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Really raw honey aggravation

35K views 53 replies 21 participants last post by  emorris 
#1 ·
Hello,

Just wanted to share a pet peeve of mine. I sell raw on heated unfiltered honey. This year I made enough to sell it to local health food stores. Yesterday I made a sales pitch yesterday where the store owner was really excited about the honey. Today I brought it in-- a case of 24 queenline jars only to be met with a tepid "oh thats raw honey really?...It doesnt look like the raw honey on the internet.....?"

I then had to explain for 15 minutes about how the honey is in fact raw but recently extracted and so it is still pretty clear. This company Really Raw honey makes claims on their website (which is one of the first one that comes up for raw honey that: raw honey is supposed to be smooth creamy and spreadable with wax chunks it"

I told the store owner that what they were selling was more of a creamed honey, and that if mine sat around for untold months that it would crystallize up too, and that many customers don't even like the consistency of creamed honey (in my experience anyway). Also, I could have been lazy and not even strained it, so that there were big chunks of wax and bee carcasses in there which doesn't sell either.

Anyone else have to deal with this nonsense? I left annoyed as the store owner implied by her questioning that I was somehow offering fake raw honey--she asked me several times if I heated it---which I never do. She bought it but still I don't need to be interrogated.
 
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#33 ·
Camero7,I've had bee club members tell me they guess they raised there price to high? that their study customers quit coming back.I usually run out of honey before the first of the year and i tell my customers i won't have anymore befor July or Aug. They like that because they know i'm not buying honey and selling it as my own. My phone starts ringing off the wall in July.:thumbsup:
 
#34 ·
I have a pretty loyal customer base. Sometimes they buy in the store and then come back to tell me how great my honey tastes. I know I have a high price but I firmly believe, if you don't value the honey how can you expect your customers to? I'm sold out and have a couple stores begging for more honey. I don't buy and resell either. That's a good way to lose customers IMO.
 
#35 ·
Brooksbeefarm,
How much are your bee club members selling their honey for? I also think your price is too low for the quality honey you produce. Mark and Camero are the voices of experience so what they offer in advice is priceless.

You are worried about fewer sales. But, for every 100 quarts you sell at $13.50/quart, you could sell 75 quarts at $18/quart and make the same amount. These are the numbers as an example....

$13.50 x 100 = $1,350
$18.00 x 75 = $1,350

You could sell at the higher price and have 25% fewer quarts sold and still make the same amount in total sales. At this rate, anything sold after that total is a bonus (25 x $18 = $450). The numbers change depending on what you sell quarts for. Wish you well.....
 
#36 ·
Just wanted to share a pet peeve of mine. I sell raw on heated unfiltered honey. This year I made enough to sell it to local health food stores. Yesterday I made a sales pitch yesterday where the store owner was really excited about the honey. Today I brought it in-- a case of 24 queenline jars only to be met with a tepid "oh thats raw honey really?...It doesnt look like the raw honey on the internet.....?"

Anyone else have to deal with this nonsense? I left annoyed as the store owner implied by her questioning that I was somehow offering fake raw honey--she asked me several times if I heated it---which I never do. She bought it but still I don't need to be interrogated.
Most folks have no idea what it takes to get honey from the hive into the jar. (I know I didn't. After my first extraction, I was ready to sell for $100/quart!)

If you think this is a potential source of income and is worth saving, then invite the owner to your next extracting and let them learn what is involved. That way they'd know what's involved, plus they would be able to explain the process to their customers.

Just some food for thought. :)

Good luck!
 
#37 ·
Bee Bliss, no doubt i could make more $ by raising my price. but in this small country town of around 1200 population (older farm people) you can't charge twice as much as they can go to Wally World and get a quart of honey even if they know my honey is better. Most of the bee club members that sell honey from they're hives sell it to people they work with $18.00 a qt, but they only sell 10 to 20 qts. a year. I could join the Springfield, Mo. Farmers Market and get $18.00 a qt. but the fees i would have to pay to join, and set up fees plus gasoline driving to and from would cost more than the extra $4.50 per qt.so i think i've got a good customer base built up here.Out of the 160 club members only myself and one other member produce enough honey to have a large customer base and she sells her honey cheaper than i do.
 
#39 ·
Who ya gonna trust? The guy standing at the Farm Mkt every wek, who puts his name and contact info on the jar? Or some unkown and unknowable entity from somewhere out there in cyberspace? Cause ya know everythig on the net is true, right?

I feel for ya Astro. That's one reason I don't sell at Farm Mkts. I sell directly to stores. It sells, even if it has to sit there until the right customer comes along. If it sits there too long I have a Buy Back Policy.So far, after 20 yrs or more, I haven't had to buy any back.

Get them to taste it if you can. They'll feel obligated to buy some. Some of them will anyway. And when they do, others will see them doing so and suspect there is good reason to do so also. And they will. Marketing. Sell your own product w/out denegrating someone elses and you will build a customer base over time.
 
