The perfect Goldilocks climate of not too hot but not too cold makes the Pacific Northwest the place to be for honeybees! As a close relative of the ant, honeybees are social insects that live in giant families and interact through their famous direction-giving-dance. The Queen Bee gives birth to up to 10,000 babies; can you imagine trying to live with that many family members?
Living in a small hive and working together, the thousands of honeybees create something amazing: honey! Honey is certainly no one-trick-pony. Purported to have many health benefits, honey is thought to ease sore throats, soothe wounds and sunburns, and promote better immunity. Because more than 300 kinds of honey exist today, you can spend almost every day of the year sampling a new flavor.
With one-third of North American food crops being pollinated by bees, it’s not hard to see why these insects strike a big pay day for the Province. Although we are only a small part of the puzzle that makes up the Province, Surrey is no exception to the wonders of the honeybee. With so many different farms locally crafting their own honey, you don’t have to travel far to indulge in some of the amazing byproduct of the magical honeybee.
Located in historic Fry’s Corner, the Honeybee Centre is a farm and store filled to the brim with products made by bees. Come eat a salad with honey dressing at their ‘Beestro’ or visit the Bees and Bugs Lab to learn more about the honey making process. For an out of the box flavor you can try their cinnamon or ginger infused honey. The ginger honey is especially blissful in a cup of lemon or green tea on one of our dreary rainy days.
For those who are perpetually on the go, Hazelmere Honey Co. has you covered. An online honey company, Hazelmere farms in the Hazelmere Valley here in Surrey and creates artisan raw honey that’s shipped to your doorstep. Striving to achieve higher nutritional value but without strong tastes, Hazelmere has fine tuned a unique taste to their honey. If you want to try something a bit more exotic, Hazelmere also makes a Honey Hot Pepper Jelly with organically grown Hungarian Hot Peppers that is pollinated by their bees! This spicy but sweet jelly is sure to kick your taste buds into overdrive.
Doing things just the way nature intended, BCB Honey specialises in making a pure and unpasteurised honey. Locals then to venture away from the mainstream clover flavor and move towards the fruity taste of blueberry and raspberry. BCB uses jars as small as 1.5 ounces so you can get a sample of the flavor before falling head over heels for their honey and eating it by the gallon. The true highlight of BCB Honey comes in the form of their drive-thru window, which makes it even easier to fill those honey cravings, as you can swing by BCB Honey without ever having to leave those heated seats of your car. Whoever said eating healthy was hard never got the chance to experience the window at BCB Honey!
With so many honey farms in Surrey, you really can’t go wrong. Pick up some honey from one of these local stores, order online, or plant some gardens with flowers to help the bees make the honey we love so much!
Stores and Locations
Honeybee Centre
7480 – 176 Street
Hazelmere Honey Co.
Order online
BCB Honey Farm
4121 King George Boulevard