Honey is a sweet food with a high nutritional value. Bees produce it starting from the nectar of plant flowers or honeydew (a derivative of the sap of trees produced by some sucking insects).
The nectar is collected, transformed and combined with the bee’s own substances. After numerous exchanges between one bee and the other that allow a gradual maturation and an enrichment in enzymes, honey is finally stored in honeycombs.
Tuscany, due to the large number of plant species present whose blooms follow each other over many months, due to the sweetness of hills, woods and hedges, useful to soften the winds and favor the flight of the bee, is an extraordinary environment for the life of these insects and the production of honey.
Production process
When the honeycombs arrive at the farm, the first real step of the production process begins. It is the uncapping, which consists in removing the layer of wax that closes the cells of honeycomb.
Once the cells are decapped there is the second step, the extraction. In this phase the panels are placed in the honey extractor which, through the use of centrifugal force, makes the honey of the panels come out allowing the reuse of the latter.
At the exit of the honey extractor, the honey is then conveyed to the ripeners passing through a filter (filtration phase) that collects wax residuals, remains of bees and any other foreign material.
The final phase is the decantation where the honey is left inside the ripeners to decant, the air rises upwards forming a layer of superficial foam that will then be subsequently removed.
Once ready, the honey is is placed in little containers for retail sale or racked in buckets or barrels for wholesale.