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A lovely drink for an autumn evening…
Ingredients
60ml bourbon
40ml freshly squeezed lemon juice
1tbsp OpenHive honey
Method
Add everything into a shaker with ice and shake until well-chilled. Strain into a glass over one large ice cube. Garnish with a thyme twig or a lemon twist.
By far the most popular honey at every event we go to, out stunning soft set honey is a sweet, tasty treat. Coming from the golden field of rapeseed in Wicklow, it a creamed or set honey which means it has a lovely spreadable consistency as well as a distinctly sweet taste. If you are looking for a more unusual but very delicious honey, this is the one for you!
Over the course of the season we have collected many swarms all across south Dublin and north Wicklow. We have taken samples of these wild swarms and sent them to the University of Galway where they will be tested for genetic lineage. This will help build a picture of the landscape of our native honeybee.
We are delighted and honoured to be able to play a small roll in the amazing work undertaken by the team in the west. You can read a lot more about their efforts here: Galway Honey Bee Research Centre.
We are excited to be apart of the upcoming Tribes Beekeepers Association Honey Show in Kilcornan on Saturday September 23rd. There will be local honey, homemade candles, a Honey Show Competition, a photography exhibition and more. It will be OpenHive’s first market/show in Galway and we are buzzing for it! Please pop by and say hello to Mark and pick up some of our honey.
Our final Beekeeping Experience of this year will take place this weekend. We have the last few places available. Come and join us on the 9th of September for an unforgettable experience. Book now: https://www.openhive.ie/shop/beekeeping-experience-with-openhive-and-windyridge-nurseries
After the washout in July we are getting a late burst of sunshine and our bees couldn’t be happier about it! Lovely to see the sun blazing, the supers humming and the bees as busy as they’ve been all season. Long may it last…
Ingredients:
250g block of camambert cheese (Sheridans)
Openhive honey
Figs
Chopped pecan nuts
Method:
Cut a few criss-cross lines on top of the Camembert and pop it whole into the oven at 180°C for 10-15 minutes. When ready, top with fresh figs or any other seasonal fruit, chopped pecan nuts and generously drizzle with honey. Dig right in with a piece of sourdough bread!
Fact: it tastes much nicer with the bread broken into pieces rather than sliced :)
The best selling OpenHive honey so far this month (August 2023) is our summer blossom. We sell it in a pack of two jars that we can ship to wherever you live. Order from our shop here: https://www.openhive.ie/shop/2-pack-of-honey
We were delighted to have our honey recognised by The Great Taste Awards this year. A lot of time, effort and hard work by our native Irish honey bees goes into each jar of honey or cut of honey comb that we produce.
To receive encouragement from a body like the Guild of Fine Food is a nice bonus for us as a growing organisation and helps us to get our conservation message to a wider audience.
Thanks to our honey bees, and to all our volunteers who have helped us all season too.
OpenHive Heather Cut Comb: 2 stars
OpenHive Summer Blossom: 1 star
We love heather honey - it’s a real delicacy. The heather in the Wicklow mountains only flowers for roughly 2-3 weeks per year so its always very reliant on getting good weather for that window. Our bees have recently moved to the mountains to forage on this year’s crop. We are hoping the weather will be good to us and we can have a harvest like last year!
Heather honey has been recently studied by Trinity and DCU (2018) to show its comparable health benefits to Manuka honey. Many people pay a lot of money for a honey that is flown across the world when heather is available on your doorstep…
Heather is generally located in remote hard to reach areas of the mountains which can be difficult to access. The honey is also known as a thixotropic honey, meaning it is like a gel rather than a liquid, and therefore, can not be spun out like regular honey. We either produce it as cut comb or crush it out of the comb and filter it into jars.
OpenHive Heather honey, cut straight from the comb, won bronze at the Blas na hEireann awards last summer.
On Saturday morning Kyle was invited to the Ireland AM studios to talk about planting for bees. It was a great opportunity for us to talk a little bit about what we do as an organisation and to fight for the honey bee!
You can watch the full clip on this link: OpenHive x Ireland AM.
Caution: These nut butter toffees are a truly addictive.. They are super easy to make and taste delicious. You´ll be making another batch before you've finished the first one :)
Ingredients
½ cup of almonds or any other nuts you may like
½ cup of Openhive honey
1 cup unsweetened almond butter or other nut butter
2 tbsp coconut flakes
sea salt flakes
Method
Chop the nuts or whizz in a blender and set aside. Pour the honey into a pan and heat it over medium heat, stirring constantly, until it starts to foam. Stir the foaming honey for about 5 minutes, then turn the heat to low and add the almond butter. Stir the mixture until it begins to thicken slightly. Remove from the heat and add the chopped nuts and coconut flakes. Blend quickly until it becomes a smooth paste. Place the warm mixture into a tin lined with baking paper. Smooth the surface and sprinkle with sea salt. Allow to cool and set in the fridge before cutting into bite size pieces. Wrap the toffees in parchment paper and store in the fridge. These will last in an airtight container for couple of weeks.
