Native Honeys Chile boasts a land free of foreign pests and diseases due to its favorable climate and geographic isolation. It is also home to an abundant array of native trees and plants – Ulmo, Tiaca, Araucaria, Coigües, Raulí among them - that are found nowhere else in the world. In effect, it is a bee’s paradise! And the art of beekeeping is alive and well here. It is also being used to protect the environment and to boost the economy of local peoples, thanks to the efforts of our friends at Chilean Gourmet.

Our first encounter with the bees of Chile, is through the master beekeeper Enrique Saenz. For over 35 years, Enrique has kept bees, first as a hobby and then as a career, but always as a way of life. Beekeepers are a special lot – they love and care for their bees like children, and have a unique sensitivity to their environments, channeled through their bees. Enrique is no exception. Shuttling his 1100 hives from farms to pristine native forests year round seeking out the most unique single variety honeys, he and his bees have been witness to many distressing changes in their natural environment.

Enrique lives in the lake region 1000 km south of Santiago. Much of this region of Chile has been covered with 500-year-old native forests, including the beautiful indigenous Ulmo tree. But in Enrique’s lifetime, he has watched the deforestation of over 1200 hectares of wilderness to his north. The establishment of a sustainable local economy dependent on these native trees, such as the production of unique single variety honey, could potentially stop the onslaught.

The raw honeys produced by Chilean Gourmet’s beekeeping communities are worth preserving, along with the pristine environments that shelter the hard working bees. All of their beekeepers use completely natural processes from cultivation to honey production. The bees are never treated with antibiotics - one winter Enrique lost over 400 hives due to illness and lack of a natural treatment - and the resulting honey is completely natural. Although there is no organic certification in Chile for honey (and European certification is prohibitively expensive to Chilean producers), every Chilean Gourmet honey crop is tested to ensure its purity.

Each year, Enrique’s hives produce over 30 kilos of honey, all of which is harvested in the summer months of December through March, before the bees go into winter hibernation. In the spring the hives regenerate on blueberry farms and other local produce and fruit farms in preparation for a November move to the native forests. The bees first feast on the flowers of the Tiaca trees which bloom in December and January. Next they move on to Ulmo trees, tempted by their camellia-like flowers until late March.

Once the honey is harvested, it goes through a centrifugal process to separate the honey from the wax. It is then filtered, decanted, and filtered again to remove residual wax and impurities. It is in the next step that Chilean Gourmet honey distinguishes itself from other honeys - a third filtering to ensure 100% purity (residual wax can cause honey to harden) and imparting a unique texture to the honey.

To retain its nutritional and medicinal properties, these raw honeys are never heated above 60°C like many industrial honeys, which are pasteurized to ensure consistent liquidity.

In Chile, the native forests offer the skilled beekeeper a plethora of single variety honeys, prized for their unique flavor and texture. To be considered a single varietal, a minimum of 75% of the honey must have been produced from a single species. By situating the hives in the native forests and taking advantage of the different blooming times of native trees, Enrique is able to produce super concentrated singe vareitey honey. His Ulmo honey has a purity of 84.9% and the Tiaca honey is at 87% purity.

The folks at Chilean Gourmet have been working with Enrique for years to perfect their honey, and to pass on this valuable knowledge to other Chilean communities in need of sustainable economic development. In the Araucania region, 300 km south from Enrique and his hives, is a group of 70 Mapuche families that have been producing honey from the surrounding native forests. In partnership with the University Catolico de Santiago and Chilean Gourmet, they have perfected their native tree and Ulmo tree honeys, and are expanding their operations. As demand for these native honeys increases, opportunities will open up for more community members, and the argument for preserving the native forests of this region will gain ground. It is our goal at Zócalo Gourmet, to aid them in this quest.