 | |
| Product type | Honey [1] |
|---|---|
| Country | France, Provence |
| Registered as a trademark in | Red Label and Protected Geographical Indication |
| Website | http://www.miels-de-provence.com |
Miel de Provence [2] (honey from Provence) is protected by a Label Rouge (Red Label) associated to a protected geographical indication both for the all flowers honey [3] and for the lavender and lavandin honey [4]
From 14 November 2005, the IGP ("Protected Geographical Indication") "Miel de Provence" is recorded in the European range of IGPs and AOPs (Appellation d'Origine Protégée, meaning "Protected Designation Origin"). Ever since, the name "Provence", applied to honey, is protected and reserved for traders who comply with IGP specifications and/or the technical baseline quality sign which are associated with them. A decree signed on 30 July 2009, [5] and relative to the Red Label award associated to a Protected Geographical Indication for Provence honey was published in the Journal Officiel (n°0195, 25 August 2009).
Beekeeping brings together many producers. Some estimated 4500 whose 700 own between 70 and 150 beehives. The area numbers many professional beekeepers : more than 300 own at least 150 hives. Production in that area amounts to 2000 tons per year (this being 8% of the national production [6] ). Many of these beekeepers practice transhumance [7] along a route going from the coastline towards Haute-Provence, across the Southern Alps. Some of them practice transhumance bringing their own beehives on the areas of production of acacia, chestnut and fir honey into the Rhône valley and beyond. In Provence, summer is the privileged season for lavender honey production, and hives are set up on an area limited in the North by the line Montélimar/Digne, and in the South by the Mont Ventoux, the plateau d'Albion , the mountain of Lure, the Vaucluse Mountains, and the Luberon. In the department of Alpes-de-Haute-Provence, lavender honey is produced in the Banon sector and on the plateau of Valensole. All flowers honey is elaborated on a wide area delimited by Nîmes, Montélimar, Gap, Digne, Nice, Toulon, Marseille and Avignon. But other great amounts of honey are produced by beekeepers in the guarrigue (rosemary and thyme honey), [8] or in the maquis (heather and arbutus honey).
Provence honey has earned its fame ever since the 15th century. It is then that it came to increase greatly in production, thanks to the request of Italian merchants, who considered it "the best of all good honeys". Its quality and prestige remain intact to the extent that it long withstood massive sugar consumption. It was during the 20th century that honey harvested in the areas of Grasse, Brignoles, Alpes provençales, the Mont Ventoux or Barcelonnette built its reputation for quality which enabled it to obtain the "IGP", in 2005. For example, in the mountain of Lure, the family apiary stems from a long tradition. It provided additional income, and was the only resource to sweeten.
Until the middle of the 20th century, beehives were built in hollow tree-trunks – the bruscs – and their number varied depending on the swarms harvested in spring, since each honey harvest killed the bees. The division of labor in each family was identical. The man was in charge of the brusc and also had to get the honey out, while the woman extracted these from the honeycombs, using the heat of the hearth. It was an all flowers honey, used to sweeten drinks, make cakes, cook nougat, candy fruits or achieve ointments. The Lure drug-merchants stirred beeswax and honey into their drug mixture. The wax was also used to polish furniture, its surplus sold to joiners and cabinet-makers, or to make candles or votive candles. [9] Beekeeping evolved throughout the twenties with the cultivation of lavender and wild lavandin. Then the progressive "bruscs" were progressively replaced by beehives in the thirties and these were widely used for the following decade. From then on, transhumance of the beehives in the lavender fields had become one of the main features of Provençale beekeeping. Those displacements were initially made by local producers, thanks to a trailer harnessed to the coach linking Forcalquier to Banon and serving Lardiers, the Hospitalet and Saumane. This behaviour was adopted by beekeepers from the Vaucluse, who organized their hive displacements by carts to the Basses-Alpes [10]
A beehive is an enclosed, man-made structure in which some honey bee species of the subgenus Apis live and raise their young. Though the word beehive is commonly used to describe the nest of any bee colony, scientific and professional literature distinguishes nest from hive. Nest is used to discuss colonies which house themselves in natural or artificial cavities or are hanging and exposed. Hive is used to describe an artificial, man-made structure to house a honey bee nest. Several species of Apis live in colonies, but for honey production the western honey bee and the eastern honey bee are the main species kept in hives.
A beekeeper is a person who keeps honey bees.