Recipe and Photography by Maria Dublin.
We came across this short clip and article on RTÉ about a Dublin-based herbalist and forager Aaron Foley and thought it would good to share. Aaron shares ideas and examples from his urban garden that he had re-wilded. This sort of effort, at home, in a small urban setting brilliant for honey bees as well as insects, birds, flowers and more. Well worth a read and watch!
Aaron Foley on RTÉ
Looking for a perfect pre-dinner snack with a cold drink? Look no further!
Ingredients
200g almonds
1tbsp OpenHive honey
Flakey sea salt
Fresh rosemary, finely chopped
Method
Toss the almonds with the honey. Place on a parchment lined baking sheet and roast at 180°C for about 15 minutes. Be careful not to leave them for too long, as they can burn quickly if left unattended.
Remove the almonds from the oven and immediately sprinkle with the sea salt and rosemary. Leave to cool. The honey will harden on the almonds and they will be much less sticky once cooled. Enjoy!
Recipe and Photography by Maria Dublin.
The first time we launched our soft set honey was at The Taste of Dublin 2022, last summer. It promptly sold out that very weekend! Since then we have found that when people learn about the process that goes into it and taste it in person, they love it. The texture, the sweetness and the versatility.
Our soft set honey comes from Newcastle, Co. Wicklow and is a smooth and creamy spreadable honey. Soft set, or creamed honey as it used to be known, is made from regular honey in which the natural granulation process is controlled to give a rich and buttery honey texture. There is nothing added to soft set honey except honey that has already granulated naturally over time.
We bring our bees down to Newcastle in Co. Wicklow in early spring where they forage on the oilseed rape crop. From that honey we create this soft set variety.
Read more and pick up a jar or two here.
One of the OpenHive team, Mark Earley, now lives in Galway and along with over a dozen hives he has also brought honey to a number of local businesses out west. If you are passing through, make sure to visit one of the below and pick up some of our summer blossom raw Irish honey.
The Dean Galway Hotel (Prospect Hill, Galway city)
My Little Flower Coffee Shop (Oughterard, Co. Galway)
Wild Beans Coffee Shop (Kinvara, Co. Galway)
Gran Grans Food (Kilcolgan, Co. Galway)
Matt Healy of My Little Flower Coffee Shop in Oughterard
These honey caramelised grapes with thyme are juicy, sweet, a little savoury and best enjoyed spooned over a crusty ricotta toast with a dusting of sea salt flakes. Top with more honey or some aged balsamic vinegar or both!
Ingredients:
A good handful of red grapes
50ml OpenHive honey
1 tbsp salted butter
Sea salt flakes
Tub of ricotta cheese
Rustic sourdough bread
Fresh thyme leaves
Method
Preheat oven to 200°C. In a small baking dish combine the grapes, butter, honey and a pinch of salt. Bake until the grapes begin to blister, 15 to 20 min. Set aside to cool slightly. Spread each piece of toasted bread with ricotta, drizzle with a bit of honey and/or balsamic vinegar and sprinkle with fresh thyme leaves and sea salt flakes. Enjoy!
Recipe and Photography by Maria Dublin.
We will have a stand at the wonderful Taste of Dublin this coming weekend. The food festival runs from Thursday afternoon through ‘til Sunday evening and promises to be a weekend full of fun, great food, brilliant talks, good music and more.
We did an interview with the Taste Crew in their Producers Row series about OpenHive and our plans for the weekend. You can read it here.
And, Kyle will be giving a talk on Saturday afternoon at 12:30pm on the Food For Thought stage. He’ll be chatting about the native Irish honeybee and the importance of local honey.
As the spring turns to summer and the weather heats up, we have seen an explosion in numbers in our hives. It is a wonderful time of year as the bees move into full action. The honey is pouring in, the queens are laying well and the hives are all booming.
Volunteer Beekeepers learning the ropes. Well done Conor!
At this stage if the year we are careful to visit and inspect our hives on a weekly basis. This allows us keep a close eye on how they are doing in terms of the queen laying well, checking for any signs of disease, making sure they have enough room and that they have food enough in case of any sudden weather changes. It’s a very busy, but very fun time of year for beekeepers. Long may the good weather continue!
Did you know that we are proud members of Wicklow Naturally? Many of our hives are in various apiaries around north Wicklow where they forage on the rapeseed in spring, bring in a multi-floral summer blossom honey and visit the heather in the autumn. We are very proud of being part of the Wicklow ecosystem and enjoy working with like-minded organisations.
‘Wicklow Naturally’ is the food and drink brand championing our county’s food and drink producers. It is formed by a collaboration of food and drink representatives, Wicklow County Council, Local Enterprise Office, County Wicklow Partnership and LEADER following the launch of the county’s food and drink strategy in 2019. At Wicklow Naturally, we work together to develop the brand as positive, sustainable and environmentally conscious, by showcasing the finest food and drink from this part of Ireland’s Ancient East.
Read about us here.