A Greek beekeeper says Greek honey is superior to any other honey. That's a big statement to make, but once you listen to the reasoning, it is easy to see how he reaches this conclusion.
Greece has a historic beekeeping tradition as ancient as the Greek gods and goddesses of Mount Olympus. We blogged about the luscious honey from the healing island of Ikaria over a year ago, and many readers fell in love with that story.
Rural Greece and the Greek Islands are still very much in harmony with earth energies and mother nature. Greek honey has been collected for thousands of years simply because it is delicious, sweet and acts as a healing and nutritious substance filled with nutrient-rich properties.
In recent years, Greek honey has become popular on the international markets, largely because of its purity and nutritional benefits. In a world where so much honey is adulterated or diluted, and so many bees are ill and exhausted from toxins and pests, Greek bees mostly enjoy a liberated and healthy life.
Even in ancient times, Greek honey was considered the best in the world. During the Archaic period, Greeks evolved past foraging for honey in the wilderness, and started to become beekeepers on a large scale. Archaeologists have even found some of the sites of ancient beehives as well as pottery that was used to collect the prized golden honey. One of our first blog posts was about Bees in Ancient Greece and Rome.
This 3:20-minute video by Greek Reporter with English subtitles shows you why Greek honey is the best on earth:
By the Hellenistic period beekeepers had figured out a lot and evidence has been found that shows they participated in migratory beekeeping, the advanced practice of rotating beehives around different areas of the country to enjoy the variety of plants found in various regions.
Even today, Greek beekeepers continue to engage in this ancient beekeeping practice, and it brings them much success.
On the Greek Island of Evia, a fourth-generation honey farmer named Dimitris Papapostolou is one such beekeeper. He is quite an expert on honey since his great-grandfather started harvesting honey nearly a century ago around 1936 on the same island in Northern Evia. He produces delicious Greek honey that is considered a super food globally. According to him, all countries produce good natural honey, but Greek honey is superior to them all.
Greece as a country is famous for its temperate climate and biodiversity. There are countless types of trees and flowers, and this makes the country a bee paradise with so many choices of nectar and pollen. The bees then produce honey with different flavors, depending on where they forage.
The lucky bees that belong to Dimitris Papapostolou live in a pine forest on Evia, as a continuation of the family tradition. The resulting honey from these beloved bees is of exceptional quality.
The difference between flower honey and pine or fir honey is that unlike flowers, the bees are fed from the microorganisms that live only on these trees, not from the actual tree, according to Papapostolou. The flavor of pine honey is distinctive and delicious, but different.
He treats his bees with honor and is ever-present to the fact that without bees, life wouldn’t exist on planet Earth.
Bees as pollinators are responsible for much of the food humanity eats, and without them many plants and even entire ecosystems would be destroyed. Bees have many challenges around the world, like pests, pesticides, monocultures, shrinking habitat and much more. Add to that climate change, which is impacting bees and causing their populations to decrease at an alarming rate.
It is more important than ever to support beekeepers, both local and international. Buy sustainably produced honey. This circles back around and helps keep essential bee populations strong. If you want to buy some exceptional Greek honey from different flowers and trees, or rare high-quality royal jelly, pollen, propolis or beeswax, you might want to check out Beekeeper Papapostolou. He ships worldwide.