About 100 meters from the west gate at my university is a man selling honey. This doesn’t seem particularly remarkable, but in fact, he is a beekeeper, raising the bees in his own backyard apiary nearby.
There are different varieties of honey, depending on the flowers that the bees fed on, and he had date flower honey 枣花密, huaihua honey 槐花密, and chaste tree honey 荆条密. I bought the huaihua honey because it had the lightest taste, while the date flower honey tasted surprisingly like dates, and the chaste tree honey had a strong scent. (This is all what is written down on the signs).
The honey wasn’t expensive–the giant jar that I bought was just 33 RMB, comparable to store brands.
He also sells beeswax, which makes me think that I’d like to have a go at making my own candles. Nonetheless I’m tickled pink to be buying honey from a very local producer.
