Ge4, Silphie Honey
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The honey
Silphie honey is made from the predominant nectar content of the Silphie (Silphium perfoliatum), which belongs to the Asteraceae family and originally comes from North America. This variety of honey has an exceptionally dark yellow to slightly orange colour and a smooth consistency. Its pleasantly fruity flavour reminds us of apricots. Due to the limited harvest quantities, a high price can be achieved.
The beekeeping
This honey was harvested in September 2024 by the C. Soter apiary and comes from Hahnennest, a town in the German state of Baden-Württemberg. Several hundred hectares of Silphium perfoliatum (Asteraceae) are cultivated as renewable raw material there in southern Germany. Also in the north of Germany cultivation is increasing. It is primarily cultivated as an energy plant, like maize. Silphia also provides fibres that can be used for paper production. The silphia plant offers further advantages: it is long-lived, weatherproof due to its deep roots and is therefore a soil protector. It also promotes humus, stores nitrates and requires plant protection only to a small extent.
The flowering period of the silphia is perennial from July to September. It provides food for honeybees and other insects such as bumblebees and hoverflies and a habitat for many soil organisms. As it is a good pollen but only a moderate nectar producer, large areas of cultivation are required to produce a unifloral honey. |
