Hometown Makers
Home / Honey & Maple made in Ohio

Honey & Maple made in Ohio

16 Ohio makers of honey & maple. Local, small-batch, shipped across the US.

Why Ohio honey and maple taste like Ohio

Ohio honey

Ohio honey is mostly a clover story. A peer-reviewed study of Ohio hives found that non-native clovers, growing along field edges and roadsides, are the main honey source, with dandelions fueling spring wax production and goldenrod supplying late-season nectar.

The same study found that colonies did better near cropland than near forest, grassland or cities, a result that surprised many beekeepers. In practice, that is why a lot of Ohio honey comes from farm country rather than from city rooftops.

1.02 M lbOhio honey produced in 2018
14,000producing colonies that year
73 lbaverage per colony
  1. SpringDandelion
  2. SummerClover
  3. Late seasonGoldenrod
What does Ohio honey taste like?

Honey takes its flavor from the flowers the bees visit, and in Ohio that is mostly clover, with dandelion in spring and goldenrod late in the season. The exact taste depends on the hives, the year and the harvest, so look for a harvest date or a floral source on the label.

Is raw honey different from regular honey?

Raw usually means the honey was not heated or finely filtered after extraction. Makers define it slightly differently, so ask the shop how they process it.

Sources: Honey bee success predicted by landscape composition in Ohio, PeerJ · Ohio honey production 2018 (USDA figures), Farm and Dairy

Why Ohio honey and maple taste like Ohio

Ohio maple syrup

Maple syrup is a late-winter crop. Sap runs when nights freeze and days warm up to around 40°F, and collection ends in late March or early April, just before the buds open. That short window is why every bottle is a small batch.

Geauga County, in the northeast corner of the state, is known for its Maple Festival, and about a fifth of its residents are Amish, a community with a long tradition of sugaring.

43–50 galof sugar maple sap to make 1 gallon of syrup
66°Brix: the sugar level legal maple syrup must reach
2taps maximum per tree
  1. Late winterTap the trees
  2. Feb – MarSap runs
  3. Late Mar – early AprSeason ends at bud break
Why is real maple syrup expensive?

Because of the ratio: it takes roughly 43 to 50 gallons of sugar maple sap to boil down to one gallon of syrup, and the season only lasts a few weeks.

When is maple syrup season in Ohio?

Late winter into early spring. Most tapping happens before Presidents' Day, and the run ends in late March or early April when the buds swell.

Sources: Maple Syrup Production, Ohio State University Extension · Geauga County, Ohio, Wikipedia

The makers

No makers yet 1–2 3–5 6+