Cumbrian beekeeping is a compressed, high-stakes business. The season is short, the rainfall is the highest in England, and a fortnight of bad weather in July can wipe out the year's crop. What comes off the fells when it works, though, is some of the most distinctive honey in the country.
Sycamore matters more here than in most counties — planted for shelter around farms and in the valleys for centuries, it flowers in May and yields heavily in the north-west's damp conditions. Hawthorn and rowan follow. The uplands then deliver the county's headline crop: bell heather from July on the drier fell sides, ling from August across the moorland fringes, with bilberry on the higher ground earlier in the season. Limestone country around Arnside, Silverdale and the Eden valley offers a completely different flora — thyme, marjoram, rockrose on the pavement and scars. Lowland Cumbria, around Carlisle and the Solway, has more conventional clover pasture and some arable.
Dark, aromatic heather honey from the fells; sycamore honey earlier in the year is amber and slightly malty, with an edge that people either love or don't.
Flowering times are typical and can shift by two to three weeks with the weather, season and altitude.
Carlisle, Kendal, Penrith, Barrow-in-Furness, Whitehaven, Workington, Ambleside, Ulverston
The season here runs roughly May to early September and produces far less per colony than in southern England — high rainfall, a late start and an early finish. Beekeepers usually sell their crop within a few months of extraction. If you want Lakeland heather honey, buy it in September or October.
Amber to dark, with a slightly malty, faintly savoury character quite unlike clover or blossom honey. Sycamore is planted heavily around Cumbrian farms for shelter and yields well in damp weather, so it turns up in the May crop more here than in most English counties.
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