Cevennes honeys
Honey is an integral part of the Cevennes region
Traditionally, bee keeping in Cevennes was practiced in 'ruches troncs (trunk hives) built locally and called bruscs (cévenol dialect) or bournious (occitan dialect).
Nowadays, the old methods have been replaced by modern hives that have allowed apiculture to start growing again after a long period of decline.
The Cevennes are a special place for the migrating hives of the region's beekeepers. In practice, throughout the warm season, beekeepers move or migrate with their hives to take advantage of successive flowerings of melliferous flowers. In summer when the 'garrigue' flowers are toasted by the sun, the beekeepers move their hives to high altitudes on the acid soils of the Cevennes to produce 'mixed flower' honeys which reflect raspberries, chestnuts then erica heathers.
The migration then leads the beekeepers to the mountain pastures that are higher and cooler where mixed flowers or calluna heather honey is produced. It's not until autumn that the hives return to the lower ground to take advantage of the late flowering strawberry tree in the 'maquis'.
This way, with the rhythm of the migrations, the bees produce a whole range of honeys from Cevennes: chestnut, white heather, erica heather, raspberry, acacia, calluna heather, fir tree or the mixed flowers honey; all produced from the natural and cultivated vegetation in the Cevennes.
The honeys collected in the Cevennes are usually dark and have a strong flavour. Sweet chestnut honey is the most typical. Its qualities are greatly prized by consumers and are due to the specific flora of the Cevennes combined with the beekeepers' know-how, these real managers of the honey producing lands. To protect and add value to the origin and quality of their products, a beekeepers association has created the Groupement Qualité des Miels du LR and made a submission to the INAO for the Miel des Cevennes to become an 'Indication Géographique Protégée' (protected appellation of origin).
