Photo by Vibrant Spirit/FlickrCC

At long last, Ulmo has arrived in Ann Arbor--this pretty rare and very special honey, gathered from Southern Chile when the bees are feeding on the blossoms of the Ulmo tree.

Like all varietal honeys, the Ulmo has a flavor all its own. If you haven't yet tried honeys that come from a single-flower source like this, I think you're in for a really good treat. Ulmo honeys just plain taste really good, and they have a level of complexity and character that matches any other great food or wine.

On top of that they're easy to use--mostly I personally eat 'em by the spoonful when I want a good sweet, but they're great with cheese, olive oil, toast, tea or about a hundred other things too. And since--unlike other things I love, like zucchini blossoms--they last a lifetime there's no rush to use them up in hurry. You can keep jars of good honey on hand for ages and eat 'em whenever you like.

An evergreen of great size, the Ulmo tree is unique to Chile, (though I've been told that it's related to the Leatherwood tree, which grows in Tasmania and from which we also get some amazing honey). Thank goodness for beeswings--the trees are upwards of a hundred feet in many cases.

At the end of the Chilean summer and the beginning of fall (that's our spring) the trees are covered with elegant bright white, camellia-like blossoms, so much so that they look like our local trees when they're covered with snow in the winter. The honey is gathered in late February and March, late summer in the Southern Hemisphere.

Ulmo honey is available to buy here.