Brunswick Festival in Brighton

Had a fantastic two days at the Brunswick Festival in Brighton - 22nd and 23rd August. Really wonderful people and really wonderful entertainment.

Great interest in the Surrey honey we're currently selling, which has a wonderful tang, put down to Borage although I'm sure there's some elderflower in there as well. We now have some honeycomb as well from Paul the beekeeper in Surrey. Just email info@pyreneeshoney.com if you're interested.

New research on honey bee deaths

There's a new piece of research just been released, which is based on an analysis of the honey bee generome. Scientists have compared the generome from healthy bees and bees affected by colony collapse syndrome (where whole hives simply collapse and the bees are found dead or dying). See here. There some interesting findings.

The benefits of cider vinegar and honey

We get a lot of customers who ask about cider vinegar because they use it as a tonic mixed with raw honey. I believe this is because honey and cider vinegar together are alkaline producing foods and the modern diet is said to make the body too acid.

A lot of claims have been made about other health benefits of cider vinegar, particularly in relation to arthritis. There are certainly a lot of anecdotal reports that cider vinegar has had quite an amazing impact on people with very severe arthritis. Here's a couple of articles about the health benefits of cider vinegar from the mainstream press.

http://women.timesonline.co.uk/tol/life_and_style/women/beauty/article739362.ece

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/health/3350714/The-acid-test-for-arthritis.html

In light of the requests from customers we've done some research into the best cider vinegar in the UK and have located some raw (unpasteurised) and completely unfiltered cider-perry vinegar which has been matured for 30 to 36 months.

The cost is £3.50 for .75cl which is quite a reasonable price - the only other supplier of comparable raw cider vinegar was selling it at £11.50 for a litre.

If you are reading this article and know more about cider vinegar we'd be interested to read your comments.

You can get some of our cider vinegar here.

Crone's Apple-pear vinegar

We have some apple pear vinegar available from Crone's of Norfolk, which is the best that we've tasted. It's raw(unpasteurised) and completely unfiltered and has been matured for 30 to 36 months. The cost is £3.50 for .75cl.

Raw apple-pear vinegar.

Jubilee Square Farmer's Market - Brighton

A long day at Jubilee Square Farmer's Market this Saturday (15th August). The sun didn't materialise as promised - 26 degrees, you know the sort of thing the weathermen have been telling us all summer.

However, Serena did, a customer we first met at the Brighton Foodie Festival in May. Serena likes our honey a lot - I think she took about six kilos this time.

A lot of people commented on the fanatastic flavour of some English honey from Mitcham. It comes from some allotments that border a railway line there. Many people thought the flavour was elderberry but Paul, the beekeeper, tells me it's borage. The honey has a fantastic tang. Paul's going to supply us with some cut comb in a couple of weeks, so look out for that on our website.

Rottingdean Village Fete

A quintessential English fete in the gardens of Rudyard Kipling's House at Rottingdean today. An incredible range of people, many interesting conversations about the latest views on organic food, honey from different countries around the world - and much more. The organic eucalyptus honey was the top seller today, with lots of comments about the intense flavour.

Punch and Judy, coconut shys, the raffle, a bandstand, beer tent, cake stalls.....and God Save the Queen at the end.