If you’ve ever pondered the oddly romantic etymology of the word honeymoon – read on for the mystery to be revealed! A rather sweet explanation suggests the creative coupling of honey and moon originated from medieval times when it was common for newlywed couples to be given enough mead (made from honey) to drink for a month (or moon cycle) following their wedding. The tradition was believed to bring good luck and fertility to the couple and led to the term we use today to reference a blissful post-nuptial holiday (even though these days couples are rarely granted 4 weeks!).
It certainly stands to reason that drinking a month’s worth of mead might lead to a heady state of happiness, not to mention amorous adventures – it’s a delicious alcoholic drink, and although it is made by fermenting the sugars in honey it is not always sweet – and can be dry just like a dry white wine.
Evidence suggests mead has been enjoyed – and not just on honeymoon – for thousands of years and is widely regarded as the earliest fermented drink. Popular with ancient Greeks, Irish Celtics, Vikings, English aristocracy and the Chinese Dynasties alike, the making of mead has brewed a turbulent past. In short, its production gave way to the cheaper method of making wine from grapes somewhere around the 18th Century making it somewhat a rarity, and still today the price of honey is higher than wine grapes (and we are not talking about those imported supermarket grapes now!) So when you stumble across a mead-maker at the local Jurien Bay markets, it’s worth stopping to investigate.
Beekeeper Peter Scharf began dabbling in mead back in 1996, subsequently obtaining a liquor license which enabled him to make and sell the alcoholic drink using honey collected from his own hives.
“The bloke that asked me about it was teetotal and because I make my own beer, he said, you should be able to make mead. So we did a lot of research on mead recipes and got it going, and it was a nice enough brew for me to get a producer’s license and sell it,” Peter explains.
So how is the process different from making wine?
“Basically we’re fermenting the sugars out of the out of the honey to make alcohol. So it’s no different from making any other wine – except that when you use grapes the yeast is on the surface of the grape skin and yeasts don’t live in pure honey. Nothing lives in pure honey because it’s because it’s antibacterial. So what you’ve got to do is make a wash and take it down to a 20% solution.
“I use a hybrid yeast and add it to the diluted honey, because there’s no wild yeast. I put that in and then that ferments it over a period of about a month. And then you let the process continue after that. The chemistry of the winemaking continues after the fermentation. So you produce your alcohol, but there’s all the other complex flavors and the amino acids and proteins and so on that’s in honey, and that changes the flavors. So if we have a light-coloured spring honey we’ll end up with a light colored mead and a different flavored mead from what we’ll have if we use Banksia honey.”
Along with the mead, Peter makes a honey liqueur, and naturally, also sells his honey. Residing high up in the sandy hills behind Jurien Bay, 5 kms from the ocean, and his wife Claire, now joined by their grown daughter, Rebecca, live on their property flanked by reserve and have a small farm gate where you can not only buy their honey-based products but also learn about the processes.
“I’m surrounded by reserve. Down in there I’ve got river gums, red gums, winter wandoo, flooded gums. Up here I’ve got banksias and black butts. There’s a little bit of red gum down the bottom of the block – and wattles. And of course, all the native flowers that come out. So it’s really good for the bees,” he says.
Educators by profession, Peter and Claire never miss a teachable moment and love sharing the process of honey extraction and beekeeping with visitors to Hill River Honey. Curious kids are rewarded with plenty of answers and often practical demonstrations and tastings (not of the mead, naturally!) – leaving with much more than a pot of honey. Just recently young visitors who arrived at the right time enjoyed a genuine hands-on hive to honey experience.
“The kids helped slice off the cappings from the frames, put the frames into the spinner, drain the liquid gold into a pot, heat the honey just enough to go through the sieves into the settling tub. They then took home a tub of honey they helped produce!” says Peter, brimming with pride at sharing his knowledge of food origins, often to city dwellers.
Peter doesn’t see his work as a job – and doesn’t plan to stop any time soon, although he and Claire are now able to enjoy a three-month travel holiday each year thanks to daughter Rebecca’s interest in the business. But he’s in no danger of stopping collecting honey…
“You’re out in the fresh air. You’re working with nature and you get to read nature. Before I started beekeeping, I used to know two flowers. One was a rose and the other one wasn’t. And now I understand the seasons through knowing what’s flowering. This is going to happen. Oh, that bird is doing that. I know when the rain is coming – because the bees tell me!”
It sounds just magical – and a tipple of mead at the end of the day rounds it out nicely.
You can visit Hill River Farm between 10am and 5pm Monday to Saturday and 1pm – 5pm Sunday. Call first on 0449 735 722.