#52 ·
What really raw honey actually do is to sell creamed honey and then they actually add wax cappings to the top ...
No, Bee Man, that is not accurate at all. Really Raw isn't creamed honey and wax cappings aren't added to the top. Cappings are run thru the extracting system along w/ the honey and jars are filled while cappings are still in suspension in the honey, sometimes stirring needs to be done to keep the honey/cappings suspended. All of this done w/out any heat being applied to the honey. While the honey crystalizes the capping naturally rise to the top of the jar.

I have actually helped produce and package honey for Really Raw. That's how we did it.
 
#53 ·
I did a honey tasting at a local Co-op several weeks (they carry our honey on their shelf). As a means of clarification I typed up a fact sheet to hand out to people who might want to discuss the general terms thrown around for honey.

What Are the Differences Between Raw, Pure & Natural Honey?

Most honey in the United States is purchased off a shelf at a local supermarket or grocer. This honey may be different than the kind you might purchase directly from a local honey farm or beekeeper. The terms used in honey processing and advertising can be misleading to the consumer. The best way to know what you're purchasing is to get to know your local beekeeper.

Honey Regulation

The first thing to understand is that there is very little regulation of nomenclature when it comes to a variety of products in the food industry. The relative uses of the terms "raw," "pure" and "natural" as they pertain to honey sales can mean either a great difference or no difference at all in the United States. The use of these terms varies country by country. Ultimately, it is up to you as a consumer to gather knowledge about the companies that sell the honey. You may find it best to get your honey from a trusted beekeeper whose practices are established.

Raw Honey

Raw honey means the most unadulterated form of honey; honey that comes directly from the bees unheated, unpasteurized and unprocessed. Raw honey technically is the concentrated nectar of flowers that comes straight from the bees who collect it; the result is unheated, unpasteurized, and unprocessed honey. Most honey is not raw because it is heated to high temperatures (pasteurization) then filtered to prevent crystallization. This process kills yeasts and prevents granulation of the honey. This process also destroys nutrients and enzymes found in raw honey which purists claim gives honey it's unique qualities.
The appearance of raw honey is typically cloudier than those found in commercial grocery stores. Raw honey may contain bits of pollen, honeycomb, and propolis.

Natural Honey

You can assume very little about the honey from the "natural" label. This term is not necessarily equivalent to raw or unpasteurized honey. Most commercial honey, including some labeled as natural, are filtered and heated to make the honey more presentable to consumers. Because there is no uniformity in law or regulation regarding labeling, it is difficult to know whether so-called natural honey is heated to low or high temperatures. The latter of these is not considered raw honey, though this does not stop manufacturers from labeling it as such.

Pure Honey

Pure honey is perhaps one of the more potentially misleading and ambiguous terms associated with honey. Pure honey can be taken to mean completely unadulterated raw honey with no additives, or it could simply mean that it contains some proportion of real honey or other additives like sugar, water or coloring.

Organic Honey

Currently there is no USDA certification program for organic honey in the United States. While some countries have established certain standards for organic labeling, we have not adopted such a program. In order for honey to be certified organic, beehives must be placed in isolated locations, miles from dense population, industry, and agricultural areas. Honeybees forage several miles in search of nectar so it is impossible to be certain what sources of nectar have been collected and stored in the hive.
 
#54 ·
Forgive me if this is a double post, my internet is wonky tonight.

I wanted to comment on the YouTube video (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wAELXYAthqM) that was posted on behalf of explaining what Raw Honey really is. I particularly enjoyed her comment that went something like "The way agave is produced is much like corn syrup. You should get Raw Honey etc etc . . . We're making rice crispy treats later, so we'll use that"

-Because Rice Crispies aren't over processed and are completely healthy for you…:scratch:
I wonder where that "Raw Honey" actually came from? Probably not local. I'm wondering if the consumer sheep would buy "Raw Organic Honey" Made in China? Would they notice? I recently read an article of the nutrition benefits of Local Honey to that of Honey purchased from different areas of the country or world and how it may be more harm than good to consume non-local honey.

As a honey consumer, I have 3 things that I look for when I purchase honey:
1. Is it local?
2. Is it heated?
3. Is it overly processed/pasteurized?
If 1 is yes and the rest are no, I'm buying it at the cost on the bottle with little care to how much more expensive it may be than from Wal-Mart China. I want to watch my local sellers thrive on a quality product that I know takes more blood/sweat/tears than factory produced products, and will be around for me to buy for years to come. I don't care if it's black, brown, yellow or white.

As a soon-to-be beekeeper, (two packages and two top bar hives coming soon!!) I'm not going to be in the position nor want to sell any of my extra honey. :)

So thank you to people like you all who take the time and effort to produce something that is truly raw, natural, and pure. Don't be discouraged, there are some intelligent life forms still in existence that will purchase your product :gh:
 
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