Tupelo News - L.L. Lanier and Son's Tupelo Honey - Ulee's Gold

by Glynnis Lanier

August, 2007
It’s Tupelo time once again and what an interesting honey flow it has been. We were worried early on about the crop due to the dry weather, but since the red honey crop came in fairly well we thought we might be ok. The Tupelo bloomed in three phases this spring.

The first came on and the bees did not touch it, for a week it bloomed and the bees gathered about an ounce of nectar. The worry really set in then. The second phase came on, and it was a Tuesday I remember well. I ran to Ben and told him they were on a tupelo flow finally. Ben went out and checked his hives a few days later but still there was very little honey. As the days passed, the bees gathered very little honey for all the work they were doing. When the third phase came in the bees were done with the bloom. It was just so dry they could not gather any nectar, so the flow was over. It was long and somewhat fruitless or should I say honey less flow. We made a crop, but not a great deal. We are still not sure how we made any honey at all it was so dry. Our last rain before the crop was March 1 and the honey flow started the later part of April. That’s a long time between rain showers. We are thankful for what we have and glad the quality of the honey was good. The honey is real close to the grade of honey we made last spring; which was some of the best we had made in years. I know I’m late getting the news letters out, but it has been one thing after another this year. We have all had some kind of illness since the honey flow, and if it wasn’t us it was Heath or our parents.

Everyone here seems to be doing ok now, and Heath is getting bigger by the minute. He tries to answer the phone now and take honey orders, and of course he waits on the customers that come by. He is a real sales man at three and a half. Heath got stung for the first time this spring and he never hollered, screamed or cried he just said, “A bee stung me and I smashed him.” I guess one day he might make a good beekeeper. We are going to have some new packages this year and hope to have them up on the web site by September sometime. I think some of the new jars will make great gifts for Christmas or any occasion. The small hex jar is used a lot in weddings. It makes a great presentation to guests. We hope everyone enjoys the honey this year, and we hope to hear from everyone soon.

By: Glynnis Lanier
August 2007