Call it blueberry honey or huckleberry honey, the color is definitely blue, and the color and the flavor are directly traceable to the appetite of the bees.
Blue honey is not common, but it is no new phenomenon. Bee-keepers in this part of North Carolina have produced blue honey for many years.
“This year seems to have produced more than the normal amount of blue honey,” says Don Hopkins, state apiarist, N.C. Department of Agriculture.
Bill Sheppard of Aberdeen, bee inspector for Central North Carolina, agrees with Hopkins that production of blue honey is concentrated in a radius of about 50 miles around Fayetteville. They say the phenomenon rarely appears farther west than Pinehurst and West End but has shown up in areas close to the coast.
Exceptions exist, however, and Hopkins says that a Stokes County man recently produced blue honey. Stokes County is located north of Winston-Salem on the Virginia line.
Hopkins says a professor from Cornell University recently asked him about blue honey while they were attending an Eastern regional meeting of the Apiculture Society in Ohio.
“It is an interesting phenomenon,” Hopkins says. “It’s pretty much unique to North Carolina, so it was good to hear of interest in other states.”
The Stoltings produced 150 pounds of blue honey this year, in addition to more than 400 pounds of wildflower honey in the more conventional color.
Hopkins says there are several theories addressing the source of blue honey. One, of course, is the availability of blueberries in the area near the beehives. Another theory focuses on soil type, including mineral content, and a third theory holds to another nectar source.
Ruth Stolting says their blue honey is the result of low-bush blueberries planted on their farm on Oldham Road.
Sheppard agrees but calls the berries huckleberries, rather than blueberries. The huckleberry, which is a wild blueberry, is a low-growing bush, whereas the better-known cultivated blueberry is usually a larger, taller plant. The huckleberry fruit tends to be smaller and seedier.
The name huckleberry, according to Sheppard, comes from the growth pattern in which the plants “grow in hunks on the ground.” Through time the berry name changed from hunkberry into huckleberry.
Those low-growing berries on the Stolting property are huckleberries, Sheppard says. These berries will produce a deeper shade of blue than will the blueberry plant.
“As for ground huckleberries, you can eat just a few of them and your tongue will be blue for three or four days afterwards,” Sheppard says. “The dye is so strong.”
Sheppard has proof that the Stolting blue honey is the result of huckleberries. Most honeys will crystallize, but sourwood honey will not crystallize, he says. Their blue honey will crystallize. The sourwood and the berries bloom at about the same time.
Intense Blue Color
Hopkins says the Stolting blue honey is the most intense blue color he has ever seen. Honey raised in Harnett County this year is also intense, but the blue honey in Stokes County was very light, the state apiarist says.
He says color variations can be expected because bees don’t feast on one plant alone. A steady diet from low-growing huckleberries will result in a deeper blue shade of honey, whereas a more varied diet but one including the blue berries may produce a less intense shade.
Sips of blue honey and wildflower honey easily demonstrate a contrast in flavors. The blue honey carries a delicate hint of berry richness.
Flavor and color variations are common in honey. The honey most frequently seen in this area is called sourwood, but it is far from sour.
Ruth Stolting says the color, flavor and quality of honey depend on what the bees are trying in any one season. Their treats one year may be hollies, red maples, tulip poplars and similar trees and flavors. It depends on what’s available and easy to reach and what the bees take a fancy to.
Most of their bees are known as Italian bees, but work is under way on genetics, and Russian bees are being brought in for further study.
Bees forage for water, pollen, nectar and propolis (a resin from trees). They’re ingenious as well as industrious.
Bob and Ruth Stolting know that because they have become keen observers of their tiny charges.
They have observed that the bees air-condition their hives by bringing water inside. These very social insects have specific career assignments. The caterers feed the others, the guards keep watch at the entrance to the hive, undertaker bees dispose of the deceased, worker bees serve as cleaning ladies, and then there are nursery bees.
The Stoltings watch sometimes in awe as their bees perform different dances using their natural equipment as a global positioning system. And they don’t even need a computer.
More of a Calling
Beekeepers for five years, the couple now produces honey from 28 hives on their Oldefield Farm, located in a rural haven for wildlife, including a couple of rare species: the Sandhills lily and the pine barrens tree frog.
They moved to Moore County in 1999 after living and working in New York many years. Their move South came by way of Maine. Bob Stolting is a retired sales engineer for a steel company.
“This was going to be a gentleman’s horse farm, but it didn’t work out that way,” Ruth Stolting says.
Instead, their attention was turned to the environment and wildlife.
Joe McDonald, their Realtor, told them about the longleaf pine and its importance to the ecology and culture of the Sandhills.
Intrigued by this information, they began asking around and finally talked to Charles Hammond, who at that time was Cooperative Extension director. Hammond advised that they might be interested in joining the Forest Stewardship Program sponsored by the Forestry Service and cooperating agencies within the state and national agriculture departments.
With their new interest in the ecology of their area and in beekeeping, they began looking around for mentors. They met other beekeepers in the area, including Leonard and Joyce Tufts.
“The more you get involved, the more you understand that every bee has a different personality,” Ruth Stolting says.
The Stoltings laugh when they admit there is one hive that they handle last because it is a testier hive.
“The queen bee has a personality of her own,” Bob Stolting says.
Sheppard points out that there is a natural relationship between longleaf pines and huckle/blueberries. The berries flourish in longleaf pine areas, especially in sandy soils such as those found in much of Moore County.
North Carolina has more than 100,000 beekeepers who work with an estimated 200,000 hives. A few are commercial beekeepers, but Sheppard says the vast majority falls into the family farm or hobby/avocation category, such as the Stoltings.
The Moore County Beekeepers Association has 62 members, including the Stoltings, and Sheppard estimates that’s about half the number of beekeepers in the county.
The Stoltings do not keep all that honey for themselves. It’s for sale on shelves at a number of businesses in the Sandhills, including Fresh Market, Nature’s Own and Burney Hardware.
For this transplanted couple, beekeeping is more a calling than a hobby or a business.
It’s their way of giving the environment a boost and keeping an eye on “bees and their love affair with flowers.”
Florence Gilkeson can be reached at 947-4962 or by e-mail at florence@thepilot.com.
