Thus far the strange weather this year has given us a longer colder winter and exceptionally late spring rains, causing smaller harvests for nearly all crops. However, due to hotter weather and flourishing longan flowers, the beekeeping industry has experienced an abundant honey harvest. The longan flower honey produced this year not only has a higher degree of purity and an excellent mouthfeel, but twice as much of it is being produced than in previous years, and beekeepers claim that such a rare and spectacular event has not occurred for over a decade.
Liu Ming-tang, a beekeeper for over 40 years who lists among his awards three consecutive grand prizes from the National Longan Flower Honey Quality Evaluation contest, said that climate change and a long cold winter this year caused bees to produce fewer larvae. Normally this would also cause bees to produce less honey, but his initial prediction was proven wrong. He never thought it possible that honey production would actually double despite fewer bees out there producing honey.
Liu said although longan flowers bloomed late this year, there was still a large amount of flowers in bloom, and that high temperatures, especially once temperatures exceeded 28°C, caused the flowers to secrete more nectar. Therefore, the amount of nectar that bees collect has increased, and the honey produced has a higher degree of purity and a better mouthfeel than in previous years. Citing an example, Liu said that he typically never collected more than 300kg of honey from 20 beehives in the past, but this year he is collecting 300kg of honey from only 10 beehives, making for an exceptionally fruitful harvest.
Photo: Chan Shih-hung, Taipei Times
照片:自由時報記者詹士弘
With such a vast increase in the production of honey, beekeepers were initially concerned about a supply surplus significantly lowering the price of honey. However, with the current plasticizer scare unexpectedly sweeping the nation, sales have actually soared because consumers are choosing natural food ingredients in an overall natural-must-be-better sort of mind-set.
(LIBERTY TIMES, TRANSLATED BY TAIJING WU)
今年天候怪異,冬季長期低溫,春雨又來得晚,幾乎所有農作物都減產。但養蜂業卻大豐收,受龍眼花茂盛、天氣又熱影響,今年龍眼蜜不但純度與口感一級棒,產量更比往年多一倍以上。蜂農說,類似盛況已十幾年沒看過。
從事養蜂業超過四十年、連續三年獲得「全國國產龍眼蜂蜜品質評鑑」特等獎的蜜蜂達人劉明堂表示,今年氣候變異大,寒冬冷、時間又長,當時蜜蜂產卵量減少,原以為今年蜂蜜產量可能減少,但原本這樣預估卻不正確。沒想到蜜蜂少了,但蜂蜜產量卻成長一倍。
劉明堂指出,今年龍眼花開得雖晚,但開花量大,又碰到高溫,由於氣溫超過攝氏二十八度,龍眼花會分泌更多蜜源,所以蜜蜂採蜜量大增,而且純度比往年高,口感更好。他舉例表示,以往二十箱的蜜蜂還採不到一桶三百公斤的蜂蜜,但今年十箱的蜜蜂就能收到三百公斤蜂蜜,可以說大豐收。
蜂蜜產量大量增加後,蜂農原本擔心供應過剩,導致價格下跌,沒想到塑化劑風暴席捲全國,在消費者認為「天然ㄟ尚好」的想法下,銷量大幅上升。
(自由時報記者詹士弘)
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