Beekeeping in Cork Part 1.

Checking Out The Shops.

My plan, after the Ulster Beekeepers Association Annual Conference at Greenmount, was to head down to Cork for a few quiet days with my very dear friend Tricia O’Dwyer who lives there. Arriving from Dublin around noon at the railway station, I had a few hours to pass before Tricia returned from work. I could have spent the afternoon reading, or snoozing, but I seized the day and went out to explore.

The weather was unpredictable at the tail end of storm Dennis but I had a warm coat so I left my bags at Tricia’s place and set off back down the street to investigate honey at The English Market. I’d only gone a few hundred yards when a not- so- lucky black cat went under the wheels of a hit and run driver hammering up the hill. I’ll spare you the gory details, but, suffice to say, I got involved. Groups of shocked onlookers had gathered on either side of the road and I appealed to one man to go home and get a plastic bag. When he returned from his nearby house, I held up the traffic while he took the poor animal off the road. On my return from shopping, I found myself in the midst of what appeared to be a noisy domestic dispute that had moved out onto the street as one party made an exit up the road. There was a lot of shouting and swearing at that point so I decided that the best course of action was to get out of the way, quickly. I resisted the urge to stare and sped up the hill at a fast rate of knots to collapse on the sofa with a cuppa till Tricia returned home later to offer something more medicinal!

In-between The Drama.

Ivy Honey.

I was very interested to find pure ivy honey on sale here because ivy is the last to flower at the end of the season in Scotland, after heather, and we don’t usually harvest it. You can see some frosting on the side of the jars where the honey has shrunk away from the jar because it has been stored in a cool place too quickly after bottling. After bottling, honey should be stored at 14 degrees C to allow granulation to take place then stored after that below 10 degrees C. Like oil seed rape honey, ivy honey granulates really quickly and frosting can be a common problem. However, frosting can lead to fermentation as water molecules are released when the sugars crystallise. I’ve had frosting on some of my oil seed rape honey in the past so I try to ensure that the jars remain in the recommended temperature.

More Ivy Honey.

Some people don’t like the piquant taste of ivy honey but I love it. I bought the jar above to experience my first taste and was pleased at the texture. It had been “creamed” to break down the crystals but you could still feel them slightly on the tongue. The taste was a pleasant surprise after the scent which was rather similar to the smell of the ivy flower, and nothing special in my opinion. I learned that ivy honey is highly sought after in France where there is a good market for it. Interestingly, when I asked the stall holder what it tasted like she was just about to say bitter but changed to something like sharp.

Saponins.

Saponins are the reason for the distinctive flavour that some might describe as a bit bitter. They are glycosides with foaming soapy properties and they have medicinal properties helping to ease a persistent cough by breaking up mucus and altering the viscosity, dilating the bronchioles and preventing spasm. 80% of herbal cough medicines in Germany contain ivy leaf extract, and recently farmers have used ivy to ease coughs in sheep and cattle.

Toxicity.

If you ingest saponins in excess they can be toxic and cause diarrhoea, vomiting and allergies, but a few spoonful’s of ivy honey at a time will not cause any trouble.

More About Ivy.

More Honey.

The English Market.

I’m sure that most folk visiting Cork will come to this fascinating market which has flourished for several hundred years. It was very busy on the Saturday during my second visit to capture the atmosphere and buy a few more things. The queen came here on her visit to Ireland a few years ago and shared a joke with the fishmonger as you can see in this delightful and now famous photograph.

Next time I’ll tell you about the local beekeeping association meeting we attended which was a surprise for me. I’d not planned on doing any more beekeeping things because Tricia is not a beekeeper. However, she has wide-ranging interests and, on discovering a presentation on swarming, decided that we would both attend the meeting.