100% local honey, harvested exclusively from Knotweed nectar
Knotweed is an invasive plant species that flowers from late August until early September during a time when nothing else is flowering in Northern NJ. During this time, knotweed acts as the bees’ sole source of nectar, allowing us at HarBee to provide you with honey sourced exclusively from the knotweed plant.
How we do it? Bees will produce wildflower honey from May to July. In July, we harvest all of the honey and give them empty boxes which they will then fill exclusively with Knotweed honey.
Taste
Some say they taste licorice notes – but I like to warn that it isn’t like sambuca. It is honey is more likely than not crystalized.
Uses
Knotweed honey can be used for all of the same purposes as wildflower honey, but many use it to highlight its unique flavor. Founder Pat Harrison makes a killer sweet potato and Invasion honey.
The “Invasion” Plant FAQ
Is this contributing to the invasive-species problem though pollination? It is unlikely that our honeybees enable knotweed to spread more through their pollination services, and even if they do, there is little that we can do. Our only option would be to isolate the bees from knotweed by moving them to a different area, but this would make little sense since most areas contain different invasive plant species.
So is knotweed a good thing? No, not at all. We feel that beekeepers producing knotweed honey are the only people benefiting from the introduction of this plant.
If you find knotweed in your area, we would encourage you to remove all plants in their infant stages to prevent them from overtaking native vegetation. However, if it is August and they are already flowering, let us make a little Invasion honey while this year’s battle is lost.