Where is your honey packaging plant, warehouse and bees located?
Cooper’s Honey warehouse and packaging plant is located in Peculiar, Missouri, which is in the county of Cass. The bees that produce the honey we bottle are located in Cass County Missouri and Harrison County Missouri. Other locations also include Southwest, Southeast, and Northeast Missouri, Southern Iowa and extreme Southeast Nebraska.
Where does your honey come from? Is it local honey?
At Cooper’s Honey, we package approximately 125 tons of honey every year for our vendors and customers alike. With all the responsibilities that job requires, it is almost impossible for us to keep enough bees ourselves to supply all our customers. With that said, some of the honey that goes into the bottle is from our own honey bees and some of the honey is from our local beekeeping partners within the Kansas City area and surrounding Midwestern region. The beekeepers that we partner with for our honey are all local beekeepers and family farmers from the Midwest. Thus, purchasing Cooper Honey not only ensures support for local business, but also ensures support for the local family farmer and beekeepers.
Is my Cooper Honey pasteurized or pressure filtered; and is the honey heated at all?
At Cooper Honey, we do not pasteurize or pressure filter any of the honey we process. We warm our honey to a temperature of 120 degrees to ensure the honey can pass through filters before bottling. This makes for nice looking, clean honey in our bottles and for our customers. Pasteurizing, pressure filtering and heating honey to a higher temperature can take away various important nutrients and enzymes of the honey. We take every step possible in our packaging and bottling to make sure our customers get 100% pure raw honey, straight from the bees and the hive to your table.
How do I prevent my honey from hardening or crystallizing in the container?
All honey will granulate at some point, depending on the floral source from which the honey comes, determines how quickly. Some honey takes just days to granulate, while other honey will take months or years. All honey should be kept and stored at room temperature. Honey will granulate faster below 55 degrees Fahrenheit.
Does honey go bad or spoil?
Honey stored in sealed containers can remain edible and good for years. However, honey stored for long periods of time can be susceptible to physical changes during storage such as crystallization. We say that our honey has an unlimited shelf life, but for practical purposes, a shelf life of 2 years is given to all the honey that passes through our bottling facility.
What can I do if my honey has crystallized or sugared?
If your Cooper Honey sugars in the container, simply heat a pot of water on the stove to a boil. Turn off the burner and let stand for 5 minutes. Place the container in the middle of the pot and let it sit. The hot water surrounding the container of honey will melt the honey and turn it back to the liquid state. Make note that this may take several attempts to completely turn back to liquid. We advise NOT using the microwave as that sometimes heats the plastic of the container too much and deforms or breaks the container. You also chance heating the honey temperature to high and decreasing the nutritional value.
Where do all the bees go in the winter?
In the late fall we move all of our bee hives into a central location that is protected from the extreme winds and cold weather of the winter months. It is in this location that the bees hibernate in their boxes during the cold winter months.
Where can I purchase Cooper’s Honey?
Cooper’s Honey can be found at a number of local and national retail grocery stores located in Kansas City and the Midwest. To find a store near you that carries Cooper Honey in your area, please visit our store locator section or contact us for more information.
Why is some of the honey dark and some light in color? What is the difference?
Different flowers produce different colors and flavors of honey. In most situations, clover honey is the honey that is lighter in color and the wildflower is darker in color. However, not all clover honey that is collected by the bees is light in color, and not all wildflower honey that is collected is darker. The medium color honey we bottle is mainly that of mixed flowers supplied to us by several of our local producers. The bees collect nectar from all kinds of flowers, not just specifically clover or wildflower, hence the term mixed flowers. This honey tends to be darker in color and have a little better flavor than the clover or lighter honey. You will find that honey from wildflowers and mixed flowers help allergies more than any other honey due to the diversification of the source.
General guide is that light honey is typically mostly clover flowers, very mild and sweet in taste. The slightly darker honey is a mixed flower or clover blend honey that has a little stronger flavor while still being sweet. The darkest honey is typically wildflower honey produced in the fall and has the strongest, more robust flavor. While this honey is still sweet, it does not have as sweet a taste as the light clover honey.
Can I eat bee pollen and/or honey to help my allergies?
Yes. Consuming local bee pollen or honey from bees in your region can help with problems from allergies. While the consumption of bee pollen and honey may not rid you from these allergies or keep you immune altogether, it has been shown that consistent consumption of the pollen or honey can greatly reduce the severity and longevity of the allergies a person has. We recommend using, at a minimum, one teaspoon full of honey and/or bee pollen per day.
What is bee pollen and what can it do for me?
Bee pollen is simply the pollen of flowers that bees have visited while collecting nectar. Bees use both the nectar and pollen from flowers to feed themselves and the baby bees, known as brood. Why would bees want to eat pollen you may wonder? For the same reason you should…..it is a great health supplement. Bee pollen contains all essential nutrients, vitamins, minerals, enzymes and trace elements needed for good health and vitality. We recommend using 1-2 teaspoonfuls of bee pollen granules daily. You can either eat it as is, or if you prefer, mix it with something cold such as a smoothie, or yogurt. What does the pollen taste like you may wonder? Well each person seems to have their own opinion on this. Some think it is a little sweet, while others feel it has a bitter taste by itself and therefore prefer to mix it.
Bee pollen can help with such things as natural weight control, skin restoration, an increase in red blood cells, recovery power of athletes, and is a great source of natural energy, not to mention it can help lessen or alleviate the effects of allergies to name a few areas of health it can help with.