If you look carefully, Sussex is buzzing. With bees, with beekeeping and with sweet sticky honey. Known for its health benefits (it’s rich in antioxidants and is better for you than sugar for a start), honey can also be a good indicator of our landscape’s health and, as most people are now aware, bees are vitally important for the health of our eco-system.
Better still, much like our Sussex wine, if you want to feast on something that has the natural notes and flavours of the county, well then what better place to start than with honey? Bee it the sweet coconut hues of heathland gorse and the smokey notes of heather, the heady intense scents of lavender, rosemary and sage or hints of late summer blackberry, Sussex honey can be subtle, diverse and surprisingly complex.
Raw or pure
A bit like milk, a lot of the honey we buy in supermarkets is highly processed and, in fact, in 2023, Which Magazine revealed that a number of UK honey samples had actually “failed authenticity testing. This means they contained other (unpermitted) ingredients, such as food additives, colourings or sugar syrups.”
Commercially produced honey is often a blend of honey (UK honey blended with honey from abroad, or UK honey blended with additives) and it will usually have been heated and filtered. The heating part is the pasteurisation which means it has been exposed to high heat. This makes it smoother and easier to extract bits of honey debris like wax, bugs and other impurities but it also destroys many of the natural enzymes. Filtering removes nasties (dirt, pollen, dead bugs).
Raw honey comes straight from the hive, is unfiltered and in its purist form will come in the form of honeycomb. Pure honey also comes straight from the hive but may be lightly heated and filtered. The heating shouldn’t be at temperatures higher than that of the hive to avoid damaging the enzymes.
Sussex honey
Before bees were kept in hives, honey would have been collected from wild nests, often found in woodland (of which Sussex had a lot) and this practice gets a mention in the Domesday Book. Beekeeping with hives may date back to before the Roman era but was certainly in evidence in Anglo Saxon times and the hives took the form of “skeps” (a type of straw basket).
Mead (an alcoholic drink produced by fermenting honey in water) may have been being made as early as the Bronze Age or even earlier but again, was definitely in evidence in Anglo Saxon times. The Domesday Book contains a number of entries about honey or hives and these include reference to Sussex. In the Middle Ages, beekeeping was fairly common and many manor houses would have made their own honey, as would the Sussex monasteries and abbeys. Chithurst Monastery still does.
These days, there is a British Beekeepers Association and then more locally, there is a Sussex Beekeepers Association (East Sussex) and a West Sussex Beekeepers’ Association. Both have sub divisions and there certainly seems to be a honey resurgence with lots of local beekeepers, apiaries and honey makers. Good local farm shops or markets in Sussex usually seem to have at least one local honey and sometimes a range of several. It’s always worth having a look at the jars to see where it’s from and what type of honey it is.
Meet some of the makers
There are hundreds of Sussex honey producers, both large and small. Here are just a handful, but pop into your local farm shop and have a look at what’s on offer.
- The Sussex Bee (Ansty, Mid Sussex): small batch, unpasteurised honey.
- West Sussex Raw Honey (Itchingfield): raw honey from the surrounding fields. They have planted several Manuka bushes and have several orchards of apple trees.
- Sussex Bee Farm (Storrington): honey produced from apiaries across Sussex with a range that includes heather honey and raw honey.
- South Downs Honey (Lancing): a family-owned honey farm established in 2017, dedicated to the sustainable production of premium honey, honey jams and soaps.
- Purely Bees (Bexhill): a small “cottage industry” producer of honey.
- Northiam Honey: pure natural honey from small apiaries across Sussex and Kent.
Honey experiences and adventures
So, if you want to get your hands sticky, what honey style experiences are on offer in Sussex? Well, quiet a few:
The Honey Kitchen. This is a honey masterclass occasionally held at Parham House in the Big Kitchen and hosted by Valentina Harris and Miranda Gore Browne. It’s all about cooking, baking and the joys and benefits of honey.
Apiary (in Brighton). This is a bar and restaurant inspired by all things bees and honey. It is run by beekeepers and decorated in keeping with all things bee and hives. The menu is made up of dishes made with local honey and “hive inspired ingredients” and the drinks menu is honey or mead inspired. They even often “mead flights”.
Bee Tree Vineyard. If you thought Bee Tree Vineyard in Ditchling is all about wine, you’d be wrong and you’d be right. The folks from Apiary own hives there and you can do a bee keeper experience that concludes with wine.
Beekeeping experiences. Sussex Bee Farm offer Beekeeping Experiences which include learning about bees and beekeeping equipment, getting hands on in a hive and honey tasting. South Downs Honey offer a Bee a Beekeeper Experience.
Bees and Beer. Albourne Estate hosts a bees and beekeeping day that includes beer and food matching.
Sussex Mead. Loxwod Meadworks have a “bee vineyard” at Loxwood from which they produce their mead. You can try it at their Medieval festival (Loxwood Joust) and it is also sold at Harvey’s Brewery in Lewes, South Downs Cellars in Lindfield, Middle Farm at Firle, Tern in Worthing, the Black Jug in Horsham and Seven Sister’s Country Park.
Honey and cheese. Perhaps book yourself on a cheese tasting tour at High Weald Dairy and ask them for their cheese and honey pairing recommendation. Or just stock up on cheese and honey and do your own tastings. You’ll probably need some Sussex wine too, just to cleanse your pallet.
The Bees of Sussex, by James Power. Go on a bee and honey deep dive with this guide about Sussex bees which includes maps and photos.
Sussex honey matters
Sussex honey is fabulous and a real taste of the Sussex countryside and bees matter, wherever we are in the world.
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