Antioxidant-rich cranberry honey tastes delicious with apples.

It was the buttery-smooth avocado honey given to us by a friend that sealed our love affair with the all-natural sweetener. Now, whenever we travel, we pick up jars made from the nectar of different blossoms, like delicate yellow acacia honey from this summer’s vacation in Italy, fruity blueberry honey from a weekend in Maine, and herbal-tinged sage honey from a recent visit to California. We savor antioxidant-rich honey on toast and in tea with lemon, and we blend it with Dijon mustard for a fat-free dressing to drizzle over mesclun. We even add honey to stir-fries to balance out the flavors of spicy chilis and salty soy. So we were concerned when we heard that honeybees around the world are in danger.

In 2006, beekeepers began reporting a loss of 30–90 percent of their hives, according to the U.S. Department of Agriculture. Scientists suspect pesticides and herbicides may be part of the problem. Honeybees — which are vital to pollinating fruit and vegetable crops — ingest these chemicals, leading to what experts call Colony Collapse Disorder. Viruses and mites also may be contributing factors.

So what’s a honey lover to do? In addition to planting good nectar sources in your backyard, like red clover and foxglove, support the people who produce honey — mainly local beekeepers — who are trying to boost the bee population. There are more than 300 kinds of honey available in the United States, according to the National Honey Board. Made from different floral sources, each varietal has a unique flavor and hue, ranging from dark, earthy-tasting buckwheat honey to creamy white Hawaiian honey sourced from the flowers of the kiawe tree. To find a honey producer or supplier near you, or to locate a specific kind of honey, including avocado, use the board’s Honey Locator on honeylocator.com.

We’re big fans of Bee Raw Honey, a company that supports artisanal beekeepers around the country (Maine blueberry is our current fave). What kind of honey do you keep in your pantry?

Photo credit: Elzbieta Sekowska

Tags: Agriculture, Bee Raw Honey, Beekeeper, Beekeeping, Biology, California, chemicals, Colony Collapse Disorder, European honey bee, hives, Honey, Honey Locator, Italy, Maine, Monofloral honey, National Honey Board, Nectar source, producer, U.S. Department of Agriculture, United States, Zoology