From Flower to Flower; an Interview Sweet as Honey with Beekeeper Dávid Máté

“I used to think that it’s easier for the beekeeper colleagues who live somewhere in the Great Hungarian Plain, and only their back garden is half an acre, while their neighbourhood is full of fields with rapeseeds and sunflowers. Maybe they don’t need to wander as much as we do. When spring arrives, I’m always happy that we are here, since there are plenty of almond trees here which bloom early and for a long time, and our colonies regain their strength on them very quickly after the winter rest time. This way we may head for rapeseed flowering with strong colonies, which – in case of favourable weather – can bring good results”, says beekeeper Dávid Máté. "We cover an area of 60-80 km near Lake Balaton, because wandering with bees is a lot of work and also a great expense that should be reimbursed. For example, linden blossoming is quite unpredictable and we also have to pay for the area. We didn’t use to bring the whole population there, only 60-80 families depending on what we expect in a given year. For instance linden blossoming in Somogy this year was quite bad, the drought burned the flowers, but we heard that in the lindens of Bakony there was no reason to complain.”

Beekeepers have established relationships with plant growing companies, many of which already realised that crop pollination is more successful if beekeepers are in the area. “One of the familiar farmers told me that if he has enough bees in the fields, the yield could be 30 percent higher. This means that beekeepers can be settled in each corner of a large field, because they have enough space, and fertility significantly improves.” Honey is not as a unique product as wine, but there are some specialties that are typical of a region. The Máté family mostly prepares single flower honeys, for example from phacelia typical of the area, but they also prepare lavender honey which is a honey specialty flavoured with lavender.

“Earlier we prepared various types of herbal honey, but now we only prepare the lavender one since this is the most popular among our customers. The others weren’t bad either, but the more varieties there are of a product, the more complicated the preparation is, the treatment of containers, dealing with small batches, labelling – we don’t have capacity for that anymore. There are numerous lavender fields in the area, and bees collect for them, but the honey collected from lavender has a neutral taste, it’s like a very tasty multifloral honey. Honey flavoured with lavender flowers will always have a characteristic lavender aroma, and this is what people expect from lavender honey. Most people want to buy acacia honey, we often run out of it already during the year, this year there is scarce amount of acacia too, it probably won’t last for long. If we have a very good year we sell some honey to distributors as well. Honeys from Hungary and Eastern European countries are used as repairing honey in the EU, because internal production is smaller than consumption, therefore honey imports from China are significant. Chinese honey is made with such a technology that it is impossible to say what it is really made of. Luckily, according to the EU regulations the proportion of various origin honeys in the jar must be indicated, but if you want to buy honey from a reliable source, contact the producer”, suggests the beekeeper.
 

The Máté family processes the honey in Balatonfüred, they also receive customers here, but they can also be found in the Füred market hall at the weekends. Besides producing honey they are really committed to sustainability: they try to emphasise the important role of bees, since due to their pollinating activity they are one of the most important agricultural animals and their role is of key importance in maintaining the ecosystem.