Good Food: Ames Farm Raw Basswood Honey
Eating healthy should still be delicious.
By Kate Malin
When the Basswood trees in Minnesota bloom in early July, Brian Fredericksen’s bees are there, their hives nestled in the forest, industriously collecting pollen and making honey. When the weather conditions are right, hot and sunny but not too wet, the bees can make enough honey from the Basswood blossoms to make up a third of his yearly honey yield. The delicate taste of Basswood honey is complex, with notes of mint and lemon, and a distinct floral fragrance. The honey is subtle in flavor so eat it with light cheeses, plain yogurt or simply spoon it out of the jar.
While Brian considers Basswood honey to be the signature honey jarred by his team at Ames Farm, they harvest honey from several other floral sources like dandelion, honeydew, and buckwheat. Each of these honeys is single source, meaning that they come from a single hive at one location and are harvested at one time. This means batches are small and labor intensive to extract, but that each jar is traceable back to the source and is a true representation of the land it comes from.
Ames Farm Raw Basswood Honey is available at amesfarm.com and in stores across the country. Ames Farm is part of the Good Food Awards, a project to honor food and drink producers making the sort of food we all want to eat – tasty, authentic and responsible, and a proud member of the Good Food Merchants Guild, national association uniting American craft food businesses to connect, convene and promote Good Food businesses of all sizes.
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From her grassroots work at the Good Food Awards to her continued education at NYU’s Food Studies Master’s Program, Kate Malin brings an unparalleled passion for great food and good people.
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