Comb

Comb

Autumn 2026  ·  Harvest nine

Raw honey from three small apiaries, sold by the season.

It pours at about this speed. We have stopped trying to hurry it.

The yards

Three yards, forty-one hives.

We keep bees in three places and bottle each one apart. The label tells you which hill you are eating.

  • 01

    Hollow Tarn

    1,140 m

    Ling heather, bilberry, wild thyme

    Flow August to mid September12 hives

    Dark and thick. It sets to a soft gel in the jar and loosens when you stir it.

  • 02

    Ferrow Bank

    310 m

    Lime, bramble, white clover

    Flow June and July18 hives

    Pale, with a little mint from the lime trees. The one children ask for.

  • 03

    Marrow Saltings

    4 m

    Sea lavender, thrift, sea aster

    Flow July to September11 hives

    Light amber, mild, gone from the jar first. The hives stand above the spring tide line, just.

Harvest table

What came off this season.

Extracted cold, strained once through steel mesh, never warmed past hive temperature. Then measured, because we like to know.

YardExtractedMoistureColour, PfundPollen sourcesJars
Hollow Tarn19 Sept 202618.9%96 mmAmberLing heather 71%bilberry, wild thyme148
Ferrow Bank2 Aug 202617.2%31 mmWhiteLime 58%bramble, white clover164
Marrow Saltings27 Sept 202617.6%58 mmLight amberSea lavender 64%thrift, sea aster100
Moisture by refractometer at 20 °C. Colour in millimetres on the Pfund scale. Pollen counted under a microscope, 300 grains a sample. 412 jars of 340 g in all.

Tasting notes  ·  No 1

Hollow Tarn

Ling heather, autumn 2026

Eye
Deep amber with a red edge. Clear when warm, cloudy by November.
Nose
Warm hay, dried heather, a struck match.
Palate
Burnt sugar first, then bitter orange peel. Less sweet than it looks.
Finish
Long and faintly smoky. Still there after the tea.
Body
Heavy. It leaves the dipper as one thread and takes its time.
Serve
On sourdough with salted butter, beside a hard sheep's cheese, or off the dipper.
Tasted 3 October 2026By the three of us, twice

Cut comb

Or take it in the wax.

A few frames each season never see the extractor. We cut them into squares and box them as the bees left them. The pale lids are cappings, drawn over a cell once the honey inside is dry enough to keep.

You eat the wax as well. It is fine.

200 gA square
60Squares this season
£14Each, while they last

By the season

Four boxes a year.

One box each season, a jar from every yard. Some years the heather fails and you get more lime. We will tell you why.

3 × 120 g

Small

£19 a season

Enough to find out which yard is yours.

Start with winter

3 × 340 g

Regular

£42 a season

The jar on this page. A household gets through it.

Start with winter

3 × 900 g

Pantry

£88 a season

For people who bake with it, or have given up pretending.

Start with winter

Skip a season or stop whenever you like  ·  Postage included