A Harvest Festival of honey
25 September 2021
The year for beekeeping has not been a bad year. Which is nice for once. The last few years the crop has been very poor right across Wales. Whilst we experienced a good spring, bees actively ate into their raw honey where, should the early summer have been very poor, we would have had to feed them artificially, something we do not do lightly and have not done so since 2016.
However, thankfully the weather had improved and the bees gathered a fair amount of nectar from the surrounding wildflowers producing some great raw honey. The heather crop is still in flower so there are hopes that this will last a few more weeks yet.
For a very long time farmers have celebrated the annual crop, including raw honey, around this time of year in the northern hemisphere where it is marked by the Harvest Moon, which is the full moon closest to the autumn equinox. Whilst these days it is associated with giving thanks in churches and chapels across the land (on the Sunday nearest to the Harvest Moon) it has its origins in pagan times and was also celebrated in August (sadly I am not sure when, I’m not that much of a historian!) It is understood that in modern times the hymn ‘All Things Bright And Beautiful’ were written and sang to celebrate the harvest festival at around 1848. I am sure I will be contested on this by someone, so I hold my hands up and declare I am no theologian.
It is not surprising that in history humanity has given thanks to a deity for the abundance that the world has given and harvest festivals can be found at different times of the year in different parts of the world to reflect the seasonal variations. We have been a species based on harvesting crops but retaining some for the following years harvest. Its great to see that this tradition still continues – indeed it is absolutely necessary.
Common themes for harvest festivals include eating, sharing, music and romancing and feature in pretty much most celebrations around the globe. We would like to continue a part of this in a very small way which is to offer all readers of this article 10% off for the next two weeks, running until Saturday the 9th of October. Please use discount code HarFest21 to take advantage of this offer on all of our products.
Have a good Autumn and celebrate the Harvest Crop for as long as the supply chains hold up. With us that’s going to be no problem for the next 12 months at least!
