These days it seems like everyone has the homesteading bug. Canning classes, chickens in the backyard. Regrettably I'm far too lazy for that. Owning a share in someone else's labor is a bit more my speed. A New Zealand company, Your Pure Honey sells off shares of beehives and receive a supply of Active Manuka honey collected from a single hive. Whereas normal honey is often blended from a bunch of hives, each hive has its own distinctive flavor. It's a bit like a wine made from a single vineyard or whisky pulled from a single cask.

The idea is in the same vein as the Catch A Piece of Maine lobster trap shares, Your Pure Honey provides videos and images that show the hive in its natural surroundings. The chemical-free beehives use organic materials and are moved to remote sites around New Zealand to gather the best nectar from isolated native forests. Each beehive provides the funds to sustain five acres of natural forest.. Buyer can pick up a one-year stake in a beehive – ranging from exclusive rights to a 10 per cent share – which will produce honey for them from September to May.

There are 100 beehives total and three levels of ownership: Premium Partnership provides sole rights to a hive and all the honey it produces (about 40 500g jars); Syndicate Partnership provides a quarter share (about 10 500g jars); and Community Partnership provides a one-tenth share (about four 500g jars). Prices start at $285 including delivery. The entire hive costs $2,500 and will produce 40 jars of honey for the season.

One of the biggest trends in food is not just to care about where your food comes from or what is in it but also to monitor what goes into your food before it goes into you. Wine makers are focusing on biodynamic practices, beef that is grass fed is all the rage and now, a similar concept comes to honey. Honey made from different pollens tastes differently and Life Mel honey is made by bees fed on a specially formulated diet which includes selected herbs such as Siberian Ginseng, Echinacea and Uncaria Tomentosa. Life Mel is not artificially treated and no ingredients are added after extraction from the hive. It recently went on sale at Harrods for £42 per pot and is said to be popular with celebrities such as Sienna Miller and Kylie Minogue for its health benefits.

[via Sky News]

For the holidays I like the idea of giving a standard food item but a rather special version of it. Earlier I covered the gourmet olive oils from O & Co.; now we turn to honey and the sweet temptations from Savannah Bee. They sell a variety of different honeys, some in tall flutes that make them look like a bottle of fine dessert wine. Their latest is organic acacia honey. It is produced in the Southern Italian Alps and has a light vanilla taste. They recommend serving it drizzled over toast or with Italian cheeses such as Parmigiano-Reggiano. It sells for $25.

No diamonds and pearls here, just a classier way to serve your honey this summer. As much as I love those cute little bear-shaped honey bottles they tend to get sticky, which is nasty to put in the cabinet. Leaving them on the counter doesn't look so great either, so something like this Silver Plated Honey Jar lets you have honey on hand in a way that complements your kitchen's decor and makes your table a little prettier. It has a cute little silver honey scoop, and comes complete with a jar of Black Sage Honey by Savannah Bee Company. $45

We've seen all sorts of varietals in wine and chocolate and even olive oil, now the varietal idea comes to honey.  At Bee Raw they work with artisanal beekeepers to create honey that varies in shade and flavor. The honeys offer a wide variety of tastes from the floral and aromatic orange blossom to the smoky and smooth basswood. A set of the four fruit varietals, orange blossom, raspberry, blueberry and cranberry in single ounce glass vials set in a wooden display box sells for $45.

[via The Cool Hunter]