kilometres outside Montagu, with ample Fynbos for the bees to gather pollen and nectar. Whatever flowers the most at certain times of the year determines the taste of the honey. Real Fynbos honey is quite dark because of all the nutrients the bees extract from nature.
Raw honey has a medicinal value, and eating raw honey from your region will help with any allergies you may have, because raw honey contains pollen from the area.
061 771 3310 and my e-mail address is ludick.sharonc@gmail.com
Gert van Deventer
Ek het 3 soorte heuning Fynbos, Bloekom, multi flower die bloekom is lig van kleur top verkoper fynbos en multi is rooi bruin van kleur. Al my heunings is rou heuning. Die heunings kom uit die Dam/Elim, Riviersonderend, Stormsvlei, Montagu Swelendam arias uit. Kontak besonderhede is Gert van Deventer, Vredehoek byeboerdery – sel 072 598 0176
Montagu Local
Our hives are currently standing in the McGregor mountains, lots of fynbos. Thats the main source of flowers the bees currently have access to.
After we harvest we bring the supers back to the farm, where we uncap the honey frames and put them into our extractor.
The honey is the extracted by centrifugal force (basically the honey frames are spinned until all the honey is out.
No heat is used, we try to do it as quickly after harvesting as possible to ensure its still in free flowing form).
Then it is poured into a bucket through a double mesh seive and then poured through a cheesecloth.
Its then bottled and placed in a dark room, warmed slightly by a normal household heater to ensure the honey don’t get too cold and crystalized. Nothing is added in the process and nothing is pasturized. The consistency is due to the flowers etc. From the farmer so hives go from fields to mountain depending on seasoning
Contact Louise Bowker – +27 83 652 4188
tastesofmontagu@gmail.com
Address: Shop 1a, building 21 Bath street
https://www.facebook.com/tastesofmontagu
