Nutrition

Honey – glorious, delicious, healthy honey!

Honey is where it all started for Nelson Honey. Philip Cropp started his beekeeping business in 1973 but before him both his parents and grandparents had been beekeeping since the late 1800’s. With beehives originally placed close to our base in Motupiko, 50kms south from Nelson in the top of New Zealand’s South Island, our geographical reach continues to grow. We now have hives all along the West Coast as far down as Hokitika, in the St Arnaud and Nelson Lakes National Park area, Kahurangi National Park, Golden Bay, Marlborough and the Marlborough Sounds.

Beehives and bee health form the basis of all we do and a good site means sufficient, quality food for our bees to feed on. As part of our commitment to producing outstanding natural products, we recently acquired a large piece of land in the Marlborough Sounds to secure future supply of high quality Manuka Honey and in the 2015-2016 season we’ll be increasing our bee hive numbers to accommodate this growth.

The geographical spread of our hives means we can offer you a range of tasty, healthy honeys to enjoy; Manuka Honey, West Coast Honey and Honeydew honey.

Manuka Honey is probably the most well-known of the 3 and is renowned for its healing, antibacterial properties. Our Manuka Honey is produced by bees foraging in the remote pristine forests of the South Island of New Zealand. Straight from the beehive, just as nature intended. Enjoy by the spoonful, or as a spread, to support good health and general wellbeing.

We grade our honey based on Methylglyoxal (MG) levels. Methylglyoxal is the ingredient that provides Manuka Honey with its antibacterial properties, and MPI (New Zealand’s Ministry for Primary Industries) regulations mean we need to use MG to grade our Manuka Honeys.
Our Manuka Honey is minimally processed and contains no added ingredients or preservatives. Giving you peace of mind you’ve bought a quality, genuine Manuka Honey product, each Manuka Honey batch is independently tested by three laboratories for Methylglyoxal levels, C4 carbon sugars, Hydroxymethylfurfural and pollen count. To see the results for your honey click here.

We also call our West Coast Honey the ‘fruit bowl of honeys’ because of the wide range of floral sources that contribute to this great tasting honey. As the name implies, our West Coast Honey is sourced from bee hives in the South Island West Coast and here we find a range of floral sources including, Rata, Kamahi and Clover. West Coast Honey is easy on the palette and a favourite with kids and adults alike.

Honeydew Honey is a delicious, runny honey which is sourced from New Zealand’s South Island Beech Trees. It’s also known as forest honey and doesn’t come from a floral source, unlike our other honeys. When you’re out tramping in native New Zealand bush you have no doubt come across the lovely sweet smell of honeydew and the buzzing sound of bees collecting it.

Honeydew offers a distinct taste and is great drizzled over yoghurt, mixed with muesli or added to a smoothie. More importantly though it may offer some really outstanding health benefits. Honeydew Honey supports intestinal health and well-being and contains a higher antioxidant, antibacterial activity level, mineral content and greater nutritional and therapeutic benefits than most regular flower honey.

If you want to read more about the science of honey, click here.
Whether you’re after a great eating honey or are looking for added health benefits, we have the right honey for you.