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How's this for a bit of frustration.......
I've been on a mission for a while...... trying to track down buckwheat honey.
I usually got to Paynes at Hurstpierpoint. They're very helpful but don't have a huge range..... they tend to stock the more "popular" UK and EU honeys.
Last time I went up there, the chap reckoned that although he doesn't keep buckwheat honey, he could probably get it in a 25 kg bucket (apparently it's not considered "good" honey by the purists).
This time, I asked but he said that his supplier doesn't even keep it like that.
Damn, damn, damn!
It has a reputation for being a good mead making honey.
I found a place in London that sells 227g for £8.50 plus postage and another place (can't remember where) that does 340g jars for £5 (+ p&p of course).
So I've been looking further afield.
The http://www.beefolks.com/ are in Maryland and do buckwheat in all sorts of sizes. The problem isn't the cost of the honey, but the cost of the shipping. For instance, a 1 gallon container (which apparently is 12lb in weight) is "only" 54$US, but the shipping is 69.50$US (via USPS which is the cheapest, but slowest) a grand total of 123.50$US or £77.29 per gallon which equates to £6.44 a lb.
Yes, if I bought it in a 5 gallon container, it does get cheaper, but it's still 180.00$US for the honey and 219.50$US for the shipping or 399.50$US/£250.27 per 5 gallons or £4.18 per lb.
The price when bought in 5 gallon containers is expensive but not unmanageable, except I only need 3 to 3 1/2 lb's per gallon so I'm certainly not gonna go over the top and get a 5 gallon container.
Damn! this is frustrating.
I did manage to find some info about a bloke in Bulgaria who had 25000kg of it, for 3€ a kilo, but the link seems to have disappeared (not that I know whether it was up to date or not....), so I've managed to find a link to a bloke in Poland who, apparently, seems to have 3000kg of it. It seems to be in jars, but I couldn't work out what the size of the jar was (the picture seemed to be, probably, 1kg).
So I'm gonna have to search for his link again and email him as he had "price negotiable" on his link/ad.
I still don't understand quite why it seems to be such "gold dust". It's not as if it's a "complete unknown", and while there was an article about it's apparently wonderous properties (which has since been condemned as "bad science") a couple of years ago - there does seem to be a lot of info about it, just very limited availability.
Maybe I'm just looking for a miracle ? I don't know......
regards
JtFB
p.s. Oh and in the end, I got myself a 1.36kg/3lb bucket of Mexican "Clear" and Italian Chestnut (both quite dark in colour and apparently strong tasting) and a small 227g jar of "English Heather" to back sweeten/flavour the gallon of Heather honey Mead I made last year.
I've been on a mission for a while...... trying to track down buckwheat honey.
I usually got to Paynes at Hurstpierpoint. They're very helpful but don't have a huge range..... they tend to stock the more "popular" UK and EU honeys.
Last time I went up there, the chap reckoned that although he doesn't keep buckwheat honey, he could probably get it in a 25 kg bucket (apparently it's not considered "good" honey by the purists).
This time, I asked but he said that his supplier doesn't even keep it like that.
Damn, damn, damn!
It has a reputation for being a good mead making honey.
I found a place in London that sells 227g for £8.50 plus postage and another place (can't remember where) that does 340g jars for £5 (+ p&p of course).
So I've been looking further afield.
The http://www.beefolks.com/ are in Maryland and do buckwheat in all sorts of sizes. The problem isn't the cost of the honey, but the cost of the shipping. For instance, a 1 gallon container (which apparently is 12lb in weight) is "only" 54$US, but the shipping is 69.50$US (via USPS which is the cheapest, but slowest) a grand total of 123.50$US or £77.29 per gallon which equates to £6.44 a lb.
Yes, if I bought it in a 5 gallon container, it does get cheaper, but it's still 180.00$US for the honey and 219.50$US for the shipping or 399.50$US/£250.27 per 5 gallons or £4.18 per lb.
The price when bought in 5 gallon containers is expensive but not unmanageable, except I only need 3 to 3 1/2 lb's per gallon so I'm certainly not gonna go over the top and get a 5 gallon container.
Damn! this is frustrating.
I did manage to find some info about a bloke in Bulgaria who had 25000kg of it, for 3€ a kilo, but the link seems to have disappeared (not that I know whether it was up to date or not....), so I've managed to find a link to a bloke in Poland who, apparently, seems to have 3000kg of it. It seems to be in jars, but I couldn't work out what the size of the jar was (the picture seemed to be, probably, 1kg).
So I'm gonna have to search for his link again and email him as he had "price negotiable" on his link/ad.
I still don't understand quite why it seems to be such "gold dust". It's not as if it's a "complete unknown", and while there was an article about it's apparently wonderous properties (which has since been condemned as "bad science") a couple of years ago - there does seem to be a lot of info about it, just very limited availability.
Maybe I'm just looking for a miracle ? I don't know......
regards
JtFB
p.s. Oh and in the end, I got myself a 1.36kg/3lb bucket of Mexican "Clear" and Italian Chestnut (both quite dark in colour and apparently strong tasting) and a small 227g jar of "English Heather" to back sweeten/flavour the gallon of Heather honey Mead I made last year.
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