Pears in Honey

Last night was another canning pears night. I took a page from my friend, Debbi's, method and substituted 1 cup of honey for one cup of the sugar. Have to say, it was the darkest honey I've ever seen. When I first picked up the bottle, I thought it was molasses. That's pretty dark for a honey named "Golden Honey." It's from Michigan, and I'd love to find a local source, or at least Kentucky. I know a beekeeper in Oak Ridge, and my friend Carol has two hives, but she just gets enough for her own use. I don't know any beekeepers around here; I figure there have to be some. Will look in the Beekeeper Association's member list and see if I can find one.

Edited 8/21/11 to say that, as usual with almost everything, west Kentucky doesn't seem to have many beekeepers. Per the Kentucky Department of Agriculture, the closest beekeeping association is Lake Barkley Beekeepers Association based out of Mayfield. I sent an email to the president asking for info on local beekeepers. We'll see what turns up.

Searching further, I found Broyles Apiary in Paducah from the Buy Kentucky page of the KY Dept of Ag.  Here's one that's a bit too far to travel to, 12 miles east out of Mayfield - Honey Hill Apiary. Apparently, they sell at the Trading Post, 127 W. Broadway (between 7th and 8th on 80.) The Kentucky Nut Corporation in Hickman comes up as selling honey on the KY DA page, but not on their website. I'd still probably get lost trying to find it. You can buy their pecans online, but I didn't check out the shipping. Their prices seem to be pretty good if they're updated.

The Tennessee Beekeepers Association has a bit more information than the Kentucky Assoc., and has a map showing a few bee colonies just south of the Kentucky state line. Click here to see that. While you're looking at that, you can note that I lived for more than 20 years in Anderson County, in the upper center of the red, east, district, where I was used to seeing local honey for sale all the time.