Just the FAQs
Honey |
Pottery
| Soaps |
Salves
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HONEY
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Q. Is your honey
raw?
A. Yes. Our honey goes
straight from our hives, into a standard extractor, through
a strainer to remove bits of beeswax, and into bottles. We
do not heat the honey as it is bottled.
Q. Is your honey
local?
A. Our honey is produced at
our home in Jasper, Georgia.
Q. Why does the
color of your honey vary?
A. Our wildflower honey,
collected from early Spring until around June 1, can vary a
great deal due to what is available for the bees to forage
on. Some years there is a heavy tulip poplar flow and this
causes a dark wildflower honey. Some years the tulip poplar
is hit with a late frost and the wildflower honey is very
light in color. The taste changes with the nectar source.
Bees collect the majority of their nectar from trees, but
Spring wildflower is a blend of all the different sources
available during that time.
Our sourwood honey is collected during the time that
the sourwood trees are in bloom. This can be sooner or
later and be shorter or longer, depending on the weather
conditions. We typically begin collecting sourwood June 1st
and continue through the bloom time (usually the end of
July, but sometimes into August). We are fortunate to be
surrounded by sourwood trees, including in our own
backyard. this allows us to closely monitor bloom time.
We do not collect our goldenrod honey, but instead
allow the bees to overwinter on it.
Q. Can you
determine if your honey is from a single source?
A. No. We can guess based on
what type of tree/nectar source is in bloom at any given
time. During the sourwood flow in North Georgia, there is
really no other major source of nectar, so it is primarily
sourwood. Bees fly 2-3 miles to collect nectar and pollen.
Varieties like "orange blossom", "clover", etc. are from
bees that are intentionally positioned so that the main
nectar source in their vacinity is that particular bloom.
We cannot make orange blossom honey in North Georgia, as we
do not have orange orchards up this way due to the cooler
climate than places like Florida or California.
Q. Help! My honey
has crystalized! What do I do?
A. Most people recommend
placing your honey bottle in hot water to reliquify the
honey, but we have found that by placing a bottle in the sun
on a dark surface (even a dark stained deck) the honey will
reliquify easily. Just put it out a good while before you
need to use it. Some honey crystalizes very quickly, while
others stay completely liquid for years with no
crystalization. Crystalization varies by nectar source.
Q. My bottle of
honey is very old. Is it still safe to eat?
A. Honey does not spoil, even
when left long term at room temperature (we do not
refrigerate our honey!) Honey has been recovered from
ancient tombs that was still perfectly edible.
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POTTERY
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Q. Is your pottery
handmade?
A. Absolutely! We hand form
each piece - either on the wheel or via handbuilding and
sometimes a combination of both.
Q. Who is the
actual potter? Are you selling for someone else?
A. Everyone in our family
loves pottery! Scott makes most of the wheel thrown mugs and
bowls and Christy helps alter/decorate them and glaze them.
Christy makes most of the handbuilt or flat items. Alyssa
makes little horse, fox and bunny sculptures. Isabel enjoys
making tiny snowmans and Naomi loves to make pinch pots.
Rest assured, we will only sell pottery made by our family.
Q. Can I put my
pottery in the microwave or dishwasher?
A. All of our pottery is
microwave and dishwasher safe.
Q. Do your glazes
contain lead?
A. No. We only use lead-free
glazes.
Q. If I drop my
mug, will it break?
A. Of course! Don't drop it
:) Treat it like glass or other ceramic because that is
essentially what it is.
Q. Do you have
your own kiln?
Y. Yes. We have our own
studio.
Q. What cone do
you fire to?
A. We fire to cone 6.
Q. Do you give
classes?
A. We get this question a lot
and for now, the answer is now. We are seeking advice on
insurance and trying to figure out logistics to see if this
is a possibility.
Q. Do you take
custom orders?
A. Yes. Whether it's simply
customizing one or our mugs or magnets to your liking,
designing wedding favors, or creating a logoed item to
promote your business, please contact us to discuss details.
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SOAP
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Q. What kind of
soap do you make?
A. Our soap is made using the cold process method.
Q. What
ingredients do you use in our soap?
The oils that we use include coconut oil, tallow, olive oil,
rice bran oil, safflower oil, canola oil, castor oil,
phthalate-free fragrance or essential oil, and tussah silk.
Each oil contributes different qualities to the finished
soap.
Q. Does your soap
contain lye?
A. Lye is used in the production of the
soap in order to saponify the oil (this is the only way you
can make soap from scratch). However, soap that is properly
formulated should not contain any lye in the finished
product as it has been completely used up in the conversion
of the oils into soap and glycerine.
Q. Is your soap
vegan?
A. No. Our soaps contain
tallow and silk and occasionally goats milk.
Q. Why do you use
tallow instead of palm oil?
A. Our family consumes beef
regularly and tallow is essentially a waste product of beef
production. We purchase our beef in volume and get the fat
so that we can render it into tallow ourselves, but we also
purchase tallow in bulk when needed. Tallow makes a
wonderful hard, white, long-lasting bar of soap.
In addition, we have ethical issues with the production
of palm oil, which is what is used to replace animal fats in
vegan soap. Although some palm is labeled as "responsibly
harvested", we just don't really know if the labeling is
accurate and whether the palm oil is truly responsibly
harvested.
Q. How long does
your soap cure before you sell it?
A. We cure our soaps at least
4 to 6 weeks. This cure time is very important because it
leads to a longer lasting bar.
Q. Will your soap
quickly melt in my shower?
A. Soap that has been properly cured
for 4-6 weeks should last in the shower or by the tub or
sink as long as it is kept dry between uses. Be careful to
avoid letting the shower drip or spray on it. Keep the soap
bar away from moisture unless it is in active use. Use a
soap dish with holes to allow water to drain away or ridges
to hold the soap up out of any water.
Q. Does soap
expire?
A. No. In fact, as soap ages,
its qualities continue to improve. The bar will harden and
it will become even more gentle. As time goes by you may
lose some of the color or fragrance that was originally in
the bar.
Q. Will you share your soap recipe?
A. We developed our recipe
over 15 years ago and is proprietary.
Q. Do you give classes?
A. Not at this time.
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SALVES
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Q. What are your
salves made of?
A. The base of all our salves
is olive oil, as it seems less people have sensitivities to
it versus other oils. The oil is used to steep various
herbs, strained and combined with beeswax. It is then
packaged in metal tins with safety seals to reduce the risk
of leakage in hot weather.
Q. What
consistency can I expect from your salves?
A. We like salves that are on
the softer side. You won't need to dig your finger into a
hard surface because our salves are more of an ointment
consistency. As such, they are very sensitive to heat.
Please keep them in a cool place (not your purse left in a
hot car) as they will melt.
Q. Where do you
source your herbs from?
A. Chickweed, jewelweed,
comfrey and american beauty berry are foraged in our own
yard. We purchase some other herbs in bulk from Frontier
Natural Foods and Azure Standard.
Q. Are your salves
vegan?
A. No, our salves contain
beeswax.
Q. Are all of the
herbs completely strained from the oil in production of the
salves?
A. No. We add lavender blooms to our
lavendar salves, calendula petals to our calendula salve,
and freeze-dried comfrey powder to our comfrey salve.
Q. Can you tell me what each of
your salves is good for?
A. As soon as we make a
medical claim, we fall under FDA regulation. Therefore, we
must ask that you research the ingredients in our salves
yourself and find out what their historical use is, along
with the many studies available online stating the results
of various tests using the same ingredients. While at
markets, we try to always have a book available to use as a
resource. |
Copyright 2023 - Honey Belle Hill LLC
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