What’s in Season

Some products at the Cambridge Farmers' Market are only available during certain seasons because different crops grow at different times of the year. Below is a list of what's in season each month. Please note these are approximate dates and may vary according to local weather. 

Be sure to check out our feature item each month for food tips and recipes.

March: Honey 

Honey is a sweet, viscous food substance produced by bees and some related insects.Bees produce honey from the sugary secretions of plants (floral nectar) or other insects (aphid honeydew) through
regurgitation, enzymatic activity and water evaporation. They store it in wax structures called honeycombs. The variety of honey produced by honey bees is the best-known due to its worldwide commercial
production and human consumption. Honey is collected from wild bee colonies or from hives of
domesticated bees which is a practice known as beekeeping. Except for comb honey, in Ontario, honey is sold by grade and colour.  The darker the colour, the sweeter the honey flavour is.

What to look for when buying/picking:

Pfund: A scale used in the honey industry to describe the 
colour of honey. Measurements were originally made with the Pfund colour grader. This consists of a wedge of 
amber coloured glass next to a wedge shaped cell which is filled with honey. The instrument is read visually; the reading is the distance the wedge must be moved to make a match, and is expressed in millimetres.

Pasteurized V.S. Raw

Raw: Nothing added and nothing taken away, this is honey in it’s purest form. This honey should be kept away from heat as anything over 95 degrees F. can damage the molecular
structure and cause the honey to lose nutritional value.

Pasteurized: Pasteurization is used to kill yeast that naturally occurs in Raw Honey. Although the yeast is not harmful to humans and
pasteurization is not necessary, most honey seen in stores is pasteurized unless it clearly states that it is raw. 

Liquid V.S Creamed

Liquid honey is basically honey’s natural form: when produced by the bees and stored in the comb in the hive, honey is in a liquid state.

The only difference between Liquid and Creamed  is in the packing technique. To produce creamed honey, one first takes a small amount of already creamed honey, called “seed honey”. This seed honey is mixed with liquid honey, churned, and cooled on the packing line. The honey is then packed in containers and stored in a cool area for a few days. This process creates a very smooth, even granulation effect throughout the honey, giving it a more solid, or a “creamed” texture (NOTE: there is no cream in creamed honey).  

Liquid honey is great for baking, cooking, or mixing with teas, coffees or any other beverage. Creamed honey is wonderful on toasts and breads. Both are good for you, although everybody seems to have their personal preference.

Honey Comb

The comb itself — a network of hexagonal cylinders — is made from the waxy secretions of worker bees. As these cylinders are filled with honey, they are capped with yet another layer of wax.  But it is all edible.

Honeycomb also has a completely different texture than liquid honey. It’s not like chewing on a candle. The wax gives the honey a pleasant body, transforming it from something merely absorbed by the other ingredients into something that stands on its own to contrast and enliven the rest of the dish. Like liquid honey, honeycomb can be stored at room temperature for long periods. If you have a choice at the market, opt for darker colored honeycomb which tends to have deeper flavors.

Did you know?

When sealed in an airtight container honey is one of the few foods know to have an eternal shelf life. There are even reports of edible honey being found in several thousand year old Egyptian tombs. Honey’s longevity can be explained by its chemical makeup: The substance is naturally acidic and low in moisture making it an inhospitable environment for bacteria. 

In 11th century Germany, honey was so highly valued for its beer sweetening abilities that 
German feudal lords required their peasants to make them payments of honey and beeswax. 

A productive bee colony makes two to three times more honey than it needs to survive the winter. When harvesting honey from a beehive, beekeepers try not to take anything the bees will miss. If necessary, beekeepers will feed bees sugar syrup in the autumn to compensate for the honey they take.

Learn about the benefits of buying local.