Local Honey Delicious Personalized Gift Idea

One of the sure signs of fall in Missouri is the slew of fall arts and crafts festivals.

Rolla had their annual Fall Arts and Crafts Festival October 2, 2010 in conjunction with Missouri S&T's Homecoming.

I was delighted to find Bee Mentor Don Moore at the festival with a table full of local jams and honey for sale.

One of the interesting things about hanging around an established beekeeper is past customers who come by, sharing their favorite ways to eat or use honey.

One lady with a lovely British accent said Don's honey is the best.

She brought Don old empty honey jars, noting that one of the jars was from Missouri Farmer's Association.

 "I ran out of honey before the beginning of the season," she apologized.

Another lady said she found the perfect biscuit recipe to use with Don's homegrown honey.

I missed the actual recipe ingredients but I did catch it included snow outside, a fire in a wood fireplace and having family around.

Missouri's honey season is relatively short.

Usually from May to July,  more experienced beekeepers like Don know how to remove early honey and give honey bees enough time to make more honey for their winter supplies.

One beehive needs about 70 lbs of honey to make it through winter.


My beehives are doing well but since this is their first year, I won't be harvesting any honey until next year.

Getting home grown honey, jams and other homemade goodies at arts and crafts festivals are wonderful gifts for a number of occasions, including Thanksgiving and Christmas gifts.

Add your favorite biscuit recipe with dry ingredients for the perfect personalized gift - especially if it's snowing, there's a fire burning and friends are around!

Years ago, I sent a friend overseas a box of homemade jams, jellies, honey and homemade cookies. He wrote back just looking at the jars made him feel like he was back home.

A number of family members and friends have hinted about getting honey from my hives.

This year, they'll have to settle for lovely jars of honey from Don Moore's hives. I selected jars with the comb inside - there's something special about seeing honey gold and realizing it was made by thousands of tiny bees working inside those tiny comb cells.

Charlotte