Beekeeping is the maintenance of bee colonies, commonly in man-made hives, by humans. Most such bees are honey bees in the genus Apis, but other honey-producing bees such as Melipona stingless bees are also kept. A beekeeper keeps bees in order to collect their honey and other products that the hive produce, to pollinate crops, or to produce bees for sale to other beekeepers. A location where bees are kept is called an apiary or "bee yard".
An apiary is a location where beehives of honey bees are kept. Apiaries come in many sizes and can be rural or urban depending on the honey production operation. Furthermore, an apiary may refer to a hobbyist's hives or those used for commercial or educational usage. It can also be a wall-less, roofed structure, similar to a gazebo which houses hives.
A top-bar hive is a single-story frameless beehive in which the comb hangs from removable bars. The bars form a continuous roof over the comb, whereas the frames in most current hives allow space for bees to move up or down between boxes. Hives that have frames or that use honey chambers in summer but which use similar management principles as regular top-bar hives are sometimes also referred to as top-bar hives. Top-bar hives are rectangular in shape and are typically more than twice as wide as multi-story framed hives commonly found in English speaking countries. Top-bar hives usually include one box only, and allow for beekeeping methods that interfere very little with the colony. While conventional advice often recommends inspecting each colony each week during the warmer months, heavy work when full supers have to be lifted, some beekeepers fully inspect top-bar hives only once a year, and only one comb needs to be lifted at a time.
Digne-les-Bains, or simply and historically Digne, is a commune of France, capital of the Alpes-de-Haute-Provence department, and situated in the region of Provence-Alpes-Côte d'Azur. The name of its inhabitants is Dignois. It had a population of 17,268 as of 2008.
The appellation d'origine contrôlée is French certification granted to certain French geographical indications for wines, cheeses, butters, and other agricultural products, all under the auspices of the government bureau Institut national des appellations d'origine, now called Institut national de l'origine et de la qualité (INAO). It is based on the concept of terroir and a form of geographic protectionism.
A honey extractor is a mechanical device used in the extraction of honey from honeycombs. A honey extractor extracts the honey from the honey comb without destroying the comb. Extractors work by centrifugal force. A drum or container holds a frame basket which spins, flinging the honey out. With this method the wax comb stays intact within the frame and can be reused by the bees.
Banon is a commune in the department of Alpes-de-Haute-Provence in the Provence-Alpes-Côte d'Azur region of south-eastern France.
Castellane is a commune in the Alpes-de-Haute-Provence department in southeastern France. With about 1,600 inhabitants, Castellane has the distinction of being the least-populated sub-prefecture of France.
This gallery of French coats of arms shows the coats of arms of the Provinces, Régions, and Départements of France, and of certain French cities. They are used to visually identify historical and present-day regions, as well as cities, within France.
Authon is a French commune in the Alpes-de-Haute-Provence department in the Provence-Alpes-Côte d'Azur region of south-eastern France.
Archail is a commune in the Alpes-de-Haute-Provence department in the Provence-Alpes-Côte d'Azur region of south-eastern France.
Aubenas-les-Alpes is a French commune in the Alpes-de-Haute-Provence department in the Provence-Alpes-Côte d'Azur region of south-eastern France.
Aubignosc is a commune in the Alpes-de-Haute-Provence department in the Provence-Alpes-Côte d'Azur region of south-eastern France.
Le Caire is a commune in the Alpes-de-Haute-Provence department in southeastern France, about 30 km north of Sisteron. The town's principal economic activity is aboriculture.
Le Vernet is a commune in the Alpes-de-Haute-Provence department, and in the region of Provence-Alpes-Côte d'Azur, in southeastern France.
The canton of Castellane is an administrative division in southeastern France. At the French canton reorganisation which came into effect in March 2015, the canton was expanded from 7 to 32 communes. Its seat is in Castellane.
Urban beekeeping is the practice of keeping bee colonies in urban areas. It may also be referred to as hobby beekeeping or backyard beekeeping. Bees from city apiaries are said to be "healthier and more productive than their country cousins". Their presence also provides cities with environmental and economic benefits.
Christophe Castaner is a French politician who served as Minister of the Interior from 16 October 2018 to 6 July 2020. He served as the Executive Officer of La République En Marche! and Secretary of State for Relations with Parliament from 2017 to 2018. He served as Spokesperson of the Government under Prime Minister Édouard Philippe in 2017. He was also spokesperson for Emmanuel Macron during his campaign for the presidential election of 2017.
