Raw tulip poplar-black locust honey is made from the nectar that honeybees forage from tulip poplar and black locust flowers. Its taste, aroma, flavor, and color will vary from season to season, depending on which blossoms or flowers are dominant when the nectar is collected.
In this case, tulip poplar is the dominant flavor.
Black locust honey is light in color, ranging from soft yellow-white to pale yellow.
Mohawk Valley Trading Company’s raw tulip poplar-black locust honey is as it is found in the beehive: extracted from the honeycomb, strained, and packed in glass jars. This process preserves natural enzymes, yeast, vitamins, minerals, amino acids, antioxidants, bee pollen, aromatics, and propolis, all of which are destroyed by heat.
Therefore, if any honey is to be used for its health benefits, it must be raw and unfiltered.
No pesticides or herbicides are used in the areas where we set up our bee yards. Although it isn’t labeled or certified organic, Mohawk Valley Trading Company’s raw tulip poplar-black locust honey is as organic as any honey produced in the USA.
Buy Tulip-Poplar-Black Locust Honey
From about the last week of October (after we harvest our Autumn Wildflower Honey) through April, some of our hives are trucked to the Delmarva Peninsula to winter over in a milder climate and to get an earlier start in the spring than they would in Upstate NY and Vermont. Tulip poplar and black locust trees bloom about the same time down there, and this honey is derived from the nectar of their flowers.
Tulip Poplar
The tulip poplar is a large deciduous tree also called the “tulip tree” for its large flowers that somewhat resemble tulips; however, it is closely related to magnolias rather than to lilies, the plant family to which true tulips belong.
The tree is also called “yellow poplar,” “canoe wood,” “saddle-leaf tree,” or “white wood.” The Onondaga tribe calls it Ko-yen-ta-ka-ah-tas (the white tree). The name “canoe wood” most likely refers to the tree’s use in building dugout canoes by Eastern Native Americans.
Black Locust
Black Locust (Robinia pseudoacacia) is a tree native to the southeastern United States that has been widely planted and naturalized elsewhere in the temperate zone of North America. It has an aggressive growth pattern and an extensive root system that discourages soil erosion.
Black Locust flowers are pollinated by bees and hummingbirds, and although its blooming period is short (about 1 to 2 weeks), it is a major honey plant in the eastern USA.
Although it is similar in appearance to the honey locust, it does not have that tree’s distinctive long, branched spines on the trunk. Instead, it has pairs of short thorns at the base of each leaf, and the leaflets are much broader.
Black Locust is among the heaviest and hardest woods in North America. It is highly durable and naturally resistant to rot. Because of this resistance, it is replacing treated lumber and tropical hardwoods in a wide range of outdoor wood applications. Untreated Black Locust wood can last 50 years or more without significant signs of decay. This makes it an ideal alternative to chemically treated lumber and endangered tropical woods for outdoor uses such as decks, fences, and benches.
Black Locust is a favorite firewood because it has one of the highest BTUs of any species that grows in the Eastern United States, burns slowly with very little visible flame or smoke, and can burn even when wet. It is also planted for firewood because of its rapid growth, resilience across a variety of soils, and ability to regrow quickly from its stump after being cut down, using its existing root system.