Honey from northwestern Istria

Honey is often called nature’s gold and history’s forgotten treasure, and it has been an essential part of every home pharmacy since ancient times. As the perfect, natural creation of hardworking honey bees (Apis mellifera), it has everything the human body needs – fructose, glucose, sucrose, minerals, proteins, amino acids, highly nutritious organic acids, vitamins, and enzymes. The chemical composition of honey is most greatly affected by the season and the raw materials the bees use to make the honey.

Beekeeping has always been present on the Istrian peninsula, where the honey comes from the clean pastures, fields, and forests of central and northern Istria. Here, everything begins in April, when beekeepers gather fruit honey and dandelion honey, which is extracted until May. After this, the hives move in search of acacia, while the bees are simultaneously hard at work gathering sage nectar. In June, the search is on for chestnut flowers, and in mid-September the bees return to flowering plants and heather.

At northwestern Istria’s honey points in Petrovija, Brtonigla, Momjan and in neighbouring Livade, Oprtalj and Motovun, you can meet beekeeping families and buy their homemade honey products – honey, bee pollen, propolis, beeswax and royal jelly.