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eight years old, I bought my first beehive from my dad. I remember bottling the honey with our little hand filler and selling it to neighbors, church members and family friends. I kept my own hives on and off throughout childhood, and even into my college years.” Today, Carmichael doesn’t have hives, but instead procures honey from producers around Louisiana, Texas and elsewhere. He offers state-specific products for Louisiana and Texas, with bottles filled with honey collected only in those geographic areas, including for Rouses Markets’ private label Louisiana honey. He also sells certified organic honey nationwide. When he started out, Carmichael was selling in bulk to wholesale companies, which were putting the product into cereal bars. “I knew we had great honey,” he said, “and I thought it would be delightful to see consumers get it in a bottle and put it on whatever they want.” The company, whose labels specify that the honey is “100 percent pure, raw and unfiltered,” has grown exponentially, going from hand-filling and capping bottles to a state-of-the-art facility that just added another 3,000-square-foot processing plant scheduled to start work soon. Just one of the tanks in that new facility can hold more than 50,000 pounds of honey. Bernard’s Apiaries also initially sold its honey in bulk, not in bottles. “My grand father always wanted to get into bottling but never did,” Bernard said. “We did bulk sales even after I bought the business. We used to ship a lot of barrels to Ohio.” Around 1990, Bernard started experi menting with bottling. “I remember I’d stay after work and bottle honey by hand. Once I sold five cases, I thought, ‘Hey, it’s taking off,” he said, laughing, estimating that he now bottles more than 250,000 pounds of honey a year. “It’s really grown, and we’ve been really blessed.” FLOWERS, THEN HONEY If you love Louisiana honey, you can most likely thank the Chinese tallow tree ( Triadica sebifera ) for your sweet treat. Though the plant is an invasive species — and there have been efforts in recent years to reduce the trees’ population — much of the honey

in Louisiana comes from the nectar from this tree, which produces flowers as early as February and lasting through May. Tallow “can be found in all 64 parishes in Louisiana and also in 55 counties of Texas,” according to the Louisiana Farm Bureau. Although it’s a major source of Louisiana wildflower honey, tallow isn’t the only one. Other major nectar plants in the state include willow, clover, American buckwheat vine, aster and goldenrod, according to the LSU AgCenter. Some wildflowers “are not abundant enough in any one location to be good sources for any volume of nectar but can help colonies make it through times of need,” according to “Louisiana Honey Plants,” a 32-page book by entomologist Dale Pollet published by the LSU AgCenter. Bernard’s favorite honey comes from willow nectar. “You can tell willow honey by the fragrance and flavor,” he said. “It’s lighter in color.” Willow trees bloom in the spring in this area. Bernard also loves a honey made from a plant in the mint family that grows deep in the Atchafalaya. “It makes an excellent honey, but you can’t depend on it,” he said. Tallow is summer honey. “It’s a little darker in color with a very mellow flavor,” he said. “That’s our volume honey. In the fall of the year, goldenrod and aster are the predominate ones. They’re darker in color.” Bernard’s hives are mostly along the basin. “We also go out in St. Landry, Iberville, the edge of Lafayette Parish and St. Martin Parish. He’s supplied honey to Rouses Markets for 25 years. Marcela Carmichael, a native of Brazil, loves to bake with the honey she and her husband bring home to their two daughters, Nathan Carmichael said. But he has a more direct way to enjoy the fruits of his labor. “I like to take a half-scoop of peanut butter, hit it with some clover honey,” he said, laughing. “Then I chase it with some milk.” Now, that’s a sweet treat.

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Photos by C. Ross