painting: bee on blackberry blossom

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A huge source of bee activity these days in my neck of the woods are the blackberry blossoms blooming along every back road, bike trail and creek at this time of year. And did you know how strongly the flavor of honey is influenced by the plants on which bees seek nectar during the season?  Some beekeeping neighbors, who not long ago moved their hives with them from the East Bay to their current home near the Graton Bike Trail, say all their honey now is blackberry honey.

"There exist greater than 300 different distinct types of honey. Flavor, aroma and color of a honey can differ substantially based on the flowers that nectar was collected from. Honey flavors range from slight hints of sweetness to great bounds of distinct flavor, its colors similarly can run the gambit of being a clear as water to a deep dark brown. There exist as many flavors of honey in the world as exists combinations of blossoms in bloom at the same time." via wikibooks

Click over here for more info on varieties of honey, including lists of the attributes (including color differences) which are dependent on the plants bees have visited.