Food Lovers' Guide: Bittner Bees

Don’t just stop and smell the flowers — taste them. Individual bee colonies stick to one type of plant to make honey, so Bittner Bees owners Rick and Julie Bittner make sure to preserve the flavor profiles from flowers such as locust, linden and goldenrod by jarring honey from each separate hive. “Every floral course is different,” Rick says. “And we label the floral source.” While the honey from bees that pollinate just goldenrod ($9 per pound) is buttery and smooth, a jar of linden ($9 per pound) evokes a milder licorice flavor. During the winter, the Bittners move some of their bees to Florida where they pollinate crops such as orange blossoms and blueberries. The honey they pull from the Florida hives taste like the nectar it’s derived from — so their orange blossom honey smells and tastes like the citrus floral that produced it. Use It At Home: To give dinner a little sweetness, add a tablespoon or two of the linden honey to sauteed vegetables when they’re cooked and still in the pan. Stir until it’s warm enough to spread throughout the dish. 440-269-0002, facebook.com/bittnerbees