Made in England

I am often asked where my bee make the honey the customer has in their jar. I also get get asked why my honey label reads "Made in England"  

It is a interesting coincidence that very close to my home is the meeting point of four counties, Derbyshire, Leicestershire, Warwickshire and Staffordshire. When I travel over to my depot I go through a hamlet called "No Mans Heath". In the hamlet is a public house named the Four Counties. Legend has it that the county boundaries ran through the public house. In days gone by thieves and assorted vagabonds, when drinking at the Four Counties, would evade the long arm of the law by simply moving from one room to another with their pints, The next room was in a different county therefore the Constable would have no jurisdiction. Its a good story. 

 

UK labeling law for UK produced honey requires the label to carry the country of origin as a minimum. The rules allows that if honey is produced in the UK the jars can carry the name of the county the bees foraged upon instead of the county of origin. Given the bees forages within a 5 km (3miles) radius from their hives, in my case, the bees could forage in at least two and some cases three counties from any one apiary. Defining the individual counties combinations on the label leads to confusion. I will have to have a word with my bees to help me out with this conundrum. The trouble is that honeybees do not respect man made boundaries.  

 

So that is the reason my labels carry the source of the honey as "Made in England".